‘Brownied’ Cream-Cheese Matcha Brioche Buns (almost fat free with vegan option)

Which idiot buys a birthday present for her/himself?

Me.

A borsch MUM 4600 kitchen machine (wiped out SGD$149.00 from my savings)

And a wise decision it was. This baby was down for half-price and I figured since I was nowhere near getting my yellow kitchenaid, this would do for now. My little brother helped me to carry it home. I paid him for his service with a bottle of sugarcane water and sausage croissants.

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Exams begin on Thursday. i.e. in 2 days’ time.

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In preparation, I had non-home-cooked food for the past 2 weeks… and got myself 3 uncomfortable days of diarrhoea. It was a horrendous 3 days.

In a desperate attempt to avoid all non-home-cooked-food yet satisfy my intense craving for sweets,  I made these sweet delicious buns.

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They were supposed to taste like Asian buns, but because I added LOTS of cream cheese, it tasted uncannily like brioche.  Oops.

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the ‘brownied‘ cinnamon-roll-look-alikes-(or-not?)

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The lady of the house just came back from Beijing, China and bought some lovely goodies!

You are looking at the cutest (non-living) pandas EVER!

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and these, my friends, are PENS! So lovely, aren’t they! 😀

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Brownied Matcha ‘Brioche’ Buns

No. of servings: 6

(adapted from Christine’s Recipes)

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Tangzhong preparation method: Mix 20 grams of bread flour and 100 grams of water together and stir until flour is completely dissolved. Heat mixture over a stove in a saucepan at medium-low heat. Keep mixing until until a swirl of your spoon leaves a trail. Immediately pour mixture into a separate bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate till tangzhong reaches room temperature or you can leave it overnight/a few hours before using (for better results some say)

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Ingredients

For bread dough

• 100g bread flour
• 75g wholewheat pastry flour
• 22g black/brown sugar (5 tsp)
• 2.5g salt (1/2 tsp)
• 63 ml milk (1/2C)
• 60 gm tangzhong (refer to this recipe for making tangzhong)
• 1 heaping tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)
• 25g cream cheese (I used low fat)
• 1 tsp matcha powder

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Filling

(adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie)

• 1/3c + 1/4c wholewheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/16 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp chocolate rice
• 2T brown sugar (20g)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2T plus 2 tsp milk (any kind), or more if needed (40g)

Mix your dry ingredients, then add in wet. You can use it as the filling for the bun or roll it up into dough like a cinnamon roll!

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Directions

Add all ingredients  into the mixer bowl of a stand mixer.

Mix at speed 2 for 10-15 minutes until smooth dough that passes windowpane test is formed.

Shape the dough into a smooth round and place in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise till double in volume for about 80mins.

Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Press out the trapped air as your knead.

Divide into 50g portions and shape into balls.

Cover with cling wrap, let the doughs rest for 15mins.

Shape buns.

Place doughs on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper. Loosely cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let dough proof for 30mins.

Bake at preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack

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This post is going to YEASTSPOTTING!!!

I’M ALSO SUBMITTING THIS TO : ASPIRING BAKERS #8 : BREAD SEDUCTION (JUNE 2011)

YAY! Thank you Jasmine of The Sweetylicious for hosting the event!

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By the way, the pictures in this post are the NICEST I’ve ever posted because after a (very long) year, I’ve (finally) cleverly realised that the camera has a ‘super macro’ function.

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Grrr….

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