Sausage buns

Every time I walk past 'Breadtop', there is an ever-present mysterious mystical force urging me buy their yummy sausage buns as a snack for boss man and the toddler!  (that force is also known as childhood memory)  However, part of me always feel bad buying and eating them - it's the same guilty feeling as when I eat the yummy and yet "sinful" instant noodles! 

So when mum messaged me this cool recipe from her Chinese baking cookbook, I was determined to try because at least I can control the ingredients (some sausages are more sinful than the others). It was a success at first go!  So I think it's pretty forgiving for beginners. 

Now that I know what exactly goes in there, I feel more comfortable feeding this to my toddler. It is fun to make, delicious fresh out of the oven, and smells heavenly! No more 'Breadtop' buns for us!




Ingredients:

Sweet Bun Dough:

500g bread flour (High gluten flour)

1 satchet yeast (7g)

100g castor sugar

1 tsp salt

270ml water

50g butter (softened)

Filling:

20 cocktail sausages

Glazing:

1 egg lightly beaten 

sesame seeds

Method: 

1. Mix bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt in a mixing bowl. Slowly pour in water.

2. Use slow speed to knead the dough until gluten is formed- approx 10 minutes (can be pulled into thin sheet without tearing).

3. Add butter and knead till well combined.

4. Remove dough from mixing bowl, shape into a smooth ball and put into a greased bowl. Cover with damp cloth.

5. Leave aside to prove till double in bulk. To test, press with finger- the depression should rise up and back to shape.

6. Punch down and knead till smooth (approx 5-8 minutes).

7. Leave aside to rest for 15 minutes.

8. Divide into 20 equal portions. Shape each portion into a roll about 18cm long.

9. Wrap dough around sausage showing two ends.

10. Arrange sausage rolls on a baking tray. Leave to prove for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle on some sesame seeds 

11. Bake at 200°C till golden brown, about 12-15 minutes.

Tips:

1. The sweet bun dough is great for many types of fillings including chicken, sardine, red bean paste etc!

2. For sardine filling- mix 1 can of tomato sardine with 1 T of finely diced onions, and a pinch of sugar. Roll dough into flat circular round, place sardine filling in the middle, wrap up filling and form into balls.

3. Regarding Step 5: Leave dough to prove for at least 1.5 hours or as long as possible. There was once, I started the dough early in the morning, and completely forgotten about it till the end of the day... the dough got so huge and almost spilt over the bowl onto the kitchen counter. The silver lining was: it yielded the BEST and fluffiest bun ever!

Stuffed pumpkin flowers

Have you ever watch any cooking show (Jamie O?  Gordan R?) that teaches you to stuff stuffs in the delicate, paper-thin zucchini/pumpkin flowers and then deep fry them?  Ever wonder why so fancy?  And maybe sounding a bit pretentious?  I thought so too....

But not if you have lots of pumpkin flowers growing like weeds in my vege patch!!!

Growing zucchini/pumpkin was my goal at the community plot this year. These members of the cucurbita family LOVE sun, which was why it was something I can never achieve in my shady courtyard garden.

I harvested some gorgeous yellow pumpkin flowers today- they are the large yellow male flowers- without the baby pumpkins attached. And made stuffed pumpkin flowers for dinner. There were plenty of leftover prawn paste, so I made fried wontons as well!

Boss man and toddler gobbled everything up in 2 seconds. Thank goodness I managed a quick snap before serving.  They are not just fancy but actually tastes great!

Stuffed pumpkin flowers recipe (original version by Luke Nguyen here)

4 pumpkin flowers, stems intact with stamen removed

150g tiger prawns (shelled and deveined)

2 egg whites

1 cup potato starch (or cornflour)

1 T fish sauce

1 garlic clove, finely diced

Sprinkle of dried dill

Vegetable oil for deep frying

Pinch of salt & pepper

1. Pound prawns in mortar and pestle into fine paste. Mix in sprinkle of dried dill, fish sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.

2. Take a teaspoon of paste and stuffed gently into pumpkin flower petals.

3. Coat each flower with egg white, followed by potato starch.

4. Deep fry flowers until golden and crisp. Place on absorbent paper towel.

Yummy dipped in sauce (fish sauce + sugar + chilli + garlic + lemon)!