小牛芝麻包 | Cow Sesame Buns

December 28, 2020

2021 will be the year of cow/bull, so I am sharing recipe for homemade sesame buns in CUTE cow shape 🙂 Sesame fillings, sesame buns, decorations are all made from scratch. This time the bun was over-proofed due to long decoration time, will need to decrease total number of bun made next time!

QUICK TAKEAWAYS

grounds nuts added to sesame fillings gives an extra kick
butter and water in fillings give flowy texture
if used baking powder, do not over-proof buns, especially when buns need decorations that is time-consuming. Over-proofed bun or too much baking power will turn buns into brown color :<
decoration dough would dry out if rest too long as well, so might need to decrease the amount of buns made each time to decorate on time and not over-proof.

RECIPE

Ingredients for 15 buns:

Sesame Fillings (20g per bun, 8g per Tangyuan):

80g sesame powder
20g grounded peanuts
10g grounded cashews or choice of nuts
60g or less sugar
60g or less butter
30g water
butter and water give fillings the flowy texture

Sesame Buns (35 – 40g per bun):

350g All Purpose flour
10g yeast
28g sugar
28g sesame powder
7g baking powder (or less, might make bun yellow/brown if over-proofed)
175g water
10g ghee/lard

Decorations:

1g yeast
80g All Purpose flour
35g water

PART I: Sesame Fillings

Step 1: Mix 80g sesame powder, 20g grounded peanuts, 10g ground cashews, 60g sugar in food processor

Step 2: Add mixture to 60g melted butter and 30g water

Step 3: Store in fridge for filling to set, easier to work with when fillings become semi-solid

PART II: Sesame Buns

Step 1: Mix 350g AP flour, 10g yeast, 28g sugar, 28g sesame powder, (7g baking powder) and 175g water, knead for 5mins

Step 2: Add 10g ghee/lard to dough mix, knead till ghee blends in dough, rest for 10-15mins

Step 3: Roll dough out to rectangle, fold along the long side, rotate 90 degree, roll dough out to rectangle, fold for 3 times in total.

this step creates smooth bun texture

Step 4: Roll out to rectangle one last time, roll from the bottom to top as a roll; even out dough cylinder

Step 5: Divide dough into 40g per portion

PART III: Decorations

Step 1: Mix 1g yeast, 80g AP flour and 35g water, knead well

Step 2: Divide dough into 4 parts in ration of 10:10:2:1, add food colors and rest

for example, my dough was 122g, I divided into:
- 2g for white: cow eyes
- 10g for black: cow eyes, nose
- 55g for yellow: flowers, cow horns
- 55g for pink: flower stamen, cow cheeks and nose

Step 3: Shape for yellow flowers, horn, pink stamen, cheeks, nose, eyes and nose, and eyes