Pumpkin Wholewheat Milk Buns with Potato Bacon

Another pumpkin bread recipe that is worth recording down. Furthermore this uses a straight dough method and yet kept soft for the next 2-3 days. Best part about this is that the recipe is versatile enough to be made into buns as well as into loafs. Even added wholewheat flour to make it slightly healthier. :) So feel free to leave it as plain loaf or kick it up a notch by wrapping them with potato bacon like what I did. :)

By now you must be wondering how did I actually shape that bun all so nicely with grooves. Well I got the inspiration from a dear fellow blogger Elin of http://www.elinluvdelights.com ,  whom also shaped her pumpkin buns exactly this way. :) There is actually a Chinese video online that shows how to shape this buns on Youtube. Took the challenge and shaped accordingly which I made 8 of these pumpkin buns plus a mini loaf.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Wholewheat Milk Buns (Makes 8 buns)

125 g steamed pumpkin

250 g bread flour

100 g whole meal flour

50 g caster

1/2 tsp salt

4 g instant active yeast

180 ml fresh milk

15 g unsalted butter room temp

• In a mixing bowl, add in all the dough ingredients except the butter. Knead at medium speed till everything is well combined .
• Knead till the dough pulls away from the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl. Add in the butter and knead again till the dough is very elastic and reaches window panel.
• Place dough in a greased bowl and let proof for 1.5hrs or till it is doubled in size. At this point you can make the bun fillings.

Filling

2 large russet potatoes, peeled, cut into small chunks and steamed till cooked

3-4 strips bacon

1 small onion

Filling seasoning:

4 tbsp Japanese Mayo

1 tsp superfine sugar

1/4 tsp salt

8 of 25cm cooking twine/ string dipped in cooking oil

• Preheat the oven.
• In a pan, add in the bacon and let it cook till crisp up on both sides and most of the fat has been rendered out.
• Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels. Next add in the chopped onions and cook it in the bacon fat at low fire. 
• Once the onions has soften, dish it out and add to the steamed cubed potatoes.
• Add the steamed potatoes in to the caramelised onions and toss well to combined.
• Crumble the crispy bacons into smaller pieces and add to the potato onion mixture. 
• Add in the seasoning and mix well. Set aside for use later

• After proofing, punch out the air and divide the dough into 8 portions of 50 g. The rest of the dough can be made into a plain loaf or you can make more buns if desired.
• Then wrap the buns with about 1 heaping tbsp of potato bacon filling. Seal the buns and set aside for a minute. Then continue wrapping the buns with the potato filling till all 8 buns are filled and sealed.
• Using the oil coated cooking twine, wrap the buns so that the twine goes around it 4 times and has 1/4 segment separation. (To have a better idea, please hop over to my Facebook which I post the video of how I wrap the twine around the buns.
• Repeat till all the buns are wrapped with the cooking twine. Let the buns proof till doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven 170C. 
• Bake the buns for 13-15 minutes till light golden brown. 

• Once the buns have cooled, remove the twine carefully and stick a chocolate stick in the middle top of the buns. Enjoy!

Hope this recipe will inspire you to bake for your love ones. Totally appropriate for the coming CNY don't you think? Loving the evident grooves of the buns, making it looks so much like a real pumpkin! Apologise for not showing the interior of the buns because got so busy with CNY preparations...haiz. Just trust me this is really soft and delicious! 

Do try and let me know how you like it! Have fun baking...always. :)