Japanese melon Buns

Japanese Melon Buns

Bread dough wrapped in a biscuit dough.

Bread Dough

150g bread flour
1 tablespoon fat free milk powder
2 tablespoons of egg
1 teaspoon of dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
55 ml warm water
30g butter
Pinch of salt

Place in bread machine and choose the "rapid bake" mode which will normally produce bread after 3 hours. Leave in the machine for 1 hour, take out and punch down, divide into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, and let rest for 10 minutes under a damp towel.

Biscuit Dough

30g butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 of egg
100g flour
a pinch of vanilla-oil or lemoin-oil if desired

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl, add beaten egg a bit at a time, beating well. Sift the flour in, and mix in with a flat bladed knife. Place the dough on plastic film, make a cyclinder shape and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

When the bread and biscuit dough are ready, roll out pieces of the biscuit dough into 6 thin rounds between layers of plastic film or baking papaer, ready to wrap the 6 pieces of raised bread dough. Remove the top layer of the cling wrap and place the bread dough onto the pastry dough. With the bottom layer of the cling wrap still intact, wrap the pastry dough around the bread dough. Carefully remove the bottom layer of the cling wrap, at the same time, smoothing the edges of the pastry dough. NOTE: DO NOT cover the entire bread dough with the pastry dough. Leave the bottom 2 ~ 3 cm uncovered. The dough needs the space to expand, otherwise the pastry dough will burst and the resulting appearance will not be very pleasing.

After wrapping the bread dough, sugar the surface of the balls and score a grid pattern into the top of each one.

Cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for about 20 minutes (or 40 to 50 minutes!)

Bake for 10 minutes in 180 degrees C. preheated oven, then set at 160 degrees C. for further 12 minutes. (this turned into at least 20 minutes at 160 - next time try longer at 180)

The biscuity bit was very togh - as it is meant to be, and the bread bit maybe a bit heavy, but certainly better as bread than the ones I had in Japan. The bread would have beenlighter if I'd allowed it to rise some more after wrapping in the biscuit pastry. I might have only left it 10 minutes. Slacker.)