Japanese-style sweet milk buns
Hokkaido milk buns with a sweet cream filling
We accidentally happened to stumble upon these in Bangkok, I had walked past a picture of these in the food court of a mall. They just looked like something I would love to try! Hoping that it does not turn out to be a complete disaster, My husband and I decided we will only get one first, because when you are in Thailand, you want to spend your appetite wisely 🙂 and OMG was it even real?!?!?!.. the most ethereal- soft, lightly-sweet, yet decadent piece of bread I had ever eaten. It was like biting into a cloudy, fluffy, golden, vanilla goodness. Words can’t describe it! We had two more quickly after 😛 And the first thing I said to Neel after I finished enjoying them was – Mom would love these!
The next day was our last in Thailand. I was on a work trip and Neel had tagged along! After a long last day in the office, we decided to go out shopping and have those buns one last time. I was even strategizing packing a few to take back to India for my mom. We spent a lot of time shopping without realizing it was a bit late and the food court was beginning to close. We ran to the hokkaido buns place and it had already closed 🙁 There was another mall at the next train station that had the same bun shop, we checked sand it was open for another half an hour. We ran and took the train, frantically researched the mall map to locate where exactly the shop was, and jaunted to it only to find out that they were just closing as well.
Then we researched that there was one other mall that closed later than the other two, and we ambitiously decided to take the train back to this mall – all just in the hope that we can eat those buns. From a distance I could see they were open – YAY! I went up to the lady and boastfully told her I wanted to buy 2 dozen buns. The lady said she didn’t have any. Then I said, “well the just give me two”, and she shook her head – “Not even one bun?” I asked, “no more left” – she promptly responded and to my (and Neel’s) surprise, tears started rolling down my cheeks. Today, I laugh when I think of that moment, but my emotion was so real and intense at that moment. Maybe it was the long day at work, my looking forward to the buns all day, feeling bummed about having discovered these buns not on my first or second but the third trip to Thailand, the fact that my mini-vacation was coming to an end, the fact that going to Asian countries on quick holidays wasn’t going to be as easy once we moved to the US – ALL OF IT – in that one moment, when after scrambling to three different malls in trains, way past my bed time, I felt terribly let down. Neel looked past my childlike outburst and assured me its fine and we can come back to Thailand – and the child in me honestly resolved I would come back just for the buns 😛
Fast forward 1 year and in my quest for finding the perfect pav recipe, I cracked the recipe for these too – the same heavenly soft, sweet buns.
This recipe makes 16 small buns.
you will need:
5g of active dry instant yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 a cup tepid whole milk
210 g of bread flour ( 1 + 3/4 cup loosely filled)
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
Procedure:
1. Mix 5g of yeast and 1 tbsp sugar to 1/2 a cup tepid whole milk – cover and let rest for 5 min. Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to this
2. In a large bowl weigh 210 g of bread flour ( 1 + 3/4 cup loosely filled) and mix in 1 tbsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt
3. Add the activated yeast and milk mixture to the flour mixture – the dough should come together. Add up to 2 more tbsp of milk if you feel it’s too dry.
4. Knead the dough till it forms a smooth ball and springs back to touch.
5. Flatten the dough ball and incorporate 2 tbsp of salted butter – the mixture will get quite sticky and it’ll be challenging to get the butter in – just keep at it!
6. Knead to make sure all of the butter is incorporated and the dough becomes a smooth springy ball again
7. Prove covered for 2 hours in a warm spot
8. After the first prove, the dough should have doubled in size – punch it back and knead a little to bring it back to a ball and divide into 8 or 16 balls
9. Grease a baking tray with butter and line the dough balls slightly spaced apart.
10. Cover with a kitchen towel and let prove for another 45 minutes – they should puff up to double in size and touch each other
11. Preheat the oven to 180 C
12. Sift cornstarch on the proved bums and Bake for 18-20 minutes at 180 C
13. While baking, Place a tray with boiling water on the bottom rack to create steam if you don’t have a steam oven.
14. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack when manageable. Let cool for an hour, covered with a damp Muslim cloth (to prevent drying or hardening)
15. Whip 2/3 cup of heavy cream with 1/3 cup of confectioner’s sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
16. Make a hole in the bottom of the cooled buns and fill in the sweet whipped cream with a piping bag
17. Serve when freshly filled with the cream – at room temp
18. Also tastes great with butter and jam!
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