Filled Bread with Water-Roux Method

I always love Asian type of bread. It is soft and most of the time we can find it filled with different kinds of fillings, either sweet or savoury. I also love European bread, which is usually tougher outside but also soft inside.

It is quite difficult to find a good Asian bread here. Only a couple of stores sell Asian bread. In our city, where we live now, we can buy it from Asian store (in the refrigerator area), or in one of the restaurant near the Saturday open market at Woenselsemarkt. However, the last few times we bought the breads, my husband complained critized the bread that it was a bit on the dry side than it should be. He said, that we should not buy it as often as before and suggested me to make them myself.

It is not that I do not want to fullfilled his wish, but this is quite a chore for me. Remembering that I am also working 4 days a week and use 1 day to accompany the childrens. The older one is only going to school until midday that mamadag and the younger one does not go to the daycare that day.

However, in order to fullfilled the whole family request and craving for the Asian type filled bread, and since we planned to go to the Efteling (a Dutch popular theme park) on the 2nd of August 2014, I planned to make the bread ahead.

I used one night after the children went to bed to make the water-roux dough and keep it in the refrigerator. The next night I made the bread dough and proved the dough in the refrigerator overnight. And the last night before we went to the Efteling, I finish the bread. The breads were ready just before midnight and two of them were gone in a second.

For the bread recipe, I have tried some versions of recipe. This one is using water-roux. My grandmother always said that it was "biang" method since it is made using "biang" (water-roux). Biang is Indonesian word, I think. My grandmother used to make the bread without the wonder of the modern technology such as my high power Kenwood machine. I guess, she was a super woman. I have tried to make bread without an electronic standing mixer and have to beat the dough on the kitchen table very hard for a very long time. Luckily, my husband gave me a nice birthday present two years ago, a nice shiny industrious kitchen machine from Kenwood.

The recipe is adapted from Christine's recipe. However, since I could not do the whole process in one go, I looked to the blog of Linda. She has an amazing blog and she gave me the idea to divide the work in a few days. So, I can now do the bread making process during the evenings after the children go to bed.

For the filling of the breads, that we brought to the park, I bought 1 can of red bean paste (ready to use type - in a can) that is also used to fill other type of Asian snack and dessert. I also used sausages and banana-and-cheese filling. You can choose to use other fillings of your liking or your own creation.


Filled Asian Bread with – Tangzhong (water-roux) method
Makes around 16 breads
Ingredients

For the tangzhong (water roux) - Note: my grandmother called it "biang" in Indonesians

• 25 g bread flour
• 125 ml milk

For the bread dough

• 125 ml milk
• 6 gram instant yeast *I usually used all 7 gram yeast from an instant yeast package
• 50 g sugar
• 350 g bread flour*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 or 2 eggs, depends on the size (around 56 gram), beaten
• 1 tablespoon dried milk powder - optional *I usually never add this
• all of the tangzhong (water roux) or around 120 g
• 30 g melted butter, cooled

To brush

• 1 egg, beaten

Method
1. Prepare the tangzhong (water-roux), in advanced. Mix the bread flour and milk in a pan, until it is well mixed.
2. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat. Stir it constantly with a whisk or spatula until it becomes thicker. When you see lines behind the whisk or spatula trail, remove it from the heat.
3. Place the tangzhong in a small bowl and cover it with cling film (plastic wrap). The plastic wrap should stick directly onto the roux to prevent it from drying. Let it cool for a few hours or put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the dough.

4. To make the dough, combine all dough ingredient (note: this can be done because the yeast used here is instant yeast) except the butter in the stand mixer bowl. Add the tangzhong/water-roux into the bowl. Using the hook attachment, knead the ingredients until you get a dough form and the gluten begins to develop.

5. Knead in the butter until it the dough is smooth and does not stick to the wall of the bowl and to your hand. To double check if the gluten has developed enough, you can stretch the dough. If the dough can be stretched easily to form a thin membrane, and you can light through the membrane, then the dough is ready.

6. Shape the dought into a ball shape and lightly oil the dough (I usually forget to oil it and it still works good for me). Put it back into the bowl, cover with cling film (plastic wrap) and place it in the refrigerator to proof until the next day or until it's doubled in size. As an alternative, proof it in a warm environment (the best is 28 degree Celcius) for 1 hour, or until it's doubled in size.

7. The next day (it was around 24 hours in my case, but sometimes 12 hours is also enough), take the dough out from the refrigerator and let it rest for 30 minutes (skip this step if you’ve done a warm prove instead of the refrigerator prove). Punch down the dough and roll into a long shape. Cut into 16 equal size pieces (around 43-47 grams per piece).

8. Roll the dough into a thin layer and fill in the dough with filling.
9. Cover the filling with the dough and pinch the edges and press it to make sure that the filling will not leak out.

10. Carefully pinch up the edges and press together, ensuring the filling is well sealed.
11. Place the pressed side down onto the baking trays lined with baking paper. Cover them with damp tea towel and let them rest for around 1 hour for last proving. (I sometimes use cling wrap to cover them and keep them in a warm cabinet. At least that method works for me).

12. Preheat oven to 180°C.
13. Brush the top of the bread with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. I usually bake two trays with upper and below heat sources and exchange the positions of the trays halfway the baking time.

My husband and children love these little breads. The red bean paste filling is not the favorite of the children, however. But they love the banana-cheese and BBQ pork (char siu) fillings. Next time I will post the BBQ pork filling bread.

The trip to the Efteling was fun. We loved it and we even stayed there until almost 10PM. It was summer anyway and the children spent a couple hours nap time on the bycicle cart that we brought along. We ate the breads for our lunch and snack, but we decided to try the pasta bought in one of the restaurants in the park. Patrick (our oldest) could even finish 1 plate of pasta (he even hijacked mine). However, Timothy spent more nap time and woke up for a sausage bread (but this one was bought in the park). But, after that he was very excited to take pictures with the fairies.

With this success, I am determine to make my own bread more often for the children lunch.