Today I am sharing you a recipe for an Asian inspired bun recipe. These buns are filled with tangy soft apple. Because tangzhong or water roux method was used in this recipe, the little buns stay fresh and soft for days.
Yes, here I am with another simple recipe for bread…this time I decided to make a lighter version of bread dough as compared to the sweet dough. In spite of no heavy cream and less fat, this bread still turned out to be very light and fluffy…
With this one recipe I made two kind of bread, my usual Pullman sandwich loaf and buns filled with freshly cooked apple filling…yes, the buns turned out so good…light bread dough with sweet and a touch of tangy apple…fall is here, and this means lots of variety of apples to choose from…
I have a feeling that this bread recipe will be here to stay, especially that contain less fat and still has the same fluffiness of the other ones that I baked in the past.
In this recipe I added the butter after the gluten developed, therefore the butter did not interfere with the gluten formation, therefore the texture came out very light, fluffy and yet springy
During mixing stage, before the butter hit the bowl I was to tempted to add more flour, but was able to control myself and waited for a while…sure enough the dough eventually did not stick to the bottom of the bowl (due to gluten formation).
When adding the butter, because the gluten network has been formed already, please be aware that it will take a while until the butter incorporate into the dough…please be patience…all well worth it!
By the way, you will need a mixer (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer) for this recipe, as the dough is very sticky and hard to handle. Here is the recipe, and indeed it is a very simple one, just make sure that you weight all the ingredients…I hope you get to try this one…oh! Both the sandwich loaf and the apple buns stay fresh for many many days…
Ingredients:
Water Roux or Tangzhong
- 35 g bread flour
- 175 g water
Main dough
- 2 eggs slightly beaten minus 1 ½ tablespoons (use as egg wash)
- 600 g bread flour
- 90 g sugar
- 50 g dry milk
- 8 g sea salt
- 8 g dry yeast
- 120 ml water
- 60 g butter
Apple Filling
- 450 g Jazz apples, peeled and cut
- 100 g sugar
- 1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100ml water
Method:
Apple Filling
Soak the cut apple in a bowl of water with some lemon or lime juice
Drain and place the apple in a medium pan. Add the sugar, lemon or lime juice and water. Cook under high heat until boiling. Turn the heat to low and cook until most of the water is evaporated.
Add the vanilla extract and remove from the heat.
Let it cool completely before using on the dough.
Bread Dough
Water roux
In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film.
Dough
Place all the cooled water roux and all the ingredients listed under main dough into a mixer except for the butter. Mix until all the ingredients are together, it will be very sticky.
Increase the speed to number 2 and continue to mix for 5 to 10 minutes, until all dough comes out from the bottom of the mixing bowl.
Add the butter and continue the mixing until the dough is smooth and comes out of the mixing bowl, this will take approximately another 10 to 15 minutes. You will notice that the dough will no longer stick to the wall of the mixing bowl and pass the window pane test.
Place the dough into a medium to large bowl. Cover and let it proof until the size double from the original size.
Divide the dough into approximately 550g and 640g. Use the 550g for the Pullman loaf.
With the 640g dough, using a rolling pin shape the dough into a rectangle of approximately 28 x 38cm. Spread the apple filling evenly on the dough. Roll it like when making cinnamon rolls.
Cut into approximately 16 pieces. Place the rolls into a muffin pan.
Cover and let the buns proof until double its original size.
When ready to bake, use the leftover egg as an egg wash (add 1 teaspoon water) and brush gently on the buns.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for approximately 15 to 20 minute, until slightly golden brown.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
If you enjoy this Asian inspired recipe of bread, you might want to take a look at Sweet Milk Bread with Raisin or Matcha Swirl Sandwich Bread recipes.
