Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns - More Experiments

This is a very quick post to report back on my experiment on the Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns.

The last time I made these, I did not succeed in getting sufficient cream cheese filling into the buns. I repeated the last recipe and went for a simpler cream cheese filling formula. Chilled to get a firmer texture, I was able to portion a generous amount of cream cheese filling with an ice cream scoop. However, after baking, what started out to be a silky smooth cream cheese, took on a split and curdled appearance.

The buns were tasty though, especially when it is still warm from the oven. However, in terms of replicating Barcook's creamy cheese filling, this is not a success. It is baffling how Barcook's filling remains so smooth and silky even after baking... it is almost as if they injected the filling after the bread was baked. Most dairy products, may it be cream cheese or butter tend to curdle a little after baking. I tried a few different combinations of cream cheese / cream cheese spread/ mascarpone - all did not retain the silky creamy texture. After the last trial , I simply decided that the bakery must have used some form of processed cheese which is not available to us.

If you choose to use my last recipe for the sweet buns, the result of the buns will be similar to the bakery's - very soft, very easily squashed to yield a wrinkly appearance. (above photos)
If you prefer a bread with more structure, you can try the following sweet buns recipe and it will give you more structure. (See photo below)



Anyway, I think I've had enough of cream cheese buns for now and am satisfied enough as far as a home baked cream cheese bun is concerned.
For those who love this enough to experiment further, please keep me posted... :)


Recipe : (adapted from 65C Tangzhong Bread)

A. Water Roux
Bread flour           100g
Water                    500g

B.
Bread flour            228g
Plain flour             60g
Dried Yeast          6g
Castor sugar         30g
Salt                       3g

C.
Milk                     120g
Egg                      30g
A (Water Roux)   72g

D.
Unsalted butter     30g

E.
Dried Cranberry   50g ( I ran out of this so I omitted the berries for this exercise)

Method :
A. Water Roux
1. Mix flour and water in a saucepan and stir well with a whisk. Heat up the mixture in the saucepan gradually until temperature reaches 65 C , stirring all the time.
2. Remove the mixture from heat and continue stirring until water roux thicken. Stirring lines should be visible in the water roux.

Bread :
1. In a mixing bowl, mix B (except for salt) and C (except for water roux) and mix with a dough hook until the dough gathers to form a ball.

2. Add Water Roux from C. Continue mixing until dough gathers together. Add the salt from B.

3. Add butter and continue kneading for 15-20 mins on medium speed. The dough should no longer stick onto the wall of the mixing bowl. It should not be tacky when you tap on it with your fingers. Window pane test can be performed now by stretching the dough to form a thin pane. The stretched pane should not break. Add in cranberries at this stage.

4. Gather the dough and roll it into a ball and let it proof in a lightly oiled bowl for 40mins at room temperature.

5. Knead the dough slightly on a lightly floured board. Portion the dough into 40g portions. Roll each portion into a small ball and let it proof for 10mins.

6. Flatten each dough and scoop about 20-25g of cream cheese filling and seal the dough to form a round bun.

7. Place (6) on a lined baking pan and place another baking sheet over it. Proof the dough for 30mins.

8. Bake (6) together with baking sheet on top at 170C for 20mins. Cool down.

Cream Cheese Filling :

1. Cream 200g  of cream cheese with 50g of powdered sugar, 18g whipped cream and 1 tsp of vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Chill until firm before use.