Sleepy Buns (Malted Milk Buns // 維他奶麵包）

If you're here from my video, thank you for visiting :-) If you aren't, there's a recipe video below: 

I recently just bought a brick of instant yeast from Costco and proceeded to dive into another bread-making phase. I've been trying to play with different methods and flavours and came up with this. It's a soft, fluffy, and chewy bread recipe using the Tong Zhong method. You cook part of the flour with part of the liquid until you form a thick paste. The gelatinization process that happens during the cooking traps water molecules with the starch. Free water becomes bound with the starch. And free water is the aspect that causes you trouble because it is available to evaporate (causing a stale loaf), and for moulding (because it's readily used by microorganisms). Gelatinization helps decrease the free water content without actually decreasing the water content. In fact, this is quite a wet dough. I played with this recipe, pushing the flour to liquid ratio smaller and smaller. It's more or less 1:1 flour to water content by weight. This makes a very soft dough that is tricky (but possible!) to knead by hand, but perfect for bread machine or stand mixer. 

In terms of flavour, when I came across the drinks aisle at the supermarket, I saw Vitasoy drinks on feature. They're a Hong Kong-based company that makes mostly soy drink boxes with different flavours. Everything about them takes me back to my childhood ^.^ If you've heard of these, chances are, they invoke a similar feeling in you too. I decided to work the malted soy milk into these buns. You don't actually taste the malted milk, but it brings a deep richness to the buns. 

As for why I chose this peculiar shape...it was inspired by a stuffy I have. He's Rolly from Disney's Puppy Dog Pals. Only, the stuffy I have of him is a sleeping one. Sometimes when they're so cute you just want to eat them. So the logical way is to make a bread version of him and eat the bun. Super logical, right? 

Recipe:

(makes 8 buns) 

120 g bread flour

120 g all-purpose flour (if using all AP flour, use 250 g altogether as bread flour absorbs more liquid)

4 g instant yeast

50 g granulated sugar

5 g salt

250 ml (1 box) malted soy milk (other flavours okay too. You can also use evaporated milk or whole milk)

30 g unsalted butter

(optional: Craquelin recipe and very little dark chocolate for piping the face)

Rising time (~40 min x 2).

Baking temp: Preheat to 400 F (205 C), bake at 375 F (190 C). 

Baking time: 20-25 min

Instructions given in brief here only. For more details, especially the shaping technique, please refer to the video. 

1. Measure out 20 g of the bread flour and 110 g of the malted milk into a small sauce pan and place on medium-low heat. 
2. Add the rest of the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt into the mixing bowl (or into the bread machine) and set aside. 
3. Stir the flour and milk mixture in the saucepan continuously as it heats. Try to get rid of the lumps. The mixture will thicken in about 5 minutes and start pulling away from the sides of the pot. 
4. Once this happens, take the pan off the heat and add to the mixing bowl (or bread machine). 
5. Start mixing on low speed to incorporate the loose flour, and increase to medium-high speed to knead for 8-10 minutes. If you are doing this by hand, it'll take about double the amount of time. 
6. After 8-10 minutes of kneading, the dough should be smooth and should pass the window test. 
7. Add the butter in small pats all over the dough and mix again for another 4-5 minutes on medium high speed. Again, it will take longer if you are working by hand. 
8. After 4-5 minutes of kneading, the butter should be fully mixed in and you should have a silky, smooth, pliable dough. Place of your work surface and shape into a round ball (see video for shaping technique). Let rise, covered, for 30-40 minutes at room temperature. 
9. After the first rise, divide the dough into 8 even pieces. Shape each as desired (again, see video for shaping technique). Cover and allow to rise again for another 30-40 minutes. 
10. Place a piece of craquelin on top (optional) or brush with egg wash (also optional), and bake in an oven preheated to 400 F (205 C), on the middle rack. Before you close the door, give a generous many spray (like ~20 sprays) of water all over the oven. Turn oven down to 375 F (190 C) and bake for 20-25 minutes. 
11. They can cool on the tray. You can decorate with chocolate as desired afterwards. 

These keep for quite a while without spoiling. You can keep them at room temperature, covered, for 3-4 days and in the fridge for about 10 days. Alternatively, you can also freeze them once they've cooled to room temperature and reheat them whenever you need.