抹茶クリームパン (Matcha Cream Pan)

I have a looooooooooooooon backlog of baking posts to upload (since I've only been posting about my travelogues). I actually made these buns last year. Like waaaaaaaay last year. Heh.

 抹茶クリームパン (Matcha Cream Pan)

I love custard (the sweet kind, not the salty kind) and I love breads. Put them together and you've got an -insert shiny eyes expression- amazing combo. Surprisingly, it was hard to find a recipe for sweet custard buns on the Internet. And when I finally did,  I decided to adapt the recipe to incorporate my favourite matcha flavour.

Wrapping the custard

Pinch the dough together

Pre-bake; Post-bake

I must admit one wee lil thing. You know how the image above shows so much custard filling within the bun? I actually scooped all the custard from the other half of the bun, which means all of the custard filling for one bun, is shoved in the crevice of one half of a bun. Haha. That's cos when I cut the bread into half, the amount of custard is pretty little, so I totally recommending doubling the amount of custard recipe, so you'll get more custard per bun ratio.

Soft and pillow matcha buns, with a sweet matcha custard within. I was pretty sad I only made eight, as I had to share them with the family. While the cream pans were pretty tasty, I was irked that the custard texture was pretty grainy, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's time to remake at the recipe again for improvements!

Om nom nom

抹茶クリームパン (Matcha Cream Pan) (adapted from here)
(makes 8 buns)

Matcha custard filling
7/8 cup milk (195g)
28g unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
55g sugar
2 Tbsp (18g) flour
½ Tbsp (5g) matcha powder
1 Tbsp (7g) cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Heat milk and butter in a saucepan till warm.
Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl and whisk lightly. Add the sugar, flour, matcha powder, cornstarch and salt. Whisk to form a paste.
Temper the matcha paste with the warmed milk mixture, whisking lightly. Whisk the custard mixture till sugar has melted.
Transfer custard mixture back into saucepan and cook over med heat, stirring constantly.
When mixture has thickened to a pudding-like texture, remove from heat, whisk in vanilla.
Strain the mixture into a bowl. Cover with clingwrap and refrigerate for a few hours till cold.

Matcha bread dough
130g bread flour
10g matcha powder
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
20g unsalted butter, room temp
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup (55g) tangzhong
½ egg (I used a large egg, then used 30g of the lightly beaten mixture)
¼ cup milk (55g)

Combine bread flour, matcha powder and active dry yeast in a bowl. Whisk together lightly.
Add sugar, butter, salt, tangzhong, egg and milk. Use the mixer (with dough hook attachment) and knead for about 10-15 minutes or until a smooth dough forms.
Transfer to a clean bowl. Cover with kitchen cloth, leave to proof for about an hour till dough doubles in size.
Punch down the dough, and let it rise for another half an hour.
Divide the dough into eight equal size balls (I used a weighing machine to do so).
Weigh the custard cream and divide into eight equal size portions.
Take a dough ball, flatten and place in a small cup. Put the matcha custard in the middle, and pinch the dough together (refer to pictures above).
Place seam side down onto a baking paper lined baking tray. Repeat with remaining dough and custard.
Cover with kitchen towel, let rise for another half an hour to an hour.
Preheat oven to 170C.
Brush the tops of the buns with egg wash, bake for 10-15 minutes till brown.
Cool buns on cooling rack. You can choose to eat it warm, or wait till it cools completely and store in airtight container.