Panda Bread Bun

I've another panda bread bun recipe to share. I used a different bread recipe this time. Post is a little overdue, made them during the school holidays, but did not get to sort out the photos and recipe till now.


Pandas lazing around. Have you been to the River Safari to see the pandas before? There's a pair of pandas at the Singapore zoo and they are called Kai Kai and Jia Jia. We've seen them a couple of times, Kai Kai is always sleeping and Jia Jia is always hidding in her room. I only managed to see both of them walking and eating once, lol.


This bread recipe is different from the Japanese milk buns, it taste good too. You can also use my previous Japanese milk bun panda recipe to make these if you like.

I made a little bear too. :) I missed baking bread, but a little hard to bake any on school days as I'm in and out of the house throughout the day, chauffeuring my boys around.


PANDA BREAD BUN RECIPE

Ingredients:

Bread Flour 250g
Instant Yeast 3g
Water 150ml
Sugar 8g
Butter 5g
Salt 3g
Cocoa Powder 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients, except butter, in a large bowl to get a dough. Add in butter and knead until dough is springy and soft, this takes around 10 minutes. If you have a bread maker, you can just use the dough function for this step, as well as step 2.

2. Cover the dough with cling wrap and keep in a warm place for it to rise. This takes around an hour and the dough should double in size. Do the finger test to ensure dough is ready.

3. Dust your work table with some flour, place dough on it. Punch out the air from the dough with your fist. Divide the dough into 5 portions.

4. Take one portion and mix in 1 tbsp of cocoa powder, knead till it's evenly mixed. You can add in more if the colour is not dark enough. 

5. If you are shaping a full size panda, divide each portion of white dough into half. Roll small balls for ears, hands, eyes, nose and legs from the cocoa dough. Cover with cling wrap and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

6. Roll out bread dough and shape them again, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, 

7. Cover with cling wrap and let dough rise for 30 minutes.
8. Bake at 170 degrees celcius for around 10 to 12 minutes.