Custard Cream Buns / Cream-Ppang/卡士达面包

These buns are not overly sweet, to make it a bit of a sweeter treat, you can just sift a bit of icing sugar over the cooked buns.

This custard buns are made with sourdough starter.😘This bread remains soft after few days in the fridge. Best to eat it when it's warm.😘

My cream buns were too big, and the cream filling👆 wasn't generously enough.😅

Custard Cream Buns / Cream-Ppang/卡士达面包

Ingredients:

Custard cream:

¼ cup flour

¼ cup sugar

1 cup milk

a pinch of salt

4 egg yolks, beaten and strained *(or 2 eggs, beaten)

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Bread dough:

1 tbsp (15g) unsalted butter

½ cup(120g) whole milk

¼ cup(55g) sugar

120g Surdough Starter ( discard or fed)

1g Yeast ( optional)*

1 egg (lightly whisk)

¼ tsp  salt

2 cups( 250g) all purpose wheat flour

Egg wash:

1 egg

2 tbsp water

* Or use milk to brush on dough

Directions:

Make custard cream:

1. Place the flour, sugar, milk, and salt in a pan. Whisk until there are no lumps.
2. Heat over medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon for about 3 to 4 minutes until bubbles start to pop up.
3. Reduce the heat to low or medium-low. Stir in the strained egg yolks a little by little, over 20 to 30 seconds.
4. Remove from the heat. Add the butter and vanilla extract and mix well. Let it cool and refrigerate until ready to use. You can refrigerate it for 1 or 2 days.

~ I forgot to take picture of making custard cream. 😅

Make dough:

1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy pot.
2. Remove from the heat. Add the milk and sugar. Mix well until all the sugar is dissolved.
3. Add the egg and mix it together. 
4. When the egg mixture is warm, add in the yeast and sourdough starter and let it rest for10 minutes.
5. Stir in the salt, add the flour, and mix all together with a wooden spoon until it turns into 1 lump.
6. Take it out and trasfer to stand mixer and knead the dough until it turns smooth and elastic.
7. Cover and let the dough to rise for about 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Make Buns:

1. Deflate the dough and knead it for a few minutes. Divide the dough into 6 pieces(100g each) and roll each piece into a smooth ball.* You can divide the dough into 10-12 pieces(60g or 50g each).Cover and rest for 15 minutes.
2. Place one dough onto the kneading board, thinly dust the surface with flour, and flatten the dough and shaping it into a flat oval.Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.
3. Place 1 heaped tablespoon of custard, fold in half to enclose pinching the edges. Make 3 or 4 slits, just ½ to 1 inch deep. Put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of dough. 
4. Let them rise for 1-1.5 hours or until doubled in size.
5. Preheat the oven to180°C.
6. Lightly brush the bread with some milk or egg wash. Bake the bread on the middle rack for 18 minutes.* the baking time depends on the size of bread.
7. However,  *remember to rotate the baking sheet when halfway baking to bake the surface evenly. Total baked for 18 minutes or until nicely brown.

Notes:

• The pastry cream easily spoils so use it by the next day.
• *I used 2 eggs to make the cream and I adviced to use egg yolks for making the cream, more fragrance and nice colour.
• You can bake them without filling. You can eat it as a sweet bun or apply some jam/ butter/ peanut butter or kaya.
• *If the baking time is too long, the moisture will evaporate, and the bread will dry out. It depends on your oven and the size of bread but the baking time should be around 18 minutes or below.
• *Added 1g of Yeast to help proofing go faster.

Happy Baking!