Hong Kong Style Sausage Bun

Lately I have been crazy into making bread after visited Christine's blog and saw her success in making homemade bread using special Tang Zhong method. Tang zhong is a technique origin from Japan to create soft and fluffy bread.

Another motivation into making bread is that because Asian style breads and buns are selling expensively back in bread shops in Melbourne. Haha! Thus, I get my husband to get me a brand new bread maker which only cost us aud $69 and there it goes my exploration in making bread =)

HK Style Sausage Bun

Tang zhong method involves cooking flour with water over the heat till the batter reaches 65°C as a starter dough. Basically here is the recipe for HK Style Sausage bun. For more details on the steps and more Tang Zhong bread recipe, you can visit Christine's blog.

HK Style Sausage Bun Recipe ( Tang Zhong method)

Ingredients:

(A) Tang Zhong / Starter Dough

1. 50g bread flour
2. 250ml water

Method:

1. Mix the bread flour and water together until dissolved without any lump.
2. Heat up the mixture on the stove with medium heat. 
3. Keep stirring the mixture till it start to thicken. Mixture is ready when the temperature reach 65°C or alternative way to recognize is when lines is observed at the mixture during stirring.
4. Cover the mixture with cling wrap and keep it in refrigerator. Let the mixture return to room temperature before using it. It can be kept for 3 days.

(B) Main Ingredient

1. 350g bread flour (high protien flour)
2. 55g castor sugar
3. 5g salt
4. 1 egg
5. 125ml milk
6. 120g starter dough
7. 5-6g instant yeast
8. 30g butter

Method:

1.  Mix all the wet ingredients (except butter) and place it into bread maker/stand alone mixer.
2. The follow by all the dry ingredients. Draw a wall in the middle of the dry ingredients and put in the yeast.
3. Start mixing the dough using the bread maker (dough mode) / stand alone mixer. Kneading bread dough is not easy, therefore for this step, I used the bread maker to do the job. If you do not have a bread maker, you can use a powerful stand alone mixer like Kitchen Aid to knead the dough.
4. Add in the butter after 3-5 minutes of kneading.
5. Bread machine will knead the dough for 1 hour and do the 1st proofing for 1 hour. Different bread maker might have different settings.
6. When the dough is ready, poke a hole in the middle to release the gas. Knead the dough briefly and form the dough into a ball. 
7. Divide the dough into small size ball based on preferred size. Cover it with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 mins.
8. Shape the dough into a slim roll and roll it over to the sausage. Place the buns on a greased baking sheet, lightly cover with cling film, and let rise in a warm place until double in size.
9. Bake in preheated 190°C oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Last 5mins before the baking time end, brush in the egg wash on top.