Custard Bun

It has been a long time that I baked a bread, and I was lucky to 'chance' upon an easy & tasty sweet bun recipe from My Singapore Kitchen. Personally, the custard filling is not "strong" enough for me, though my hubby thinks it tasted good. 

I also love how the dough "grow" after 1-hour of 2nd proof. Initially the weather was so hot & conducive for proofing, but out of the sudden grey sky loomed and I had to put the dough in the oven with a bowl of hot water to artificially simulate the hot temperature for 2nd proofing. 

I've copied the recipe here for ready reference. The original recipe can be found here.

Custard Bun
(Makes 15 buns) 

For the custard:

Ingredients:

• Egg yolks- 2
• Sugar- 1/3 cup
• Plain flour- ¼ cup
• Corn flour- 1 tbsp
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Salt- 1 pinch
• Milk- 1 cup
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Method:

• Warm the milk.
• Beat the egg yolks until pale and add in the sugar and flours.
• Pour warm milk into it and whisk continuously until well incorporated.
• Add in the butter, salt and vanilla essence.
• Put back into the fire and with constant stirring make  a thick custard. (I put the custard in the blender and pulse for 1-2 mins to have a smoother custard.)
• Transfer it into a bowl and later put it into the fridge to chill.
• In the meantime prepare the bread dough.

For the bread dough:

Ingredients:

• Bread flour- 2 cups
• Egg- ½ (keep the rest for the egg wash)
• Sugar- ¼ cup
• Salt- ¼ tsp
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Yeast- 1 tsp
• Milk pwd- 1 tbsp
• Warm Water- ½ - ¾ cup
• Olive Oil- 2 tbsp (I think 1-1.5 tbsp should be good enough)

Method:

• Mix everything together except the oil and butter.
• Bring everything together and later add in the butter and knead for 10 minutes by hand until the dough is soft and elastic. (I use KA mixer - dough hook - for the kneading. To check if dough is ready, use windowpane test.)
• Apply the oil and cover with a cling foil for 1 hour until the dough is double in size.
• Punch down the dough and divide it into 15 balls.
• Slightly flatten it out and place a tsp full of the custard.
• Repeat until you finish off the dough and the custard.
• Arrange on a tray lined with parchment paper.
• Let it rise for another one hour.
• Apply the egg wash(1/2 egg+1 tbsp water+ 1 tbsp milk)
• Preheat the oven to 200 deg C for 10 minutes.
• Bake for 15 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
• Can be stored for 2 days at room temperature.
• Can be kept in the fridge for one week. Microwave for 30 sec before serving.