Bo Lo Bao (波萝包)

The girls are on their half-term break so I'm rather idle this week. Besides baking, I had extra time for haircut, pedicure & bread making too !

I tried a new recipe for Bo Lo Bao yesterday. Found this recipe while surfing the net some time ago, printed it out & stuck it to my recipe collection book. I think I've tried making these buns before long time ago, couldn't remember the outcome.

The original recipe is in mandarin, I've translated it to English :

Dough :

330g High protein flour
4g Yeast
50g Sugar
33g Egg
50g Cream cheese
175g Milk
40g Butter

In a mixer bowl, combine all ingredients, except butter, mix till it comes to a ball. Add butter & continue mixing until the dough is smooth & elastic, let rise for an hour.

Prepare the topping while the bread dough is rising :

60g butter
60g Icing sugar
1g salt
42g Egg
5g Milk powder
110-120g High protein flour

Cream butter, icing sugar & salt till creamy, add egg gradually, followed by milk powder & high protein flour, until the mixture comes to a ball. Divide the mixture into 16x 16g balls & set aside.

When the dough has risen, punch down, divide into 16x40g balls & round up. Flatten each ball of topping & place it on top of a dough ball. Place on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper, let proof again for 30mins. Bake in a preheated oven of 190C for 18 mins.

* I chill the topping while waiting for the dough to rise as I find them sticky & difficult to work with in our hot climate. This is a plain bun recipe, I prefer to have the bun with a piece of butter , rather than with filling in it. I'm not good with shaping & wrapping the bun with the topping, that's why mine look far from those in bakery shops. Nevertheless, I'm sure they are healthier than store bought ones as they do not contain any bread softener nor preservatives. My girls love these buns......