Little Miss Bento

Planning to bake over the weekend? Try this soft and delicious Japanese bread buns – Kawaii Apple Bread Buns with Chocolate filling.

This fluffy bread buns were a huge success. My colleagues who ate the bread buns agreed that the soft texture is of the same standard like those Japanese bread buns you find at Provence bakery. Wah~~ that was a huge compliment for me. 

Since I did not make bento today, I wanted to share with you this bread recipe.

To knead the dough, I used my Panasonic Bread Maker SD-P104 which has reliably given me good bread dough. If you do not have a bread maker, you can choose to hand knead the dough. I do however prefer using my bread maker these days as the end result of the bread is of more a softer texture.

Ingredients for bread
bread flour 280g
sugar 36g
egg 25g (*save the remaining egg for egg wash)
milk 140ml
water 20ml
butter 50g
pink food coloring (I use icing gel colors)
dark chocolate squares
biscuits sticks (I used Japanese pocky sticks)
sweet potato (You can also use apple slices) *note that the sweet potato should be semi cooked before baking, if not it will not fully cook through during the baking process
instant dry yeast 1tsp

Tools required
brioche tin cups 8 pcs
leaf cutter

Method

1. Install blade in the bread pan of the Pansonic Bread Maker.
2. Mix some pink coloring with the milk.
3. Add in sieved flour, salt, sugar, egg, and unsalted butter. The pour in the milk and water around the sides.
4. Put the bread pan into the main body of the bread maker machine. Close the first lid.
5.  Pour the dry yeast into the yeast dispenser. Close the top lid.
6. Select Menu ’9′. Press ‘Start’. It will take about 1 hour.
7.  When you hear the beep sounds, press ‘Stop’
8. Remove the bread pan from the bread maker machine and take out the bread dough. Transfer the bread dough to your worktop.
9. Divide the bread dough into 8 even parts, and shape into round balls. Cover with a lint free damp cloth and let it rest for 45-60mins.
10. Roll out the round ball,wrap about 3 chocolate squares inside the bread bun and place them in a brioche tin cup. You can omit this if you do not have the cups, you can just shape them into round balls.
11. Let the bread rest for another 15-20 mins. Then you can stick a biscuit stick into the centre, add some boiled and cut sweet potato (leaf-shape). Brush on some egg wash.
12. Bake the bread at 170C-180C for  15-18mins until nicely browned.