FLOSS BUN

Meat floss or Rousong as they call it becomes our favourite addition in baking especially bread. It comes in pork, beef, chicken, mutton, fish or squid. A light, fluffy dried meat prepared with spices, sugar, salt and soya sauce to produce a sweet and savoury meat wool. 

Today, i am using meat floss to garnish an ordinary bun into an extra ordinary delight. Here's how--

FLOSS BUN
Makes   1049 g raw dough, yields 13 buns at 80g each

 

Tan zhong, mix to combine

1 c bread flour

1 c boiling water

 

Dough

2 ½ c bread flour

1 c milk

1 egg

1/3 c sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp instant yeast

¼ bar butter (50 g) softened

 

Fresh milk for brushing before baking the dough

 

For topping

1/3 c Japanese mayo

2 tbsp condensed milk

1 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tbsp lemon juice

 

1 c Pork floss, you can mix with a little of white sesame seeds and shredded seaweed (Furikake)

 

Place all dough ingredients in a bowl of stand mixer. Mix and knead for about 15 minutes to achieve a smooth dough. Proof for an hour or until dough doubles its size. 

When done, punch the dough and divide dough into 80 grams each.

Flatten and roll the dough to form a log.   Place the log buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Rest for about an hour. When ready, brush with fresh milk.

Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes. Cool before finishing it with the toppings.

Enjoy!

PAN DE SAL

Pan de sal (Pandesal) as we know it is considered an indigenous bread in the Philippines. Wherever you go, there is always pandesal to consume at any time of the day. This bread is nothing special to it except for the "ingenuity" of this bun. The mixture of flour, yeast, egg, sugar and salt is nothing new in this bread making, but the crumbs that goes around the dough and the flashback of memories after each bite --- that makes it extra special! 😊

I have been challenging myself to make recipes to my liking and every creation is a piece of delicious art. Kinda poto (pride of the owner)😁. This sure deserves the archive. Sharing this piece--

PAN DE SAL

Another original recipe

Yields  about   806g raw dough, makes about 20 pcs pan de sal at 40g each

Placed in a 12x16 baking tray at (4x5)

 

Ingredients

2 ½ c bread flour

1 tsp instant yeast

1 large egg

1/3 c caster sugar

1 c fresh milk

1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt (Hao-chi😉, or any seasoned salt you prefer)

 

Additional

1 tsp oil to grease the bowl

Bread crumbs to coat (I used the Parmesan Bread Crumbs)

 

Equipment:  Stand mixer

Method

Place flour, yeast, seasoned salt and sugar in a bowl of stand mixer. Mix to combine at low speed. 

Stop the mixer and add milk, egg, butter and vanilla. Knead to a rough dough. 

Continue to knead and start the clock of 15 minutes until you achieve a smooth dough (the clean bowl is an indicator that you have been kneading it correctly).

When done, take the dough out of the bowl, form into a big ball.

Grease the same bowl with 1 tsp oil before putting back the dough in it or grease another bowl where you will proof your dough. 

Cover the bowl with cling wrap. Proof dough for at least an hour or until double in size. 

Yup, that's the parmesan bread crumbs you see!

When done, divide into 40g each. Roll into a ball and dredge with bread crumbs. 

Place the mini balls in a baking tray  at least an inch apart to rest for another hour.

Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Bake pan de sal for about 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Serve hot with spread or eat it plain.

Enjoy!

To warm it up... you can heat it up in a microwave for 10-15 secs or pop in the oven at 175 degrees C for 5 minutes to re-heat and you'll have as good as fresh Pan De Sal.

CINNAMON QUEZ-O ENSAYMADA

I love cinnamon rolls and i love fusion. Thinking of combining two delectable flavours is always a challenge, some of my adventures failed but majority succeeded and all of my successes are impeccably delicious! Well, who else is going to appreciate it but Moi 😆!

If you are craving for your favourite cinnamon roll & ensaymada, then you want to have both worlds but time is a constraint, well, this is for you --

CINNAMON QUEZ-O ENSAYMADA

 

QUEZ-O Ensaymada Dough use this recipe

 

Filling

½ c unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ c brown sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp cornstarch

 

In a bowl mix brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch.

Take ½ of the cinnamon mixture and combine with butter.  Cream to incorporate.

Then set aside.

 

Frosting

1 bar cream cheese

¼ c unsalted butter, softened

1 c powdered sugar

½ tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt, optional

 

You can use a stand mixer or a whisk and manually mix the ingredients, sort of obliging yourself to do exercise!

Cream butter and cream cheese.

Add powdered sugar and mix to combine.

Add lemon juice, vanilla and salt if using.

Set aside.

Back to the dough recipe to assemble...

Grab one dough ball and flatten it. Spread the butter cinnamon mix, then sprinkle with sugar cinnamon then roll and coil the dough. Place it in a mould and let it rest for another hour or until size doubles or triples. Then, proceed with baking at  175 degrees C for about 10 minutes. Cool and finish it up with frosting and cheese toppings.

Coiled and Resting before baking

Frosted with Cream Cheese

Enjoy your share 😋

QUEZ-O ENSAYMADA

Ensaymada is another staple bread in my community. There are dozens of variants in dough and several flavours flooding the market nowadays and each one looks delicious as the other. I got challenged.  Although I already perfected my own recipe, the thirst for searching and creating new ones is always calling. So, I decided to create another ensaymada recipe to have variations too. And this is where the fun comes in, create, re-create and test my creations. And if it passed the test, it goes to my archive. Yay!

Cheese is important in ensaymada making and there is no hard and fast rule on what cheese to use. Cheese is always subjective and of preferential taste, if  a particular kind of cheese impresses your palate, then use it. 

Sharing to you today is  another recipe which EDAM CHEESE is the key😊.  Surprisingly, our famous Christmas red waxed ball cheese called Queso de bola is a semi-hard Edam Cheese from Netherlands. What a coincidence 😋! 

Here it is --

QUEZ-O ENSAYMADA

Yields  about 988g raw dough

Makes about 19 pcs of 50g dough

3 c bread flour 

2 tsp instant yeast

½ c caster sugar

1 tbsp powdered milk

1 c fresh milk

1 tbsp honey

4 egg yolks

¼ salted butter, cubed (if you use unsalted butter, add ¼ tsp salt )

1 tsp vanilla

½ c grated cheddar cheese

1 tsp oil for greasing the bowl when proofing – to prevent the dough from sticking to the bowl if this concerns you much, otherwise this is optional.

 

Topping:

2 tbsp powdered sugar

¼ c softened butter

Edam Cheese, grated (I used a zester to get that shreds of cheese as compared to the classic Ensaymada which I have with longer cheese ribbons or strands).

Cream butter and powdered sugar. Spread on a cooled ensaymada buns then top with Edam Cheese.  Ready to Serve.

 

Method for Dough

In a stand mixer, pour flour, yeast,  sugar and powdered milk. Using a low speed, mix to combine. 

 

With the mixer running, slowly add fresh milk, honey, eggyolks, butter and vanilla. Continue mixing and slowly add cheddar cheese.  Increase speed and continue kneading for at least 15 minutes to create a smooth dough. 

 

When done, take the dough out and transfer to another bowl then pour 1 tsp of oil in the bowl to grease it (again greasing with oil is optional)

 

Mould the dough into a big ball and return to the greased bowl.

 

Proof for at least 1 ½ hr or so (I proofed mine for 3 hrs cause I have other things to do ) until dough doubles or have risen properly (mine is when my dough reaches the top rim of the bowl, that’s good enough for me😉).

 

When done, punch the dough, place it in a chopping board (or your working space) and divide the dough into 50g each. Prepare the bread flour in case you need some for dusting.   Some other times, In my case of having a small kitchen space, I usually leave the dough inside the bowl (this way I don’t have to clean a lot of space afterwards) after punching and just scoop some dough, weigh it for 50g. then--

 

Roll small dough into a nice small balls.

 

Flatten using a small rolling pin, brush with softened butter (you can have other spread according to your preferences: Fruit Jams, Nutella, Kaya, Ube Halaya, Matcha,  etc)  Starting from one side, roll dough into a long cylinder and coil. Slightly Tuck the edge under or just stick the edge to the dough this should be fine especially if you are using mamon cups. You will have a nice twirled ensaymada even after baking. BUT, if you rest it freely on a baking tray, make sure you tuck it under securely so it won't come out while the dough is expanding.

Place this buns into a mamon liner, or cupcake liner or a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Let it rest to triple its size, at least an hour or so, this will give you more time to finish other chores😉

 

Pre-heat oven at 175°C and bake ensaymada for at least 10 minutes each.

Cool and finish it off with topping.  Enjoy!😉

TUNA PANDESAL

One base dough recipe can lead to a variety of emerging recipes.  Best example is pandesal.  A classic original pandesal is transformed into filled pandesal, toasted buns and even sandwiches of several layers of greens, protein and cheese. Whatever transformation it become, sweet or savoury, the end product is always palatable.


TUNA PANDESAL

Pandesal dough using this recipe. Use only 300 grams dough and the rest make it into plain buttermilk pandesal.

Tuna Filling:

makes 6 pieces bun.

1 head garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
1 can tuna flakes
1 tsp LKK superior Light Soy Sauce
pepper
spring onions, chopped
2 tsp EVOO

In a pan sauté garlic and onions.
Add tuna flakes. Stir in soy sauce and pepper.
When done, add spring onions.
Cool and ready to use.

Pandan Leaves top blanket.

When dough is ready, divide the raw dough into 50 grams each. Flatten each small dough and fill about tablespoon of tuna filling.
Pull the sides together and twist to seal.
Place it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, bottom down.
Rest the buns for about an hour or until double the size.
When buns are ready, get a washed pandan leaf, wrap it around the bun and secure with toothpick. Do this to the rest the buns.

Bake buns in pre-heated oven at 175 Degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes.
Remove and ready to serve.

BACON GARLIC BREAD

Bread is making a come back since the countries imposed lock down because of the global pandemic, here in Singapore, we call it Circuit Breaker, well, baking for that matter.  Suddenly, the whole wide world is into baking... literally, people from all walks of life, regardless of age become instant bakers and they honed this skill in just few weeks, which the professionals learned it in months (no offense). Can you believe it? It can be done right? Flours, yeasts, butters, oils, all of the baking ingredients disappeared from the grocery shelves. Families and friends from miles away would hunt and even trade for yeast! Whew! 
This is historical {madness, ehem, excuse me 😄} milestone, indeed!

Anyway, that does not exclude me from this global madness of baking 😉.
So here's my take--

Bacon Garlic Bread

for the bread i used this basic bread dough recipe. 

Garlic Butter Mix

100g butter, softened

3 cloves garlic, minced & pressed

Salt & Pepper

Dried parsley 

Mix together and spread over bun.

Beaten egg with water for egg wash

Slices of Bacon

Sesame seeds (Black and white)

Mayo Surprise

1/3 cup Mayonnaise around  4 tbsp

2 Tbsp Condensed Milk

1 Tbsp Light Corn syrup

1/2 tsp Lemon Juice

Mix until well combined.

Place in a piping bag or your diy ziplock.

Set aside. Ready to use.

Assembly:

Make oblong bun and rest for another hour.

When done, brush the buns with eggwash.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Snip in the middle and spread  garlic butter mix. 

Add chopped bacons and sprinkle more dried parsley.

Bake at 175 degrees for 20 minutes or until lightly brown.

When done you can serve it hot naked or ...

Pipe with mayo surprise and this bun is twisted into something sweet savoury delish!

KOPi BUN

It’s populary known ad ROTI BOY, the first huge bun i ate when i came to visit hubby in Singapore almost 15 years ago,  i was 7 months pregnant for Our first born then. The aroma of  coffee, the sweet foot, the attractive dome and that sweet brown blanket....oohhh its soo godd that tou can just eat it on its own. 

As the years passed, there are many names and versions of this huge bun from
Roti boy to rotipapa and rotimama but they slowly fade. Yet, one bakery still stands islandwide and its a must for us to grab a few pieces whenever we are in the vicinity. :-) 

Today, cravings kicked in and luckily, i still have the recipe i’ve been using the first time i made this several years back with my first stand mixer. Then,  I was not into blogging nor facebooking yet, nor publishing my created and tested recipes. I have to physically pick it out from my indeces of recipes 😅. 

So here it is —

Kopi Bun

Yields about 465g dough

And makes 8 buns about 58g each

Bread

1 3/4 c  bread flour

2 tbsp + 1 tsp white sugar/ caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 egg

1/2 c fresh milk

Place all ingredients, except butter in a mixing bowl and mix into a rough dough.
Then add butter and knead into a smooth dough about at least 15 mins.
Proof for an hour or so until double.

Topping

1/4 bar unsalted butter

3 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar (make this 1/4c)

1 egg

1/4 c bread flour

15ml coffee (about 1 1/4 tsp granulated coffee dilluted in 1 tbsp hot water), use a stronger coffee if you have

Using a whisk, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat until combined. Add flour gradually and beat until well combined. Add coffee and beat well. You’ll get a paste. The texture should be smooth like a cake frosting. Spoon it into a pastry bag and refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling

50g or about 1/4 bar salted butter cut into 8 pcs

Assembly: 

When dough is ready, punch the dough and divide the dough into 58g buns each. Roll and place cubed butter at the center of the dough and bring the sides of the dough to seal. Let it rest for another hour.

Pre- heat oven to 175 degrees.
When ready, Place the topping by swirling the topping halfway☺️ on the bun.

Bake at 175degrees for 20 minutes

Ohhh that melted butter occupied the empty space is sooo good!

PORK BUNS

Who would not be tempted by those soft buns, crunchy sweet top and savoury hot fillings baked to perfection....and with just one bite--- ahhhh heaven! 

Nah! it's just a bread. But a delicious one though. It's sooo good that my kid will finish 3 orders in just one seating and will request for more. This bun is one of their favourites among the bread filled buns but it goes top of the list.  Plus, they will ONLY order that much if it's from their favourite resto. With the Circuit Breaker - Stay at Home situation when dine in is impossible and take out / delivery is a challenge not to mention hygienecally risky, I am challenged and forced to bake one. Proud to say it's a success! Gone in few seconds, even their Dad just had a piece.... he almost missed out!

Here we go---

PORK BUN

Makes about 580 grams of bread dough

about 19 buns at 30g each

ooohhlalala, look at that! Yummy!!!

INGREDIENTS

BREAD

2 c Bread Flour (or all -purpose flour)

1 tsp instant yeast

1/2 c + 2 tbsp fresh milk

1 tbsp + 1 tsp white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

In a bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook, add flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Then pour milk, add egg. Then  turn the mixer to medium speed and run until the ingredients combined and form rough ball.

Then add the softened  butter and continue mixing until you get a bottom clean bowl this will take at least 15 minutes or so of mixing.

Stop the mixer, scoop the dough and form into a smooth big ball and return to the bowl to proof for at least an hour or until the dough double its size. 

My dough ready for proofing

( I usually make my dough rise to the top of the bowl, that way i am secured that the dough has properly risen ;-)

When done, ready to use.

FILLING

Can be done ahead of time, just place it in the fridge.

1 head garlic, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 tbsp oil

2 c pork belly, chopped into small cubes

1 1/2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee  light soya sauce + 1/2 tbsp any dark soya sauce (you can just use 1 tbsp SILVERSWAN soy sauce)

1 tbsp hoisin sauce (Lee Kum Kee)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 c water for the meat

1/2 c water to be mix with 1 tbsp cornstarch

Spring onions (optional, to be mixed with the filling before you place the meat into the dough so you can see the greens inside)

Place oil in a pan and sauté garlic and onion.

Then add pork belly and cook to brown.

In a bowl, add soya sauce, hoisin, oyster and 1/2 c water. Stir to combine.

Then pour over the meat, stir and cover the pan and let it simmer until pork is tender, about 10-15 minutes. (use low heat this time to prevent the filling from burning)

When done, pour the water-cornstarch mixture.

Cook filing until very thick.

Remove from heat and let it cool before use.

Before placing the filling into the dough, add the spring onions. 

Look at that greens, an added appetizing color in your filling. I made a mistake by placing it right away after cooking so the greens were cooked before i placed it inside the dough so i lost the green color  So from the finished product you cant see any greens anymore.  ;-(
So lesson learned, place greens right before you actually fill the bun.

TOPPING

1/4 c unsalted butter (about 50-60g butter))

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tbsp cornstach

1/2 c flour (all-purpose flour)

1 egg

2 tbsp water

Cream butter and Sugar until light and fluffy.

Add flour , cornstarch, egg and water and whisk until combined and in smooth paste texture.

Place in a piping bag.

Ready to use.

ASSEMBLY

When dough is ready, divide it into 30g each making about 19 small dough balls.

Grab one small dough, flatten it with roller, then scoop about 1 tbsp of filling and place it at the center of the dough. Gather the edges and seal the sides.

Place the bun seal down on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Repeat this with the rest of the small doughs.

Once done, let the filled doughs rest for another 40 minutes or until its size doubles.

When done and before baking, cover the bun with filling. Circling the top by swirling it around the bun going down about halfway each bun.

Piping the topping using Wilton #5 Tip But you can also pipe without piping tip, just make a small hole on your tip of the piping bag you are using.

Pre-heat oven to 350º F or 175º C.

Bake buns for about 15-20 minutes until slightly brown, 

DO NOT OVERBAKE...