Sweet Bun

As a matter of fact I baked bun quite often. Local bakeries are selling bun, somehow they taste better when you make them yourself.

I don't have bread machine, but my Kithenaid (dough hook) mixer always does the job. It comes fairly close to kneading the dough as well as a pair of hands. If you must use a mixer, use a heavy-duty model, as these heavy doughs may burn out the motor of a less powerful mixer.

This recipe's been with me for long time and been tested over and over. I always make starter first, even I use instant yeast. The good thing with this starter is you will know the yeast is in a good condition, you will notice it from the frothy appears on the top of the milk mixture. If it does not, discard and use a fresh package of yeast

I use bread improver as well, they can change the flavour and characteristics of the bread. Bread improver can be found in bread flour aisle in supermarket. It's not like chemical, some I found has natural product. You may check this ingredient shop too, they sell quite good quality ingredients, for chocolate and bread making.

Spray the rising bread with water before you apply the egg wash can result soft, shiny, and golden top. You can either stuff them with filling or just leave it as an empty bun shape. In this picture I shaped them using muffins pan. The filling choice is up to your liking, red bean paste, chocolate, cheese cream or cheddar cheese.

Sweet Bun
ingredients:
400 gr bread flour (high in protein flour)
100 gr cake flour
100 gr sugar
1 tsp bread improver
1 tsp fine salt
3 tbs (45 ml) sweet condensed milk
4 yolks
100 gr butter

starter:
250 ml lukewarm fresh milk
1 tbs sugar (take from 100 gr sugar from ingredients list above)
11 gr instant yeast

Methods:
make starter first by mix sugar in a lukewarm milk and add yeast, rest about 10 minute until it get frothy.

Place flours, sugar, salt and bread improver in a bowl and lightly mix. Add the rest of the ingredients including starter/milk mixture and knead for about 10-15 minutes until the dough gets smooth and shiny (you can use the kitchenaid or heavy duty food processor). The dough should be sticky and wet, leave the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic cling wrap, rest in a warm draught-free place for about an hour and a half (or until it doubles in size).

Punch down dough and place on a lightly floured surface. It is now ready to form into buns. To make same size buns, roll dough into sausage and cut into small dough and scale to 30-50 grm each. Stuff them with filling and shape into ball. Put buns 5 cm apart in the lightly oiled tin.
Let rise until doubled in size, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Beat egg yolk with milk and a bit of salt, brush over buns. Bake 20 minutes.

with cheddar filling