Creamy Custard Bread 卡士达面包 (65C Tangzhong Method)

Creamy Custard Bread/Custard Bun some name it as Milk Pudding Bread. It is my favourite, when I happen to drop by a bakery I always look for custard bread or bun. A perfect Creamy Custard Bread to me is having a soft bread texture with creamy pastry cream in it. I know there are many different varieties for the filling but I love the pastry cream filling which is without the use of condensed milk. The filling which is build up purely using egg yolks, milk, sugar and pastry flour.

I bet my son and hubby will be thrilled to see these creamy custard bread later. I'm using water roux (Tangzhong 汤种) starter in the bread dough again, as this will produce a soft bread texture. I would suggest to prepare pastry cream a day in advance of the bread making as the pastry cream needs time to  settle and firm up, this will make wrapping the filling process a breeze. 

I have to bake this custard bread as all the 12 pieces of Pork Floss Buns finished in just two days! The recipe yield: 12 buns

漂亮鬆软的面包，简单素质的生活，来一杯热茶，爆破在口里浓度刚刚好的卡士达甜馅，感觉是。。。和泡芙馅一样美好。

Ingredients:
water roux /Tangzhong:
30 g bread flour
150 ml water

Bread Dough:
300 g bread flour
100 g cake flour (top flour)
6 g instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
30 g sugar
15 g milk powder
1 egg
90 ml water
150 g Tangzhong (water roux)
45 g butter, cut in small pieces
some flour for dusting the hands and dough

Pastry Cream Filling:
400 g fresh whole milk
1 tsp concentrate vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
80 g sugar
40 g pastry flour, sifted

Glazing:
1 tsp golden syrup + 3 tbsp milk, mix together


Method:

Prepare water roux: In a small pot, add all water roux ingredients cook and stir the mixture until thicken, remove and set aside for later use.

Prepare filling: 
1. In a saucepan, add milk and concentrate vanilla extract, bring to just boil. 

2. In a clean bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar together using a hand whisk. Mix until the mixture is pale yellow. Add flour and mix well.

3. Gradually add hot milk to the egg mixture, mix well.
4. Pour the egg-milk mixture back to the saucepan and bring to boil over high heat, keep stirring until the mixture becomes smooth and glossy, remove from heat.

5. Transfer half of the pastry cream into a container, cover with cling wrap and let it cool in freezer (but not frozen). For the other half, place it in a pipping bag and let it cool in freezer too. About half an hour, place both pastry cream in fridge for later use. For the pastry cream in the container, cut them into equal 12 pieces.

Prepare bread dough: In the KitchenAid mixing bowl, add bread flour, cake flour, instant dry yeast, salt, sugar, milk powder, egg, and water roux. Using low speed (speed 1), mix for a min, gradually add water. Switch the speed to 2, mix the ingredients until it comes together to form a rough dough. Add the butter pieces, let the Kitchen Aid knead the dough at speed 4 until the dough form elastic window pane. 

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and proof until the dough double its size. Punch down the air in the dough and divide it into the portions you like, in my case 12 portions. Roll the dough into round balls, let it rest for 10 mins. 

Flatten the dough into circle shape, wrap in a piece of pastry cream filling, roll it up, seal the edge and seam site down on lined baking tray. Let it proof until double its size. Egg wash the bun dough. Pipe the pastry cream on the top of each bun in a circular motion, start from the centre top of the bun goes outward.

Bake in preheat oven at 180C for 15 mins or when the buns turned lightly brown. Let the buns cool on the wire rack.