The bakeries in Japan do a lot of bread buns in animal shapes, they are all so creative and cute. I was up too early because of jetlag last Sunday, I decided to make some bread to kill my time! :-P I didnt prove/ferment my first bread (panda bread) quite right last time, I let my dough to prove/ferment next to the radiator this time and it rose much better ♪
Japanese Bear and Rabbit Soft Bread Bun
makes around 8-9 buns
Ingredients
175g White Bread (strong) flour75g Plain flour
50g Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 Egg, Whisked
100ml Water
3 tbsp Milk
10g Dry yeast
25g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
Oil, to grease
20 melted chocolate, to decorate
Method
1. Place bread flour, plain flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix well.2. In a separate bowl, put in the whisked egg, water, milk and dry yeast, gently whisk until incorporated.
3. Add the milk mixture into the flour mixture and keep mixing until combined.
4. Start kneading by hand or by a mixer with a dough hook attachment for minimum 10-15 mins under high speed until the dough become smooth and elastic.
5. Knead the dough properly until it forms a thin, translucent film.
6. Add the butter and keep kneading for another 10 mins until a strong gluten film forms.
7. Knead the dough into a ball, place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with cling film.
8. Leave to rise (1st rising) for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
9. Remove risen dough from the bowl, punch down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
10. Divide the dough into 9 pieces, form the first 8 dough into rounds, use the 9th dough to form some smaller rounds as ears and stick them to the larger rounds.
11. Cover with cling film and let rise (2nd rising) at room temperature for about 40-45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
12. Preheat the oven to 180C, place the dough on a baking sheet, lower the temperature to 160C and bake for 10 minutes, lower the temperature again to 130C and bake for another 5-10 minutes.
13. Remove and cool them on a wire rack. Pipe some melted chocolate as ears and mouth to finish.
I am very pleased with my second bread-making result, the buns turned out very soft and springy :) they stayed fluffy even after a few days.
Next time I will try to make some savoury ones or with fillings like those I saw in Tokyo :))))
