I bake all sorts of buns - plain ones, those with savoury fillings like chicken cocktail, sambal ikan bilis, dried potato curry and sausages and those with sweet fillings like chocolate chips, red bean paste, mung bean paste and pineapple jam to name a few. As a result, my children are never bored with home-baked buns. And the buns run out so fast. This gives me the inspiration to bake often and to experiment baking with different types of fillings.
The red bean paste is exactly the same as that used in pau. You can buy it from shops selling baking ingredients. However, I prefer to make it as I can be assured of its purity.
Ingredients:
Red Bean Paste: (Note: there will be a balance after using the paste for the buns as I usually do more to make other things like pau.)
- 200 g red beans
- 1 litre water
- 150 g sugar or to taste
- 35 g cooking oil (preferably corn oil)
- 20 g glutinous rice
- 4 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp salt
Buns:
- 325 g bread flour
- 30 g sugar
- 7 g yeast
- 1 egg
- 7 g salt
- 1 egg
- 160 g milk
- 50 g butter
Method:
Red Bean Paste:
- Wash and soak the red beans overnight.
- The next day boil 1 litre of water in a pot and add the soaked red beans to the pot. Check constantly to ensure that the water does not dry up. Top up the water if required. Boil the red beans till they are soft. (I use an electric pressure cooker to cook the red beans.)
- Wait for the red beans to cool down.
- Use a blender or grinder to blend or grind the red beans until it is thick, smooth and free of any lumps.
- Sieve the blended red beans. (I did not as I have a very powerful electric grinder which grinds the red beans till very smooth.)
- Transfer the puree to a non-stick pan.
- Mix the glutinous flour with water. Stir and ensure that the flour is dissolved.
- Add sugar, oil, glutinous flour solution and salt to the pan. Stir till all the ingredients are mixed evenly with the puree.
- Turn on the fire and cook the puree over medium heat. Stir the puree all the time to ensure that it does not burn.
- The puree will be reduced as it is cooked.
- The paste will be ready when it becomes smooth and shiny and it can be kneaded into balls.
- When cool, weigh and knead the paste into balls. (My bun dough weighs around 60 g and my red bean paste balls weigh 30 g each. If you prefer more filling, then you may increase the weight of the balls.)
- Keep the balls in the fridge till they are required.
Buns:
- Put all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Knead till a smooth dough ball is formed.
- Add butter to the bowl.
- Continue to knead till window pane is achieved so that your buns will be soft.
- Transfer the dough to a clean greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a moist towel.
- Let the dough proof till it is double in size.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it onto a counter top.
- Punch out the air from the dough.
- Knead the dough back into a round ball.
- Divide the dough into the number of buns you want. Roll each piece into a dough ball.
- Flatten each piece into a flat round dough.
- Put red bean paste ball in the centre of the dough.
- Bring the dough up to cover the red bean paste ball. Pinch the edge of the dough together to seal it.
- Roll the dough again into a smooth ball and place it on a cup cake liner. Place the cake liner on a baking tray
- Repeat till all the dough balls have been done.
- Cover the baking tray with a moist towel.
- Let the dough proof till double in size.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, apply egg wash (1 egg plus 1 tbsp of water) to the dough.
- Bake the dough in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 18 min or till the buns are golden brown.
- When the buns are done remove them immediately onto a wire rack to be cooled down.