Hearty Buns

I knew it would be a busy month when the mid-year school holidays began three weeks ago. The first week of the 4-weeks school break was spent sending my elder child to and fro school everyday for extra lessons. The second week was gone in a blink of an eye...with me taking up another home-based job assignment, and my kids catching up with their holiday homework and extra homework I assigned them (to keep them busy!). We were so glad when my better half finally came home last week and we even managed to squeeze in a short trip over the weekend :)

To welcome my husband home, I made some tuna buns specially for him. I first saw these lovely heart buns over at Quinn's blog here. I was so inspired that I told myself I should give it a try when an opportunity presents itself. So, despite a busy day, I spent the evening before his 20-hours flight home wrestling with a wet and sticky mess of dough.

I happened to borrow several cookbooks from a closed one recently. I found one particular book, 'Smile!幸福小点心', written by a Japanese pastry chef, to be one of the best among the lot. I have bookmarked several recipes from this book and I couldn't wait to try them all, and top on the list is a bread bun recipe. This recipe uses the straight dough method which I am so comfortable with. The recipe yields a slightly wet dough...it helps to work with a dough scraper, as you really need this piece of tool to scrape up the sticky mess as you knead. Except for a light sprinkle of flour on my table before I began to work on the dough, I didn't use any extra flour during the entire kneading session. After kneading continuously for 30mins or so, my fingers, which were initially covered with dough miraculously came clean. The dough was really smooth and elastic, and I could even stretch it fairly thinly!

Shaping the buns was really easy as Quinn has given a very clear step-by-step illustrations on her blog post. I really appreciate bloggers like her for spending time and effort to share their baking experience through such detailed tutorials. Thanks Quinn!! It was fun playing with the dough, but, I wasn't a good 'student'...my heart buns were a far cry from those made by Quinn (^_^''')

I trusted my intuition that the recipe from the cookbook would produce tasty and soft buns. I was right! The fluffy texture was the result of a well-kneaded dough :) As with any homemade bread, these buns tasted best when freshly baked. When left over night, I like to heat up the bread in the oven (100degC for about 5-10mins) before serving, and they would taste as good as fresh from the oven. My loved ones were all thumbs up when they had these buns for breakfast. This recipe is a keeper for sure.



Tuna Heart Buns

Ingredients
(makes 8 buns)

bread dough:
200g bread flour
20g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3g (about 1 teaspoon) instant yeast
110ml milk (room temperature, I used low-fat fresh milk)
30g egg, light beaten (this amount is less than one egg, use the leftover as egg wash)
25g unsalted butter, room temperature

fillings:
150g tuna (I used tuna chunks in mineral water)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
some ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes


Method:

1. Stir bread flour, caster sugar, salt, and instant yeast in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in milk and egg. Mix the ingredients with hand and slowly form into a rough dough.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough till smooth. This should take about 10mins.
4. Knead in the butter. Continue to knead the dough until it no longer sticks to your hand, becomes smooth and elastic. This should take about another 15 to 20 mins. Do the window pane test: pinch a piece of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart easily.
5. Place dough in a lightly greased (use vegetable oil or butter) mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. Divide into 8 equal portions, about 50g each. Roll into rounds. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let the doughs rest for 10mins.
7. Roll and shape each dough into a longish shape, slightly tapered at the end. Make a slit, 3/4 lengthwise, along the dough. Open the two ends to form a 'Y' shape. Fold each end down towards the centre to form a heart shape dough.(Visit Quinn's blog here for the shaping method). Brush surface with egg wash.
8. For the fillings, mix all ingredients to combine. Spread fillings on the dough surface, sprinkle with extra parsley flakes/ground pepper. Transfer dough onto baking tray lined with parchment paper. Space out the doughs to allow room for the doughs to expand. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave doughs to proof for the second time for about 30 ~ 40mins, or until double in size.
9. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 12 mins or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Recipe source: adapted from Smile!幸福小点心, 山王丸由利绘