寿桃 (Longevity Peach Bun)

Using the last recipe as a building block I made some changes to see if it improves the texture of the bread:
Dough:
100ml water
25g corn oil
125g Gold Medal unbleached Flour (10% protein)
125g Self Rising Flour (8.5% protein)
50g castor sugar
¾ tsp yeast

Filling:
Lotus paste, optional (avail from Sun Lik)

Red food colouring, optional

Method

1. Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well before adding the liquid and fat.
2. Knead until smooth. Leave it to rest for 30min.
3. Divide the dough into equal portion. Flatten and place some lotus paste onto the dough before wrapping it up. Rest 30min.
4. Steam over high heat for 8 mins. Serve warm.
   

I am using the peach mold which I picked up from Kitchen Capers' "storelette". Of course you can try shaping the bun into peach shape using your nimble hands but for a novice like me, the mould makes life much easier.

Once it is steamed and cooled, I used the red food colour + new paint brush to "paint" the peach. Like I always say, I am not cut to be an artist... a simple peach take me a long while to paint... I will need lots of practice, I know!

Learning:

• I used 60g dough + 25g lotus paste. By the time it is steamed, the peach puffed up like you see here. I will reduce the portion next time until I find the right amount.


• Once this is shaped, I left the dough in the mold all the way until it is steamed. Some of them have dents, some have "pimpled skin"... as a result of air trapped in the mold. Maybe taking it out of the mold will yield smoother & prettier dome. Again, I will report my learnings after the next attempt.


• Texture wise, this is still not the fluffiness that I am looking for. But my mum says "it's like that... outside sell one also hard until it re-steam it." Thanks Mum for the encouragement!

Anyway, I am still trying to read up on the chinese bun but I find the resources really limited... those that I managed to find are usually written in Chinese... due to unfamiliarity with the terms, I am struggling! Even after reading 3~4 times I still half understood. Sigh!

As usual if you have tips for me, pls leave me a comment. Thankie.