Custard Bread

I made 2 variations of the custard bread. The 'open-face' and the other 'closed' bun - both sprinkled with 'pearl-sugar' (i dunno what's the actual name for it..but i call it the pearl sugar). The recipe is taken from this bilingual chinese-english book published in Hong Kong - however the instructions pretty unclear and doesn't seem to relate to the photographs..so i just have to do it my way and what i think it should be. The weather is sooooooo hot again today and i can't be bothered to knead the bread either. So i changed the recipe but maintained the same proportion of the main ingredients, ie flour, yeast & sugar but i played around with addition of other ingredients as well.

Surprisingly the bread turned out soft and light. :D I was expecting it to fail since i was simply 'experimenting' with varying ingredients...lol! :P And the custard also blends in well with the bread.

My husband is nagging at me to go watch the hong kong cantonese drama..so i can't type out my recipe now..later..

[The Next Day] i must have did something right cos after the next day, the bread is still as soft on its own without the need to 'heat' up...:D ..:D


Recipe Taken from Hong Kong Breads

Sweet Dough
Ingredients:-
448g Bread Flour
112g Sugar
7g Yeast
42g Butter/Lard
168g Warm Water
1 Egg (abt 50g)
56g Milk
Some Food Coloring (egg yellow/lemon yellow)
4g Bread Additive

Method:-
1) Put all ingredients together, mix well. Put the mixture on table. Knead into a small dough, don't make it too sticky.
2) Put the dough into a container, cover with cling film, leave it for 30mins. Fold and press lightly for a few times, leave it for another 30 mins then cut into shapes.

My Version to the Sweet Dough
Ingredients:-
448g Bread Flour
112g Sugar
7g Yeast
50g Butter, Melted
100-110ml of water (to be added last)
2 Eggs
56ml Milk
7g Lecithin granules
15g Milk Powder
4g Bread Improver (optional)

My Method:-
1) Put all dry ingredients together. Add in the eggs, melted butter, milk first and then water last..do not add all of the water at one go, just add till the dough comes together. If not enough water, add more water, if the dough comes together, stop adding water. It is alright to be a bit sticky. Just knead the dough in the bowl to combine the ingredients. Wrap the bowl tightly in cling wrap and leave to prove for 2 hours till double in size.
2) After 2 hours, punch the dough down and then knead slightly. Shape the dough into smaller bun dough accordingly - i did mine at 45g per dough each.
3) If making 'open-face' custard bun, just roll the small round bun dough flat and then leave it to prove 20-30mins. Dimple it. Brush with egg wash/milk wash (whichever you prefer, i prefer milk wash) and press the custard cream in the dimpled area and sprinkle "pearl sugar" on top.
4) If making buns, flatten the dough with the palm of your hand, put the custard cream in the centre and wrap the cream up with the dough and leave it to prove for 20-30mins and brush with egg wash/milk wash. I sprinkled with pearl sugar cos too lazy to do the decoration mentioned below.
3) Bake at 200C for 10mins.

PS: For Custard Cream, please note to temper the eggs first..and cook it at low heat till the custard thickens.

I've re-tested my version of the bread bun and it still stayed very soft the next day, just as i would like it to be.

Custard Cream Bun

Ingredients:-
1 Sweet Dough (please refer to above)

Custard Cream:-
448g milk
22g butter
112g sugar
28g warm water
2 eggs
42g custard powder
28g flour

Decoration:-
some beaten egg (topping)
some custard cream
some warm water

Method:-
1) Custard Cream:- Boil water with butter and sugar well. Stir warm water with egg, custard powder and flour well, stir into milk, mix well. Pour out and let it cool.
2) Make a sweet dough as mentioned above.
3) Divide the fermented dough into 16 portions. Put in custard cream, wrap into a triangle. Put in greased container to ferment for 30mins until double size.
4) Brush beaten egg on top, pipe some custard paste for decoration. Custard paste can be made by mixing the ingredients of custard bun. Bake at 200C for 10-15 mins.


The above is the original recipe from the book. Because it is a translation from Chinese, i think it is not very clearly written in English. If you know the basics of bread making and custard making, i am sure you will understand it means, if not, please feel free to ask..enjoy! :) I've also added my version to the bread buns in blue text.

Gotta go..and watch dvds..hahahaha...