Potato, Ham & Onion Buns

If you like the potato and ham buns from Four Leaves Bakery, you should like these buns. I have always been wanting to make these buns but eh erm... laziness got the better of me. I did not like peeling of the potatoes and boiling it, and then mashing it. I thought the filling alone was quite "tedious" already. Okay.... maybe just me. Haha!  Anyway I finally got myself to make them (I wasn't feeling that lazy that day hehe~), and I love it.

Buns sold outside nowadays do not come as cheap anymore. I am glad I make my own bread and can save spending that much on bread and buns!

Try making these and tell me if you like it 😉

Potato, Ham & Onion Buns

Gelatinized Basic Sweet Bread recipe by Alex Goh

Gelatinized dough
50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough
200g bread flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
1/2 tbsp instant yeast
1/4 tsp salt
87ml cold water
1/2 cold egg (about 30g) - leftover egg to be used for eggwash
30g cold butter, cubed 


Potato, Ham & Onion Fillings
280g potato, skinned, boiled and mashed
2 or 3 pcs ham, sliced into little cubes
1 onion, cut into small cubes
1/2 tsp salt
20g melted butter
A dash of black pepper


1. Combine flour, sugar, milk powder, yeast and salt together in a mixing bowl.
2. Tear the gelatinized dough into pieces and add to the bowl along with the eggs
3. Using a stand electric mixer, mix on low speed, adding cold water gradually.
4. Mix until dough is well combined and leave the side of bowl.
5. Add in the cold butter cubes and mix on medium speed until dough is smooth.
6. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled.
7. To make the filling - Pan-fry the onion cubes abit till slightly softened and fragrant. Set aside to cool.  (You can skip this step if you are okay with the raw onion taste)
8. In a mixing bowl, add in mashed potato, cubed ham, onion bits followed by seasonings (except melted butter) and mix well to combine. Do a taste test and add more salt till need.

9. Drizzle melted butter over filling mixture and mix well.
10. Portion them equally according to the for the bun fillings, use a spoon to shape them into round shapes for easier wrapping and place them on a plate. Cover with clingwrap for later use.

11. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 6 or 8 or 10 equal portions and  roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling and wrapping.

8. Roll out dough into a round shape.
9. Spoon a portion of potato filling onto centre of dough and wrap up.
10. Seal bottom of dough to secure  fillings from spilling out. Set dough with sealed ends at bottom.
11. Place dough onto greased baking tin.
13. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min.
14. Brush top with the leftover beaten egg (mixed with 1 tsp water) from the dough mix. 
15. Bake in preheated oven at 180deg for 25min or till bun top turn slightly golden brown. (Every oven works differently so indicated temperature might or might not work for you.)

Wholemeal Pumpkin Buns

Got a quarter portion of an organic pumpkin when we did some marketing at JB with my mum during the recent trip there, and used them to make some healthy wholemeal pumpkin buns. If you love pumpkins, you will love this sweet buns :)

The one good thing about buns with fillings is that I do not need put some time aside for jam spreading on bread slices. All I need to do is just grab the nicely packed buns and off to work I go.

This time, I had the buns made the buns in  floral shapes and another batch in round shape with snipped cross tops.

Which do you prefer? 

Wholemeal Pumpkin Buns

Gelatinized dough

50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.

Pumpkin bread dough

150g bread flour
60g wholemeal flour
40g sugar
4g instant yeast
1/4 tsp or 3g salt
50g pumpkin puree (Steam pumpkin pcs till soft and mash with fork and leave to cool before use)
47ml cold water
30g butter, room temperature

Pumpkin Fillings
160g pumpkin puree
15g brown sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

Place all fillings ingredient into a pot and stir and cook on medium low heat till thickened. Spoon into 10 equal portions. Shape it into round balls and then cover with clingwrap, refrigerate till later use.

Buns

1. Tear gelatinized dough into smaller pieces into the bread machine. Add water, pumpkin puree and top with flour. Place salt and sugar on opposite corners of bread machine, make a small deep hole in centre of flour and spoon in instant yeast. Gently cover yeast with some flour and set BM to work. I used Function 8 for Kenwood BM250 for this step. 

2. When dough has come together and is more or less a smooth dough, add in softened butter. I restarted my BM on Function 8 again and let BM mix till well incorporated with dough and is smooth and soft. I then remove dough and hand knead till dough reaches window pane stage, where you get a thin translucent membrane when dough is stretched. (This more or less tells you that you will get soft and fluffy bread and buns!)

3. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled. 

4. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 10 equal portions and roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling. 

5. Roll out dough into a round shape and place pumpkin puree filling onto centre of flattened dough and wrap up into round dough, sealing well dough bottoms. Slightly press down and flatten dough. Place each dough on a greased baking tin. Repeat for the remaining dough. 

6. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min or till doubled in size. 

7. Using a clean kitchen scissors, make 5 equal snips of about 1.5cm on sides of buns.  Brush bun tops with whisked egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water, sprinkle some pumpkin seeds on centre of each dough and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 12 to 15min or till slightly golden brown. 

8. Cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Pandan Buns with Red Bean Paste filling

These are pull-apart buns that seems so old school to me. I think nowadays very few people enjoy eating these red bean buns since there are so many fanciful bread and buns sold outside.

With the amount of fresh pandan juice in my fridge, I thought why not make some pandan buns since we have not had it for some time. No artificial green colourings. I got a batch of nice pandan smelling buns. No guilt cuz it was made with all natural pandan juice!

Made them mini sized so that I can get more little buns.

Homemade buns can be soft and fluffy too.

I made more so I can pack and give them to my Dad and sister. Dad loves red bean buns.

Cooled, packed and ready to be delivered!

Pandan Buns with Red Bean Paste filling

A.
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

B.
300g bread flour
100g plain flour
80g sugar
5g salt
20g milk powder
8g instant yeast

C.
175g fresh pandan juice extract
(Blend 10 pandan leaves with 190g water, squeeze out juice and run through sieve to rid pandan leave bits)
55g egg

D.
60g butter, room temperature

1. Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep in refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
2. Break up A dough inti smaller pieces anf mix with B till well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. OR if using bread machine, follow BM instructions by placing in all wet Ingredients first from B followed by broken up A dough, flour, milk powder, sugar and salt in opp corners, make a hole in centre of flour mixture, place in instant yeast and cover with flour, set to mix till rough dough is formed.

3. Add in D and knead to form an elastic dough OR if using BM, add in D and allow BM to mix and form smooth shiny dough. For me, I then remove it and hand knead it till it reaches the window pane elastic stage.
4. Place dough in a big mixing bowl and cover with a moist clean kitchen towel and let it proof for roughly 40min or till double its size.
5. While waiting for dough to be proofed, prepare the red bean paste filling by weighing each filling to be 20g and rolling it round, make 24 balls.
6. Punch out air from proofed dough, then divide dough into 40g each, 24 pieces. Cover and let rest for 5min for easier handling.
7. Flatten ball dough and wrap in red bean paste filling. Set it on a greased baking tray. Cover with a moist kitchen towel and set aside for 2nd round proofing for 30min.

8. Brush milk over bun tops and set to bake in a preheated oven at 175deg C for 18min or till golden brown (this is based on my Rowenta oven temp and time.).

8. Remove tray of buns and set buns to cool on a cooling rack. Store in airtight container when cooled.

Mini Wholemeal Hotdog Buns

I took a short 3 weeks break from bread making because I was kind of on a roll cake craze. 

Back with buns for breakfast. Wanting to clear those hotdogs lying in my freezer, I used them in my buns and made them into mini sized buns.

Love how these mini buns turned out. Soft, fluffy and cute looking. Gonna make more mini buns from now on! Plus more varieties in one batch bake too :)

Mini Wholemeal Hotdog Buns

Gelatinized dough

50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough

(Yield roughly 490g dough)

150g bread flour
50g wholemeal flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
4g instant yeast
1/4 tsp or 3g salt
87ml cold water
30g cold egg
30g butter, room temperature

7 chicken franks (hotdogs), sliced into half to make 14 pcs 

Buns

1. Tear gelatinized dough into smaller pieces into the bread machine. Add water, beaten egg and top with flour And milk powder. Place salt and sugar on opposite corners of bread machine, make a small deep hole in centre of flour and spoon in instant yeast. Gently cover yeast with some flour and set BM to work. I use Function 8 fory Kenwood BM250 for this step. 

2. When dough has come together and is more or less a smooth dough, add in softened butter. I restarted my BM on Function 8 again and let BM mix till well incorporated with dough and is smooth and soft. I then remove dough and hand knead till dough reaches window pane stage, where you get a thin translucent membrane when dough is stretched. (This more or less tells you that you will get soft and fluffy bread and buns!)

3. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled. 

4. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 14 equal portions at 35g each and roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling. Slightly shape round dough into a tear drop shape and roll it flat and long.

5. Place half a hot dog on wide side of flattened dough and roll up. Repeat for the remaining dough. Place each dough about 1.5cm apart on a greased baking tin.


6. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min or till doubled in size. 

7. Brush bun tops with whisked egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water, sprinkle some white sesame on centre of each dough and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 12 to 15min or till slightly golden brown. 

8. Cool on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Fragrance of freshly baked buns filled my kitchen

Mini wholemeal hotdog buns with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Simple. Pure bliss :)

Golden Custard Salted Egg Buns

Have you tried those flowy salted egg steamed buns in those Hong Kong dim sum eateries or restaurants? I love these buns and have always wanted to try making them but am afraid that my salted egg fillings would not be flowy like those I have ate.

After much procrastination, I tried making these yummy golden custard salted egg buns. I will use this same fillings for steamed buns next round because this filling were just right for our taste.  They are not exactly those flowy fillings you will get from restaurants, but aren't too bad and has a taste of the salted egg and slightly milky taste.

On the search for more flowy ones but will keep to this current filling recipe for now.

Golden Custard Salted Egg Buns

Salted egg yolk filling
3 salted egg yolk
55g caster sugar
25g custard powder 
35g evaporated milk
28g full cream milk powder
8g corn starch
50g butter at room temperature

Buns

Gelatinized dough
50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough
(Yield roughly 480g dough. I divided them into 8 equal portions)

150g bread flour
50g plain flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
4g instant yeast
1/4 tsp or 3g salt
87ml cold water
30g cold egg
30g butter, room temperature

Filling
1.        Steam salted egg for 10 minutes or until cooked. Crack salted egg and remove egg yolks for use. (I used remaining whites for lunch with porridge) Mash yolks with a fork.

2.        Cream the butter slightly and add in sugar and cream till sugar more or less melted. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate filling mixture until firm. Portion into 8 balls and freeze till solid. (Do this one day or a night before so that you can cut down on the freeze and wait part on the actual day of bun making.)

Buns
1. Tear gelatinized dough into smaller pieces into the bread machine. Add water, beaten egg and top with flour And milk powder. Place salt and sugar on opposite corners of bread machine, make a small deep hole in centre of flour and spoon in instant yeast. Gently cover yeast with some flour and set BM to work. I use Function 8 fory Kenwood BM250 for this step. 

2. When dough has come together and is more or less a smooth dough, add in softened butter. I restarted my BM on Function 8 again and let BM mix till well incorporated with dough and is smooth and soft. I then remove dough and hand knead till dough reaches window pane stage, where you get a thin translucent membrane when dough is stretched. (This more or less tells you that you will get soft and fluffy bread and buns!)

3. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled. 

4. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 8 equal portions at 60g each and roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling.
Roll out dough into a round shape. 

5. Roll in each ball of frozen salted egg yolk filling. Knead each little dough portions into ball shapes. 

6. Seal bottom of dough to secure salted egg custard fillings from spilling out. Set dough with sealed ends at bottom. 

7. Place dough onto greased baking tin. 

8. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min or till doubled in size. 

9. Brush bun tops with whisked egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp water and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 5 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 180°C and bake for further 15 minutes or till slightly golden brown. Do not over-bake if not the filling will not flow or will burst like mine!  I saw bubbling lava flowing out from some buns while they were baking in my oven :(

Good thing the other 5 buns were intact!

15.        Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Chocolate Custard Bread

As you know, I love to buy recipe books and to date, my best buy for bread and bun recipe book was one by Alex Goh. Tried many recipes from the book and it never failed to yield soft yummy bread.

Savoury buns for the past few weeks brekkie so this time, I made a change and did some sweet fillings for our buns.  It did not disappoint as usual. I got a pan of pillowy soft and fluffy buns with yummy streusel toppings.

See how fluffy these buns are!

Trying making these and enjoy them over a cup of coffee for an extra oomph.

Chocolate Custard Bread
Recipe by Alex Goh Magic Bread book

Basic Sweet Bread Dough
A
50g bread flour
35g boiling water

B
150g bread flour
50g plain flour
40g sugar
3g salt
10g milk powder
4g instant yeast

C
87g cold water
30g cold egg

D
30g butter

1. Add boiling water from A into flour, mix till well blended to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep into refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
2. Mix B until well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead until well blended.
3. Add in D and knead to form elastic dough.
4. Let it proof for 40 min.
5. Divide the dough into 9 portions and mould it round. Let it rest for 10 min and ready for use.
6. Flatten the dough and wrap in fillings.

7. Place it onto a greased baking pan.
8. Place it in warm place and let it proof for 45 min.
9. Egg wash the dough, sprinkle some streusel on top.
10. Place in the bottom of the oven, bake at 180deg C for 20-25 min.

Chocolate Custard Fillings
40g instant custard powder
7g cocoa powder
100g milk
25g roasted and chopped hazelnuts

Sieve cocoa powder into instant custard powder and mix well.  Add in milk, mix until well-blended.  Add in roasted hazelnut, mix until well-combined.  Set aside.

Streusel Topping
30g sugar
25g butter
50g bread flour

Mix sugar and butter until crumbles by using hands. Add in flour and mix until crumbles. Keep it into refrigerator. Use it to sprinkle on top or coat the surface of the dough.

Otah Buns 乌打餐包

Had enough of me using Alex Goh's gelatinized dough method for my bun makings? I cannot help but use this method over and over again because who does not love the soft and fluffy end product? And it last for days when stored well. 

Sorry for not being creative enough to try other bun recipes. Sorry for just sticking to this one recipe and cheating by changing just the bun fillings. Be forewarned that I have overdue posts still in queue. I promise to try new things soon :)

This round, Otah buns were made. Old school buns that I don't easily see them in bakery shops these days.

Hubby requested for them and so I purchased some freshly grilled otahs and got my hands to make the man his buns.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right?

Oh at the same time, I would like to spread the news that I have started a Facebook Page for this foodie blog. Follow me on My Facebook Page @ The Fussy Palate (Page Link is on the top right corner of my blog)

See you there :)

Otah Buns

Gelatinized Basic Sweet Bread recipe by Alex Goh

Gelatinized dough
50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough
(Yield roughly 480g dough. I divided them into 6 equal portions)

150g bread flour
50g plain flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
1/2 tbsp instant yeast
1/4 tsp salt
87ml cold water
1/2 cold egg (about 30g)
30g cold butter, cubed 

6 sticks of grilled otahs

1. Combine flour, sugar, milk powder, yeast and salt together in a mixing bowl.
2. Tear the gelatinized dough into pieces and add to the bowl along with the eggs
3. Using a stand electric mixer, mix on low speed, adding cold water gradually.
4. Mix until dough is well combined and leave the side of bowl.
5. Add in the cold butter cubes and mix on medium speed until dough is smooth.
6. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled.
7. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 6 or 8 equal portions at 80g or 60g respectively and  roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling.
8. Roll out dough into a round shape.
9. Place one otah meat onto centre of flattened dough. Wrap one end over otah meat and top with another side of dough.
10. Seal dough well and set dough with sealed ends bottom down. 
11. Place dough onto greased baking tin.
13. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min.
14. Brush top with the leftover beaten egg (mixed with 1 tsp water) from the dough mix. (I then sprinkled some dried parsley on top of each dough as garnish)
15. Bake in preheated oven at 180deg for 25min or till bun top turn slightly golden brown. (Every oven works differently so indicated temperature might or might not work for you.)

Tuna & Onion Buns 金枪鱼大葱餐包

Short stay here in blogsphere this time. Yet another bun post.  I cannot get enough from making buns.  Just too therapeutic. :)

Leaving you with some photos of my soft soft tuna and onion buns.

Tuna & Onion Buns

Gelatinized Basic Sweet Bread recipe by Alex Goh

Gelatinized dough
50g bread flour
35ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.


Basic sweet bread dough
(Yield roughly 480g dough. I divided them into 6 equal portions)

150g bread flour
50g plain flour
40g sugar
10g milk powder
1/2 tbsp instant yeast
1/4 tsp salt
87ml cold water
1/2 cold egg (about 30g)
30g cold butter, cubed 

A can of tuna, any flavour of your choice
1 yellow onion, cut into small cubes)
(I heat up a pan and fry the tuna and onion cubes to dry the fillings a little so that my buns will not be soggy after baked. Set aside to cool. Portion them equally for the bun fillings.)

1. Combine flour, sugar, milk powder, yeast and salt together in a mixing bowl.
2. Tear the gelatinized dough into pieces and add to the bowl along with the eggs
3. Using a stand electric mixer, mix on low speed, adding cold water gradually.
4. Mix until dough is well combined and leave the side of bowl.
5. Add in the cold butter cubes and mix on medium speed until dough is smooth.
6. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled.
7. Punch down dough to rid excess air, then divide dough into 6 or 8 equal portions at 80g or 60g respectively and  roll it round and set aside for 5 min to let it relax for easier rolling.
8. Roll out dough into a round shape.
9. Spoon a portion of tuna filling onto centre of dough and wrap up.
10. Seal bottom of dough to secure tuna fillings from spilling out. Set dough with sealed ends at bottom.
11. Place dough onto greased baking tin.
13. Cover with clean moist cloth and leave to proof for 40min.
14. Brush top with the leftover beaten egg (mixed with 1 tsp water) from the dough mix. (I then sprinkled some dried parsley on top of each dough as garnish)
15. Bake in preheated oven at 180deg for 25min or till bun top turn slightly golden brown. (Every oven works differently so indicated temperature might or might not work for you.)