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.

Danpatjuk - Korean Sweet Red Bean Porridge

Time flies and it is gonna be Dongzhi Festival (or Winter Solstice Festival), the time of making and eating tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) again.

Dongzhi is an important festival widely celebrated by Chinese and it is the time where families gather to eat tangyuan. Do you know that in Chinese culture, Dongzhi is also the day where everyone becomes one year older?  Sad for me because I am gonna be another year older :P

Interestingly, Koreans also celebrate this Chinese festival by eating tangyuan, of which these glutinous rice balls are cooked in strained red bean soup.  In the olden days, Korean placed bowls of these sweet red bean porridge (danpatjuk) around their houses. Some red bean porridge were even applied to door of the houses, of which was done to chase away any evil spirits. After the ritual done, they will enjoy the danpatjuk.

I cooked a pot and brought some back to Mum's place to share with my family

I remember how I used to help my grandma and mother roll out the dough into small balls. I love eating them too. Since I have always ate tangyuans cooked in sweet ginger soup, I decided to try making the Korean Sweet Red Bean Porridge this time.

I gotta say I enjoyed the cooking process as well as eating it. I love how the sweet red bean compensate for the bland taste of the glutinous rice balls. You may eat this as a dessert or as a meal because it can be quite filling to the tummy.

Danpatjuk - Korean Sweet Red Bean Porridge
(Recipe adapted from Crazy Korean Cooking
Serves 3 to 4

For Pre-cooking red beans
240g red beans
480ml water - to be discarded after

For the Soup
1680ml water (only some may be used after boiling beans)
60g sugar
2g salt
1g Cinnamon powder (optional)

For sweet rice balls
240g sweet rice (Glutinous rice powder)
90ml water (boiling hot)
1g salt
5g pine nuts (optional garnish) - I did not add them

1. Wash red beans
Wash 1 cup of red beans 2-3 times. Do not rub them too hard or too long. Drain water in a strainer.

2. Precook red beans
Place washed red beans in a pot and pour 2 cups of water. Bring it to boil then keep boiling on high heat for 5 minutes or until the water turns red.

3. Drain water
Drain water out in a strainer. Throw away the water and keep the red beans.

4. Boil red beans
Place precooked red beans in a pot and add 7 cups of water. Boil on high heat. When the water starts to boil, adjust the heat to low heat and keep boiling uncovered for more than 60 minutes or until the red beans become soft and mushy.

5. Make dough
While red beans are being cooked, make sweet rice balls. Mix ¼ teaspoon of salt into 6 tablespoons of boiling water. Mix 1 cup of sweet rice powder and the salt water. Start kneading with a spoon for a couple of minutes to avoid burning your hands.

6. Knead dough
Then, knead the dough by hand for about 5 minutes or until it becomes soft. It may seem like there is not enough water but the dough only comes together when you knead by hand diligently for a while. Add a bit more water only if the dough doesn’t come together after kneading for more than 5 min.

7. Make balls
Make the dough into bite-sized balls (about ¾” or 2 cm in diameter).

I think my right arm got slightly toned from getting the red bean through the strainer :P

8. Strain red beans
Pour the red beans with the boiled water through a strainer (or a sieve) into a bowl. Remember to keep the water.

9. Grind red beans (Optional) - I skipped this step and put the cooked red beans through the strainer)
Grind red beans with an electric grinder. If you don’t have an electric grinder, you can skip to the next step. It will just take longer and may be strenuous on your hand.

10. Mash red beans
Place the strainer with the ground red beans over a bowl. Then, mash them with a spatula so the soft part (red bean paste) of the red bean is going through the strainer into the bowl and only the husks (skins) are left in the strainer.

11. Grind red beans
Scrape off any red bean paste stuck at the bottoms of the strainer. Throw away the husks and keep the red bean paste (the water and the mashed red beans). This will yield about 3 cups of red bean paste.

12. Boil red beans paste
Put the red bean paste from the previous step in a pot and add the same amount of the water the red beans were boiled in. If 3 cups of bean paste were yielded, add 3 cups of the red bean boiled water. (red bean paste:red bean boiled water=1:1) Mix them well and boil on medium heat. When it starts to boil, add the sweet rice balls and boil for another 5-10 minutes or until the balls are fully cooked (they will float to the surface). Stir frequently. Be careful as the soup may splash when boiling! If the soup becomes too thick, add more water.

13. Finish
Turn off the heat. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and 4-8 tablespoons of sugar (more or less depending on your taste and whether you are serving it as a meal or dessert). The amounts are for 3 cups of red bean paste. If you have less, you will have to reduce the amount of salt and sugar. Taste and add gradually. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional).

14. Serve
Serve in a bowl and top with a few pine nuts or crushed walnuts (optional). Enjoy!


How to store Sweet Red Bean Porridge
Both cooked red beans and sweet rice balls are easily spoiled.  Refrigerate as soon as it cools down if not eaten right away.
It may keep in the fridge for a couple of days.  If you want to store it longer, seal tightly and freeze it.  Then slowly thaw in the fridge or in the microwave on defrost mode.

Pull-apart Red Bean Buns with Mickey Cocoa prints

Mum used to buy us red bean buns when we were young.  Easy to pack to school and filling enough, and above all that,  Dad loves red bean buns, those pull-apart ones. Hehe, back down memory lane.

 I have red bean paste, hence I did these, and of course packed some for Dad!  I wanted it to be cute buns, not plain ones.  Cocoa prints to liven up the buns came into my mind and I did just that. I had previously bought some mickey mouse cookie cutters during my first trip to Tokyo Disneyland some 7 years back and it was left untouched! Im not a cookie person so cookie cutters were like white elephants to me, but not anymore now. Who says cookie cutters are only meant for cutting cookies? :P

I thought the buns looked sweet more rather than cute haha!  Okay, anyway,  I like them still. Soft buns even on the next day.

The pull-apart buns were made using Alex Goh's gelatinized sweet bun recipe from the Magic Bread book.  I halved the whole recipe and yield about 480g dough, divided them into 9 pieces weighing between 53g to 54g each.

Gelatinized dough
100g bread flour
70ml 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 1000g to 1100g dough)

300g bread flour
100g plain flour
80g sugar
20g milk powder
1 tbsp instant yeast
½ tsp salt
175ml cold water
1 cold egg (about 60g)
60g cold butter, cubed 
(Since I halved the recipe, the balance egg yolk was kept for the cocoa prints on the buns, I removed as much of the white)
270g red bean paste (divide into 9 balls weighing 30g each)

Cocoa Printings
Remaining half egg yolk
1.5 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp water
Required: Cookie cutters or clean brush to "draw" on the buns

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 and divide into 53g / 54g ball, leave aside for 5 min for easier shaping.
8. Roll out each ball and fill with the red bean paste ball.  Seal up and place sealed sides facing down on greased baking tray, flatten it slightly with the palms and let proof for 45 min or till double in size.
9. Mix all the ingredients for cocoa prints till a smooth paste. Dip cookie cutter or clean brush into cocoa paste and gently place cutter on bun top to stamp out the outline / draw out desired picture on bun tops. No need to egg brush bun tops when doing prints.

10. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg for 15-20 min.  Remove to cool on rack.

How's these Mickey Cocoa print buns?  Keke~ ♡♡♡

Pandan bread with red bean filling (Sponge dough starter method)

All these while, I have been doing loaf bread, assorted sweet and savoury buns, but rarely pull apart buns with fillings, so here it is, this round I am up for some pandan pull apart bread with red bean filling.

To me, it is quite the old school bread cuz I used to have them when I was a kiddo. Not very into them nowadays though!

I made these pull apart buns using the sponge dough starter method, which calls for bread flour, water and yeast to be mixed and left aside for at least 1.5 hour before use (I left it overnight for about 16 hours).

Here is the rough dough mixture from bread flour, water and yeast mixed well together with a spatula. 

I covered the top of the container loosely with a clingwrap and put it in the fridge.

This was what I got after leaving this sponge dough in the fridge after 16 hours. It was a soft and sticky pool of mixture, with bubbles forming.  Look at that stretchy stringy part when I tried to pull out the clingwrap that got stuck to the surface of the sponge dough!

This is good stuff!

This is the reason for the end product - soft and fluffy bread.

Now I normally leave the sponge dough aside for about 10 minutes to bring it to room temperature while I gather all the other ingredients. 

While some people detest the wait to bake bread using this method, I, for one am for it. I plan my bakes ahead, so it is no fussy wait for me to do the starter a day ahead and only get to get down to real actions the next day. I prefer the wonderful end products. I enjoy the anticipation :)

Now not to digress further, I did these buns using the sponge dough recipe by Kimmy-Cooking Pleasure

Buns using Sponge dough method

Step 1 - Sponge dough preparation

2 tsp instant yeast

160ml-170ml water 

230g bread flour

1. Mix yeast with water in mixing bowl, then add in flour. Knead to form a smooth dough. (I mixed using a spatula, and did not knead by hand to get smooth dough)

2. Cover and leave to proof for 1 to 1.5 hour or double in size.  (I covered top loosely with a clingwrap and left it in the fridge for up to 16 hours till use)

Step 2 - Ingredients

60g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp yeast

1small egg

25 ml water (I used 25ml of pandan juice)

100g bread flour

30g butter (softened at room temperature)

Filling - red bean filling + sesame seeds for topping

1. Add all Step 2 ingredients (except for butter) to sponge dough from Step 1.  (I let my BM does the mixing work for me, so I put in all wet stuff first, which are the slightly beaten egg, pandan juice and sponge dough, then top with bread flour, made a small dent in the bread flour, put in the yeast and cover it aith the bread flour. Salt and sugar to be placed at opposite sides away from the yeast. Start BM and let it mix. The rest of the stages follows on below but are then done by hands already for kneading part.)

2. Continue to knead on medium speed until dough is soft and smooth (takes about 7-10 minutes).  Add in softened butter and continue to knead till dough is soft and elastic (window pane stage).

Window pane stage achieved and left to proof.

Dough proof till double sized and ready for punch down.

3.  Shape dough into ball and cover. Leave aside to proof for 15 minutes.4.  Punch down dough and divide into 60g per portion or into any portion required.

Dough shaped and filled with a tablespoon of red bean 

4.  Shape dough into any shapes with fillings.  Leave to rise for 30 to 40 minutes or until double in size. Brush with egg or milk glaze. (Sprinkle the top of the buns with some sesame seeds)

5. Bake in preheated oven at 190 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. 

Here you go! Pillowy soft buns for breakfast :)