Assorted Luncheon Meat & Cheese Buns

We ran out of bread, so i figured it'd be the best excuse to hit the oven again.

This time, my tastebuds are lingering for some good old luncheon meat buns (no luncheon meat here, only spam but just as good. The Wife absolutely loves spam!). I remember that luncheon meat buns were (together with sugared ring/satay stick donuts, pandan chiffon & marble cakes) the mainstay of confectioneries in my younger days but they got replaced with sausages over time. these days, in fanciful bread boutiques a simple sausage bun will most likely set you back almost $2. before we left, we actually chanced upon a stall in serangoon central food market (not chomp chomp, it's the one diagonally oppposite) which sells 5 mini soft chewy-doughy luncheon meat buns for $2.50, incidentally the boss calls them burger buns). so for those of you going for a cheap bite of nostalgia, you might wanna check that out.

i made some 20 buns (16 spam, 4 cheese). following recipe adapted from Jia Lei Confectionery's website.

ingredients:

• plain flour (original recipe called for bread flour. essentially bread flour has more gluten so it's what makes your bread more chewy. i find that plain/all purpose flour works just fine) - 500g
• butter - 30 g
  
• yeast (i used those instant yeast. abt 3 tsp) - 12.5 g
• water - 230 g
• sugar (i used raw sugar) - 90 g
• milk powder (The Wife let me use Avery's milk powder. about 3 baby tin scoops) - 15 g
• 2 eggs (1 to mix, 1 for brush)
  
• salt - 1/2 tsp
• spam, cut to fingers
• hard (cheddar) cheese, cut to small slabs
  

recipe:

• whisk egg and yeast together
• mix in remaining ingredients to form a dough and knead for about 8-10 mins (make sure that dough is not too wet / dry. dough when kneaded should feel 'chewy and bouncy'and not stick to your hands
• brush bowl with some oil and leave dough in bowl for proving
  
• cover with a damp cloth and leave aside to prove for 20 min
• after 1st proving, divide the dough into small portions, approx palm size ball (ok i have small hands). you shld bear in mind that the dough will continue to rise after shaping and will spring furter in the oven
• for spam buns: roll out and coil dough around each spam fingers
• for cheese buns: roll out, put in cheese slabs and pinch to close like making a 'bao'
• line baking tray with grease paper and sprinkle some flour on it before laying buns on pan. leave ample space between the buns for it to spring in the oven
  
• brush with 1 beaten egg
• leave aside to prove for 1 hour
• preheat oven at 200°C
  
• bake for 12 mins at 200°C. i realised that such dough relies on the high sugar content and high heat to provide rapid spring. so the dough will 'grow' very fast in the oven. since its my 1st time at baking such dough, i had underestimated the rate of spring in the oven, thus most of the buns had more 'bread' than filling.
• remove from the oven and set to cool. original recipe suggested brushing surface with melted butter before serving, but i thought they looked good enough as they are
  

the buns were surprising easy to make. The Wife and kiddo liked it and we'd enough for me to dunk into milo for supper later.