Christine's Recipes Printable Version: Bread

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Tangzhong Wholemeal Loaf

Please refer to the instructions for making the Tangzhong. Just measure out the quantity you need.
As wholemeal flour is added, it’s very hard to knead the dough until it passes windowpane test. Just knead it until it’s very elastic. When you try to stretch the dough into a thin translucent membrane (i.e. a windowpane), it’d be broken into an irregular hole. It’s done. Don’t ever over-knead it.

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 170 mins
Yield: 1 loaf（one loaf tin sized 20.5cmx10.5cmx9.5cm）

Ingredients:

110 gm milk
45 gm whisked egg
100 gm Tangzhong (refer to this recipe)
40 gm sugar
5 gm salt
200 gm bread flour
150 gm wholemeal / whole wheat flour
6 gm instant dry yeast
40 gm unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

Method:

Add all ingredients (except butter) into a breadmaker, first the wet ingredients (milk, egg, tangzhong), then followed by the dry ingredients (sugar, salt, bread flour, wholemeal flour, yeast). (Note: I used to make a small well in the flour, then add the yeast into it.)
Select the “dough” mode (refer to the manual of your breadmaker to select the kneading dough programme). When all ingredients come together, add the butter (see picture 1). Knead until the dough becomes elastic.
Let the dough complete the 1st round of proofing, until doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide into 3 equal portions. Knead into ball shapes (see picture 2). Cover with plastic wrap, let rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.
Roll out each dough ball with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Roll up the dough and seal tightly (see picture 3 & 4). Seal faces downward. Roll out each portion to 30cm in length with your rolling pin (picture 5). Seal faces upward and roll into a cylinder shape (see picture 6 & 7). The seal faces down (see picture 8). Arrange the rolled-up dough in a greased or non-stick loaf tin. Repeat this step for the other two portions. Leave it for the 2nd round of proofing, about 40 minutes, or until the dough rises up to 4/5 of the height of the tin inside (see picture 9). Close the loaf lid. (Remark: If your tin doesn’t have a lid, just brush a bit of whisked egg on surface.)
Bake in a pre-heated 170C / 335F oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the loaf from the oven and tin. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Slice to serve or place in an airtight plastic bag or container once it's thoroughly cooled.

Ingredients of tangzhong (湯種 The amount is enough to make two loafs):

50gm/ 1/3 cup bread flour
250ml/ 1cup water (could be replaced by milk, or 50/50 water and milk)

Method of making tangzhong:

Mix flour in water well without any lumps. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring consistently with a wooden spoon, whisk or spatula to prevent burning and sticking while you cook along the way.
The mixture becomes thicker and thicker. Once you notice some “lines” appear in the mixture for every stir you make with the spoon. It’s done. You get the tangzhong. (Some people might like to use a thermometer to check the temperature. After a few trials, I found this simple method works every time.) Remove from heat.
Transfer into a clean bowl. Cover with a cling wrap sticking onto the surface of tangzhong to prevent from drying up. Let cool. The tangzhong can be used straight away once it cools down to room temperature. Just measure out the amount you need. The leftover tangzhong can be stored in fridge up to a few days as long as it doesn't turn grey. If so, you need to discard and cook some more. (Note: The chilled tangzhong should return to room temperature before adding into other ingredients. )

Butter Buns (with Tips on making fresh buns for breakfast)

To make these butter buns, it’s pretty straight forward and simple. Just knead all ingredients into a dough. The trick to get soft and fluffy texture you’re after is that make sure your dough passes the membrane test (aka windowpane test).

Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Yield: 8 buns (Prepare an 8-inch round baking tin)

Ingredients:

250 gm bread flour
25 gm cake flour
5 gm instant dry yeast
15 gm milk powder
40 gm caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
100 ml water, about 36C/97F
80 ml milk, about 36C/97F
40 gm butter, softened at room temperature
whisked egg, for egg wash

Method:

Mix all ingredients (except butter) in a breadmaker or knead by hand. I used my stand mixer this time. When all the ingredients come together, knead in butter until the dough passes the thin membrane test. (The dough could be stretched to a thin membrane, as shown in the above picture). Roll it into a ball. Place into a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Let it proof untill it's doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Transfer to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Knead each into a ball shape. Place them evenly in a lightly greased baking tin (shown as above picture). Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof until doubled in size, crowded together, almost reaching the rim, about 1 to 1½ hours.
About 5 to 10 minutes towards the end of proofing time, preheat oven to 170C/ 335F. Lightly brush whisked egg on each dough portion. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the buns from the oven and let it stand for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn them out from the tin onto a wire rack. Serve warm with butter if you like. The leftovers can be kept in an air-tight plastic bag or container, at room temperature.

Notes：

The texture of these butter buns is wonderfully soft and fluffy. The leftovers can be kept soft overnight. Just reheat them with your oven and they taste like those fresh from oven.
Don’t have time to knead the dough but you still want fresh buns for breakfast? Here’s a workaround. Make the buns the night before, up to the point where they're shaped and put in the tin for the 2nd round of proofing. Wait until the dough has risen halfway, almost touching one another. Yet don’t wait until they are fully risen. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and refrigerate. The next morning, remove the buns from the fridge, and let warm and rise, keeping them covered, for an hour or so. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the buns as instructed in step 3.

How To Wrap a Chinese Bun (Video)

My family can’t live a day without bread. Except I have been addicted to making tangzhong breads for my family, recently I make more Chinese steamed buns as they can be kept in freezer for two weeks or so. Whenever I need them, just grab a few of them straight from the freezer and pop them in the wok to steam or pan fry, then enjoy fresh and hot buns after ten minutes or so.

After posting the pork bun recipe, I was asked by my fans on how to pleat Chinese buns. Last week, when I made some buns again, I took a short video when I pinched a Chinese bun. No tricks at all. It’s very simple, just needs some practice and you’d find great satisfaction in the process of pleating buns. Practice makes things perfect. A side note, I’m just an amateur and start learning how to take videos for blogging. Please pardon me that the video looks a bit dark. Yet, the whole process of how to go about pinching a bun is shown clearly. Hope you all find it helpful and like it.

Method:

Place a spoonful of fillings in the middle of dough wrapper. Use one hand (I accustom to use my left hand.) to secure it with your thumb pressing the filling lightly.
Use another hand, with your thumb and first index finger to pull up a little portion of the side of the dough. Fold and pleat evenly all the way as you go anticlockwise until you reach the end, enclose the bun. You’ll get a nice swirl pattern. It might be a bit difficult to pleat perfect buns at the first attempt. After a few tries, you’ll find the pleating is not that difficult as you thought, and you'd get nice looking buns.

Steamed Pork Buns (菜肉包)

This recipe of steamed buns comes late, a bit behind my original schedule. These pork buns were cooked last week and posted on my Chinese food blog a few days ago.

Over the past few days, south-east Queensland has experienced a very devastating flood, so called “inland tsunami”, similar to 1974 tragedy. The family was spared as we are not in the flood zone. Sadly, countless suburbs, the CBD of Brisbane and Ipswich are inundated, awaiting for clean up once the flood waters are clear. My mind was totally occupied by all those images and news about the flood through the media. It’s so sad to see many people lost their houses, their business, their property and even their loved ones. I’ve ever seen such a horrible flash flood since I moved to Australia. Hope I won’t see any again. My thoughts and hearts are out to all those affected in this traumatic flood.

The flood came so quickly, much quicker than anyone expected. So, be thankful and enjoy what you have right now. Even if it’s something as simple as eating a few buns, it's a bliss by itself. Speaking about the buns, they can be kept in freezer for up to two to three weeks once they are steamed and cooled down. I usually take one or two out form the freezer, needless to defrost, and quickly bring their softness and freshness back by steaming in a wok/steamer for breakfasts.

Steamed Pork Buns (菜肉包) (Printable recipe)

Prepare 10 6cmx6cm baking paper/wax paper

Ingredients:

200 gm plain flour
2 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
½ tsp instant dry yeast
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup, warm milk (should be under 40C)
a pinch salt

Fillings:

130 gm Taiwanese cabbage (or other vegetables you like), shredded
170 gm pork mince

Seasonings:

1 Tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp freshly grated ginger
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp chicken powder
½ tsp salt
3 Tbsp water
pepper, to taste

Method:

Mix pork with seasonings well. Chill in fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes. Combine pork with cabbage. Set aside.
Use a measure cup or a bowl, pour in milk. Add ½ teaspoon of sugar and yeast. Rest for about 5 to 10, until bubbles arise.
Combine flour, 1½ teaspoon of sugar, water, oil and yeast mixture, knead into a smooth dough.
Place the dough in a bowl, covered with a cling film. Let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
Transfer the dough onto a clean surface. Cut into 10 equal portions. Shape each in round balls, then roll into a disc with a rolling pin, with edges thinner than the middle. Wrap a spoonful filling inside, pinch seam tightly. Place on a piece of baking paper. Repeat this step with the rest of the dough. Transfer to a steamer/wok, covered, let rest for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Add cold water into steamer/wok. Steam buns over medium-high heat. When steam is vigorously releasing, continue to steam for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat, let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Notes:

You can substitute with other vegetables, like baby bok choy, chive, or any vegetables you like.
The buns you steamed might look a bit yellowish if you use ordinary flour. Except you use the bleached flour, then your buns would look as white as those bought from shops. But I used the ordinary, unbleached flour, and made it whiter by adding some milk in the process of making the dough. So the buns shown in this post were quite white. If you use only milk without any water to make buns, they’d look even whiter. As I don’t want these Chinese buns taste heavy milk flavour, I just incorporated water to milk, with a ratio of 1:1. You can adjust the ratio according to your preference. You can skip the milk if you don’t like, of course. Just replace it with the same amount of water. That’s easy.
Please refer to this post on how to wrap Chinese buns with video shown.