Project: green tea melon pan

EN

Today I have a bun recipe for you guys and it is one of my favorites at Asian bakeries as well: the Japanese melon pan/bread/bun (メロンパン). It is basically a soft bread bun covered with sweet cookie dough crust on top. A nice texture between soft and hard. Me personally would also call these melon pans the Japanese pineapple buns, referring to our own Chinese pineapple buns (菠蘿包).

When I first ate the melon pan I thought there would be actual melon flavor to it but nope. It is called melon pan mainly for it shape and pattern. At least the original melon pan because nowadays you can have it different flavors too such as green tea! Like my recipe in today's blogpost. I hope you guys try out because bread making seems to be difficult, but it really is ok and fresh bread straight of the oven are the best thing in the morning am I right?

NL

Hoera een recept! Dit keer laat ik zien hoe je een van mijn favorieten broodjes maakt, namelijk de:  Japanse melon pan/brood (メロンパン). Ik koop ze graag bij Aziatische bakkerijen want ze zijn overheerlijk! Het is eigenlijk een doodgewoon zoet broodje met een laag koekjesdeeg aan de bovenkant. Een textuur van zacht en hard dus. Persoonlijk noem ik deze melon pan ook wel de Japanese ananasbroodje, inderdaad een verwijzing naar onze eigen Chinees ananasbroodje (菠蘿包).

Toen ik voor het eerst een hap nam van de melon pan dacht ik dat het naar meloen zal smaken maar nopes. Het broodje heeft de naam gekregen puur vanwege de vorm en patroon. Althans de originele melon pan want tegenwoordig kun je in vele smaken verkrijgen, zoals in de groene thee smaak wat ook in het recept van vandaag aanwezig is! Ik hoop dat je deze uitprobeert en bakt! Niks is zo fijn als versgebakken brood in de ochtend nietwaar? 

❝Zweef
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voor Nederlandse
vertaling!
Ingredients
bread
225 gr plain flour/bread flour
25 gr cake flour
2 tbsp. green tea powder
110 ml lukewarm water
5 gr dry yeast
80 gr sugar
20 gr butter
15 ml vegetable oil
1 egg whipped
pinch of salt

cookie dough
140 gr cake flour
40 ml milk
30 gr cold butter
4 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. green tea powder
I always prefer to hand knead my breads. It also has a therapeutic effect at least to me.
The type of sugar I have used is coconut sugar actually. A great healthy alternative for the refined white sugar.
The cookie dough
No melon pan without a good layer of cookie dough on top.
I have actually cut the cookie dough in half to create two different flavors but this is of course optional.
Remember to roll out the cookie dough that is bigger than the bread dough itself, otherwise you`ll have a misshapen melon pan or a melon pan with half cookie dough on top like this one. #learnfromyourmistakes
Buns goes in the oven
Just 4 at a time since I know the bread will poof up inside the oven.
Fresh bread straight out of the oven are the best. Always.
It`s so fluffy!
The Steps
Make the cookie dough
1. Mix everything in a bowl until it forms a solid but still workable dough. Shape it into a ball, flatten, wrap it around with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 30 min.

Make the melon pan/bread
1. In a large bowl add: plain flour, cake flour, green tea powder and pinch of salt. In a another smaller bowl add: the lukewarm water along with the instant yeast and sugar and let it dissolve and until the yeast foam up.
2. Add the egg, oil and the water-yeast mixture to the flour mixture - combine and knead to form a dough. Transfer the dough to a clean flat surface and continue kneading for around 5 min.
3. Add the butter and continue to knead to dough. It will look very messy at the start with the butter but the butter will slowly but surely absorb into a dough and will turn into a smooth, elastic dough. Knead, drop, pinch the dough for 10 min. Shape dough into a ball and cover the dough in a bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it doubled in room temperature.
4. Press all the gas out of the bread dough and knead it lightly for a min or so. Divide the dough into 6-8 portions, depending how many or how large you want. Shape the dough pieces into a bowl and place it on a baking tin + baking paper, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest and rise for 30 min. Meanwhile prepare the cookie dough.
5. Divide the cookie dough in 6-8 pieces (same amount as the bread). Place a piece of cookie dough between 2 plastic wrap and roll it out to 3 mm thickness. This will prevent the cookie dough stick to the rollerpin. CAUTION: the cookie dough should be bigger than the bread dough.
6. Place the flatten cookie dough on top of the bread dough to cover, then dip the cookie dough side in the sugar to create sugarcoat. Create crisscross pattern on top with a dough scraper or a knife. Place them back on the baking tray and let it rest and poof up for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180℃
7. Bake the melon bread for 15 min in the preheated oven. Remove the melon bread from the oven and let it cool down. Enjoy!

Comments

  1. Looks delicious :)
    I will definitely try this one out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I call them pineapple buns! But I guess the green colour would make the name "melon bun" more appropriate :D Can always count on you to matcha-fy everything! -Audrey | Brunch at Audrey's

    ReplyDelete
  3. These look so yummy!
    I didn't know a melon pan has a cover!!

    akiko
    www.akikohiramatsu.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh that's genius! I've never thought about how you would make those.

    ReplyDelete

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