Melon Pan - Cooking with Dog

Knobbly and nice !

 Just in case you are wondering, I'm not baking any dog here. This is a series of Youtube cooking program of  many delectable Japanese  dishes, by this Japanese lady here, with her dog as observer. Instructions and portions are presented in English. Both dishes and dog are impressive.

Indeed, to right the wrong of my first melon bun, I ran this video to death, before, during and after the baking. The actual situation did not deviate too far, except that I sweated like crazy kneading the dough while the Japanese lady looked so cool doing it.

Cyberspace opens up much opportunity for learning and the feedback of the  online community  has been instrumental in my growth as a baker. Had it not been for a lead online, I may have left my melon buns as it is, in the alpha version.  

The  success of my latest attempt  offers relief to my two testers . "At least it looks like the bun in the video" is the common quip.  Hubby's only regret : the recipe only produced five buns, which means rationing is required.

I'm doing my victory dance now. Couldn't have done it any better without you guys out there!

Recipe from  here:

Bread Dough

140g bread flour  + 2T

25g fine sugar  

1/3 tsp salt ( I use 1/4 t )

5g Milk Powder  

3g instant yeast 

1 tbsp beaten egg

70ml warm water  

15g butter

bread flour for dusting

Cookie Dough

25g unsalted butter  

35g fine sugar  

25g beaten egg

80g cake flour  

1/4 tsp baking powder

Preparing cookie dough :

Beat butter, then sugar until it is pale and fluffy.

Add egg. Beat well. Sift in cake flour and baking powder in batches, whisking to combine.

Transfer cookie dough to a plastic wrap, mould to tube and chill to firm.

Preparing bread :

Mix dry bread ingredients. Mix water and egg in a cup and pour on to dry ingredients and knead. Knead until smooth and not sticky. Add in butter, fold into dough and knead again until smooth. Resist flouring the sticky dough, knead and whack the dough on the worktop, using a scrapper to lift the dough. Just believe and it will get to the smooth state. ( A flexible silicon scrapper is recommended. Mine busted in the process )

Rest dough for 40 minutes to double in size, covered. 40 minutes later, dip a finger in flour and poke deep into the dough. If the dough does not 'close up' immediately, it is ready for the next stage.

Preparing cookie crust :

Meanwhile, divide cookie dough to 5 equal portions and roll to balls. Flour hands to execute this process. Use 2 pieces of plastic sheets,  use a scrapper or flat plate to press  cookie dough between the sheets to form a thin disk. Transfer back to a floured surface and chill till ready to use. I place disks on sheets for ease of handling later.

Back to buns :

Stretch dough, roll up like a cigar, weigh dough and divide dough into 5 equal parts. Shape into balls and rest 20 minutes.

Final assembly:

Drape chilled disks over dough balls and tuck cookie under the dough ball. Pinch the bottom of the cookie draped ball and coat cookie with fine sugar. I followed the program, pinch the bottom of the dough ball and dip the cookie crust in  a bowl of very fine sugar.

Leave sugared dough ball to ferment for another 40 minutes in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 170 C. Bake buns 16-20 minutes, depending on how brown you wish the bun to be.

Cool buns over rack after it is baked. Enjoy !

This post will be submitted to   Aspiring Bakers #8 ( Bread Seduction ) June 2011  hosted by Sweetylicious.

P.S.

Original baking time of 12 minutes is extended to 16 minutes due to oven type. Original bread flour is 140g but I used additional 2 T due to high humidity.

For ease of working on the dough, flour hands before handing to prevent breakage. Use plastic sheets for easier transfer between surfaces.

Good Luck !

Charsiew variant with sesame seed toppings

More charsiew buns. Melon pan variant.