Cream Filled Mini Buns

Those people that are close to me knows that I am totally a "dough" person. Meaning I cannot live without bread period. And close to 1/3 of the cookbooks I own are bread making cook books. Perhaps it's a skill that I wish to perfect some day or just because I simply love eating bread! The ways of making different kinds of bread is boundless! Sorry I get a little excited when it comes to the topic of bread making, lol! Seems like the passion is always there. (More like passion for eating...);) Enough about me, let's talk about today's bread: This post is a new recipe that I have been wanting to try for a long time now. In Mandarin, it's call "爆浆餐包", simple translation will be Cream Filled Buns. (No no, not explosive buns!)

If you have been to those chain bread stores in Singapore mall, you will notice they sell similar mini buns like mine. The bread store usually offers deals like buying 3 or 5 of these mini buns / pastries for a slightly cheaper price. Yeah, I am a big time sucker for those! Will usually pick like a variety especially since my little ones also enjoy those breads too. So this time round, I decided to give this mini cream filled buns a try. Although in the recipe book, there are like 8 different kinds of dough flavor to choose from, I just went with plain. :P Well, I figured that this is my first try, better just play safe a little. As for the filling, I made Oreo cream flavor since I knew the kids will enjoy it much better then plain sweetened cream.

Ingredients for Oreo Cream Filled Mini Buns:
Set A:
174g high protein flour (bread flour)
43g low gluten flour (cake flour)
13g milk powder
7g instant active yeast

Set B:
39g caster sugar
2 g salt
22g whole egg, lightly beaten
100ml water

Set C:
22g butter

Egg wash (1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water)

Filling:
200ml non-dairy whipping cream
2 tbsp confectioner's sugar
5 pieces of Oreo cookies with cream, blended till crumb stage

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all of Set A ingredients in and mix well with a whisk.

• Add all of Set A flour mixture with Set B ingredients and mix well until it becomes a soft dough.
• Continue to beat / knead the dough till it reaches elastic and not sticky stage, which can be verified by using the "window stage".
• Add in the butter in Set C and knead well till mix in.
• Let the dough proof in a greased bowl and cover it. Allow it to proof for at least 90 minutes until the dough doubles.
• After proofing, punch out the air and divide the dough to about 40g each. Roll round and seal any open edges and let proof again for another 15 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
  
• Brush the mini buns with egg wash and bake in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes till golden brown on the surface.
  
• Remove from oven and let cool completely. At the meantime, prepare the cream filling. Whip the cream with the powder sugar till triple in volume and stiff peaks. Then gently fold in the Oreo cookie fine coolie crumbs in till evenly blended in. Chill the filling till it is needed.
  
• Using a piping bag and 1cm opening tip, pipe the Oreo cream into the cooled mini buns. Try not to squeeze too much filling in as it will ooze out.
  

These little "babies" look like eggs from far! And as you can see I was greedy and piped in too much cream for some...so it looks like it's about to burst any moment, lol!

A look at the inside....filled with creamy sweet Oreo cream...yum! The buns were delightfully soft and was a good combo with the creamy inside. ;) I can down a couple of these at one shot. ;)

My initial intention was to fill the buns with different flavor of cream filling, like chocolate, cream cheese flavor etc. However I was actually late for preparing for a dinner party that very evening...so I had to forgo the idea and settle with just Oreo flavor. :P A point to note is that these buns need to be consumed within a day if they have already been filled, else the moisture from the cream might get absorbed by the buns....you get the picture. Alternatively, you can use buttercream or fill the buns only before consuming. The buns are actually still soft on the third day. :) If you give this recipe a try, let me know how you like them. ;)

Okay, signing off now...hope you all have a great great day ahead. Cheers all!