Apple Custard Buns

Made these Apple Custard Buns yesterday.


This was the second recipe (well, actually two recipes as I've combined them) I had followed from the Bun Lovers borrowed from the library. I realised the doughs in this book are all super wet and sticky! Not suitable for hand kneading at all! Maybe a Kitchen Aid (my dream machine) will do the job better. Remember the Nugget Salad Buns? That dough was wet, but this was even worst! I felt as if I was kneading cake batter! Ended up had to add another 85g of flour to make it more manageable and I struggled with it for an hour.

Then came another "accident". I had to leave the house for dinner by the time I'm done with the dough. So I thought I would leave it in the fridge to proof. When I returned 4 hours later, I was shocked to see the dough has risen so much that it had exploded out of the big mixing bowl, even tearing the wrap away from the bowl! I quickly set down to work, half worrying that the dough may have overproofed, though I didn't see any tear on it.



Luckily, it all ended up well. The buns turned out good, very soft. Super wet dough seems to yield super soft bread. The only thing I was unsatisfied with was, there was too little custard on top of the bread. This was the first time I'm piping something on the bread, I thought it would spread out much more.

If you're interested to struggle with it (the end result was satisfying though), here's the recipe. But don't expect to taste much of the apple though, perhaps I should have chop it to bigger pieces.

Apple Custard Buns

Ingredients
485g bread flour (original recipe calls for 400g)
8g instant yeast (original recipe calls for 11g)
4g salt
35g sugar (original recipe calls for 40g)
1 egg
50ml whipping cream
100ml milk
200g green apple (pounded)
80g butter

*Fillings (combine)
100g instant custard powder
250ml milk
50g golden raisins

Method
1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl to form a dough. Knead dough till smooth and elastic.
2. Rest dough for 1 hour. Divide dough into 60g per portion, rest for 10 mins.
3. Roll out the dough and spread the fillings onto it. Roll in swiss roll style and tuck in both ends to the bottom. Place in large paper cups or mould (with the tugged ends at the bottom) for second proofing till double in size.
*4. Remove 50g of the fillings (without the raisins), then mix with 1 tbsp plain flour and a little green colouring. Pipe on top of dough.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 190°C for 15-20 mins.


Made this for today's lunch.


It's actually Sweet and Sour Tofu, a pretty straight forward self-created recipe.

Sweet and Sour Tofu

Ingredients
300g pressed tofu
1/2 red capsicum, remove seeds & chopped finely
1/2 yellow capsicum, remove seeds & chopped finely

Seasonings
1 & 1/2 tsp plum sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 to 1 & 1/2 tbp tomato ketchup
1 bowl (about 220ml) water
1 tbsp corn starch

Method
1. Cut the pressed tofu into 12 pieces and pat dry with kitchen towel. Deep fry till golden brown. Dish out and set aside.
2. Stir fry the capsicums for 2-3 minutes.
3. Mix all seasonings together (except corn starch) and pour into the capsicums to cook till boil.
4. Lower heat and add in corn starch. Stir in the fried tofu and mix well when the sauce mixture starts to thicken. Simmer for another minute before removing from heat. Serve hot.


Mood: happy