Chinese coconut cream bun
Soft and airy milk bread filled to the brim with a delectable smooth and creamy buttercream filling and coated with flakes of coconut. Yummy!!!
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer
- 1 Hand mixer
- 1 French star piping tip
- 1 Piping bag
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 100 ml Water
- 20 g Bread flour
Dough
- 300 g Bread flour
- 95 ml Milk
- 1 large Egg Room temperature
- 5 g Instant yeast
- 20 g Unsalted butter Room temperature
- 40 g White granulated sugar
- 2 g Table salt
- 6 g Milk powder
- Desiccated coconut for dripping the bun
Buttercream filling
- 110 g Unsalted butter Room temperature
- 150 ml Whipping cream/Heavy cream 35%
- 40 g Powdered sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Egg wash
- splash of milk
Sugar glaze
- 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp water
Instructions
- We’re going to start off by making our Tangzhong, a water roux. This will make our bread nice and fluffy when baking.
- In a small sauce pan, add in your bread flour and water. Heat the pan on low heat while constantly stirring it until the mixture turns into a thick gelatinous paste.
- Then remove the pan from the stove and transfer it to a small bowl or dish. Cover it with plastic wrap and then store in the fridge and let it cool down for at least 30 minutes before using.
- After our tangzhong has cooled down, we’re going to make our dough.
- In a large mixing bowl, add in your bread flour, white granulated sugar, table salt, instant yeast, milk powder, 1 egg, and the tangzhong.
- Pop the mixing bowl into a stand mixer and give it a quick few whisks.
- Then add in your room temperature milk and mix everything together for 3-4 minutes.
- Then add in your room temperature butter and continue kneading the dough for an additional 11-12 minutes.
- Next transfer the dough over to a greased large bowl.
- Then shape the dough into a round ball. if you find the dough difficult to handle then you can apply either some oil or water to your hands.
- Once done shaping the dough, place it back into the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it proof in a warm place until double in size, approximately 1 hour.
- While the dough is proofing, we're going to prepare our buttercream filling.
- For this next step, I recommend that you use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer if you don’t have a cover for your stand mixer, otherwise you have a chance of your stand mixer making a big mess and splashing all of the whipped cream everywhere.
- In a large mixing bowl, add in some room temperature butter and then siff in your powdered sugar.
- Now whisk everything well together using either a stand mixer with a cover on, a hand mixer, or even a hand whisk for about 30 seconds. Then add in your vanilla extract and mix it for another 10 seconds or so.
- Then add in your whipping cream in 3 stages and continue whisking everything together until you start to see peaks forming on the buttercream filling and no liquid is visible anymore.
- Once done, place the filling inside of a piping bag with a French star tip and set it aside.
- Once our dough has finished proofing, de-gase the dough and transfer it to your countertop.
- Shape it into a ball and weigh out the dough.
- Next, divide the dough into 6 pieces and weigh out each piece.
- Then shape each piece into a round ball.
- Cover the dough and let it rest for about 15-20 minutes.
- Now take 1 piece of the dough, flatten it then roll it out and pinch the edges of one side of the dough then slowly roll the dough over to the pinched side, forming an oval shape.
- Pinch the bottom and edges of the dough and then transfer the dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Repeat the process for the other pieces.
- Now cover the dough with plastic wrap or a towel and let it proof in a warm place for about 35-40 minutes.
- Once the dough has finished proofing, pre-heat your oven to 350°F.
- Now apply an egg wash to the top of the dough by whisking together 1 egg with a splash of milk.
- Then bake the buns in a pre-heated oven at 350°F for about 15-16 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Once the buns have been baked, set them aside and allow them to fully cool down.
- Once the buns have cooled down, prepare a sugar glaze for the buns by heating your white granulated sugar with a Tbsp of water on a small sauce pan over medium heat while constantly stirring it until it simmers.
- Once all of the sugar has melted and the mixture is hot, remove it from the stove.
- Now make a cut into the buns about halfway.
- Then apply the sugar glaze generously to the top of the buns.
- Now dip the buns into some desiccated coconut, making sure to apply a generous amount of the coconut all over the top of the buns.
- Finally, pipe the buttercream filling all along the bun where you made the cut.
- Repeat the process for the rest of the buns