Soft and fluffy asian sweet bread stuffed with sweet and nutty ube paste. Naturally leavened or yeasted, you’re choice! Just follow the Yeasted Multipurpose Soft Asian Bread Roll or Sourdough Multipurpose Soft Asian Bread Roll recipe instructions. The main difference is the leavening agent being used and rest time.
Tips & Recommendations for a successful bake:
- Do not skip the egg wash. It makes the buns nice and glossy
- Do make sure that the buns are sealed properly. Give it a few additional rolls to make sure. Leaky buns are no bueno.
- Do make sure that the tangzong is warm when mixing in the sourdough discard or active dry yeast. The heat helps activate it and reduce the rise time.
- Do make sure that the tangzong mixture has substantially cooled before mixing in the egg. We’re want tot make sweet bread, not scrambled eggs!
- This bun is lightly sweet, if you like sweeter bread, add an extra ~5g of sugar.
Tangzhong Method
Tangzhong is a gel-like roux made from cooking flour with a liquid. The roux holds in moisture and makes the resulting bread soft and fluffy!
Similar techniques of “cooking the flour” when handling floured recipes can be seen all over the world. For example, when making tortillas, hot water is added to flour and mixed until a dough is formed. The dough is then rested before dividing and cooking. I’m not aware of the Spanish word for this technique, but in Japanese the method is called yudane.
To learn more about Tangzhong, see this post
Sourdough Baked Ube Bun
Ingredients
Main dough
Ube halaya pate
- 50 g ube powder
- 75 g condensed milk
- 150 g evaporated milk regular milk is ok
- 25 g sugar
- 6 g butter
Instructions
- Make the ube halaya paste: Mix all the ingredients for the paste together in a sauce pan and cook on medium high heat until a thick paste forms. Cover and let cool. Right before the dough is ready to be shaped, roll out the ube paste into 5 even balls and set aside.
- Transfer the risen Basic Soft Asian Bread Roll dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 5 even pieces and roll into rough balls. Work with one dough ball at a time. Cover the rest to prevent drying out.
- Flatten the balls with the palm of your hands. Using your hands or a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a disk about 1/4" thick. Place the ube paste ball in the center and wrap the edges of the dough around it and pinch to seal. Now turn the ball seam side down onto a flour-free area of your work surface and cupping the ball in between the palm of your hands and applying gentle pressure, turn the ball clockwise several times to seal the seams at the bottom. You should feel some tension being created between the dough and your work surface. If there isn't, wipe your work surface with a set towel and try again. Check the bottom to make sure it is crease-free, if it is not be patient and continue the clockwise rolling & sealing. Place the dough seam side down on a baking mat. Repeat with the rest. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Make the egg wash by beating egg and water together. Brush the top of the buns with the egg wash, sprinkle with with sesame seeds. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Enjoy warm or room temperature. Store in an airtight container or zip top bag for up to 5 days at room temperature, longer in the fridge.
