Melon Pan Bread Recipe - How to Make Melon Pan Buns

Melon pan, melon bread, or melon bun is a popular Japanese bread (also popular in Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc) that's basically buns covered in a crunchy cookie crust. Interesting, eh? The method for making these melon pan buns seemed a bit complicated when I read the recipe but once I started making them on a Saturday morning, I realised it's really nothing but making a basic bread dough, some cookie dough, and layering them before baking. The resultant buns were soft inside and crunchy outside, a perfect tea (or coffee) time snack.

The criss-cross design on the buns make it super adorable and I chose to make them into smaller, almost two-bite-sized buns. While they are best eaten fresh and preferably warm out of the oven, you can warm them slightly before serving if keeping them for the next day. I don't recommend storing these buns beyond 2 days.

If you are looking for more simple bakes, check out these eggless garlic rolls, Indian pav, or just browse all bread recipes so you can pick for yourself.

MELON PAN BREAD RECIPE

Preparation time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 10 small buns
Recipe adapted from various sources

INGREDIENTS:

For bread dough:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
2 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold water
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp sugar
25gm butter, at room temperature
For cookie dough:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
A large pinch of salt
60gm butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar (this makes a sweet bun)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar for dusting (I used raw sugar)

INSTRUCTIONS:

To make the bread dough, whisk together the flour, powdered milk, yeast, and salt in the bowl (or the bowl of your stand machine if using one). In a smaller bowl, beat the egg and cold water together with a fork till well blended. Add this to the flour mixture in the bowl.
Knead (on low speed in the machine) till it all come together as a dough and then (on medium speed) until you have a somewhat stiff dough.

Add the sugar and knead well.

Now add the soft butter and knead (first at slow speed and then on medium) until the butter is completely incorporated into the dough and the dough becomes smooth and elastic. I transferred it to a board dusted with flour and kneaded by hand for 5 mins until it became soft.

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and keep covered in a warm place for an hour or until about 50% puffed up.

While the dough rises, make the cookie dough. In a bowl, cream the soft butter and sugar till well combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat till combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and add this to the bowl. Mix together until just combined.

Shape the dough into a cylinder (this will make the dough easy to divide and cut out later), and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate the dough until required.

Once the bread dough has risen, take it out of the bowl, flatten it gently with your fingers, and divide into equal balls. You can decide the size of the buns at this time.

Take out the cooke dough from the refrigerator and cut into equal pieces. Place each piece between two pieces of cling film and press down with the bottom of a small round container. This will form a dish of cooke dough (keep it to about 1/4" thickness).

Make smooth balls of the dough and place the cooke disc over it. Press over gently and bring to the bottom so the dough ball is mostly covered.

Dip this in sugar until generously coated.

Make criss-cross patterns with a knife, making sure it's deep enough to reach down to the dough layer inside (or else the dough will rise and the pattern will be lost). Repeat with all dough balls and cookie dough discs. Place on a greased or lined baking sheet. Let this rise for another hour.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 350F/180C. Bake the risen buns for 15-20 mins (longer if you shaped them larger) or until the top turns a light golden brown.

Serve warm.

Notes:
This video gives an idea of how to knead, shape, and make the buns. The recipe used above is a bit different
You can add chocolate chips to the bread dough for a variation. Adding lemon zest to the cookie dough gives it a nice zing too
Melon Pan Bread is this month's bread of choice of the We Knead to Bake Group managed by Aparna

Apple Cinnamon Rolls - Easy Low Fat Apple Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Apples and cinnamon are a match made in heaven and while I am not a huge fan of cinnamon playing the major role in any dish, it does bring out the subtle flavours of apple and its inherent sweetness. I have been wanting to make some sweet cinnamon rolls for the longest time and even had a never-ending long list of bookmarks just for sweet bread rolls. Typical to my nature, I overlooked all those bookmarks and adapted this from an entirely new recipe. I had to use up all those freshly picked Aussie Apples from my apple picking trip to Bilpin.

While making breads, I often find that the amount of flour mentioned in many recipes is too little for my dough. I have even ended up adding more than double the amount of flour mentioned in the original recipe which really baffles me. Even if you factor in flour type and humidity and what not, it still shouldn't be that different. But anyway, this is just a word of caution for those who are trying this recipe - start from the lowest quantity of flour I have mentioned and add more only if your dough needs it.

The good news is that these apple cinnamon rolls are really fail-proof. i ended up messing up the filling and it was way too watery and I just wrapped everything up into a gloopy muddle of rolls and they still emerged golden, fragrant, and fluffy from the oven.

I love making bread rolls in a round pan because of the shape they bake up in but you can use a loaf tin, square pan, pretty much anything you want, just ensure it's the right size to fit your rolls comfortably and allowing enough rising space before baking.

These rolls would go fabulous with some caramel sauce but I didn't want to add any more sugar or fat than necessary so this is pretty much a low-fat albeit less 'interesting' version of apple cinnamon rolls.

Also check out one of my most popular recipes, the eggless garlic rolls, the adapted eggless pesto rolls, and this amazing eggless garlic cheese pull apart bread recipe.

APPLE CINNAMON ROLLS RECIPE

Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 8 rolls
Dough recipe adapted from: Gimme Some Oven

INGREDIENTS:
2.5 cups of flour
1 tsp of instant yeast
1/4 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar (I used raw sugar)
1/2 cup of milk (any kind)
1/2 of a beaten egg
2 tbsp of butter, at room temperature
2 cups of small cubes of apple (no need to peel)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon powder

INSTRUCTIONS:

0. Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C. Grease a pie or loaf pan with some melted butter and set aside.

1. Add 2 cups of the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer (see below for kneading by hand) and with the dough hook on, mix gently on low speed until combined.

2. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the milk and butter together until warm. When you insert a finger in this mixture, you should be able to withstand the heat. Add this and half an egg to the flour mixture and run the stand mixer on low speed until the dough comes together.

3. If the dough is very sticky and seems too moist, add more flour as needed. I needed the entire 2.5 cups but you may not. Transfer this dough to a floured surface and gently knead in with your palm until it's not super sticky anymore.

4. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap or a plate, and set aside in a warm place to rise for 30-40 mins.

5. Meanwhile, heat a pan and add the chopped apples. On low heat, cook until they turn slightly soft, taking care not to cook the apples to a mush. I added the cinnamon and brown sugar at this stage but realised it made the filling extremely watery. A better option would be to layer it on the dough before rolling so ignore my slightly irrelevant pictures below and follow the procedure I am explaining. As I always say, just learn from my mistakes :)

6. Once the dough has been rested for 30-40 mins, lightly punch it down and roll into a long oval. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and layer it all over the dough evenly (as mentioned, I added it to the apples so ignore the below picture in terms of how the filling looks).

7. Layer the cooked apples evenly over the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. In my picture below you can see what happens when the filling is too watery - I made quite a mess when rolling.

8. Roll the dough with the filling inside and cut into 8 pieces. Lay it on the greased pan cut side down. Mine look all wonky due to the watery filling!

9. Lightly cover with cling wrap and set aside for another 30-40 mins until the dough has puffed up again like below.

10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 mins or until the top turns a lovely golden brown. I find that breads usually brown too much on top in my oven so I loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil while baking. Try this if you have the same issue.

Yum! The rolls will be super fragrant and comes out of the oven looking gorgeous. I brushed some melted butter on the hot rolls as soon as they came out of the oven.

Best eaten warm and on the same day but these apple cinnamon rolls lasted 2 days in an air tight container at room temperature for me. Note that Sydney is not very hot or humid so if you live in a warm place, refrigerating and then re-heating in the oven or microwave just before serving is a better option.

NOTES:

1. If you want to knead the dough by hand, follow the same procedure as above. It will be a bit annoying since the dough is quite sticky and you will need to knead (heh) for about 10 mins or so to get the right consistency
2. Adding some caramel sauce over the rolls would be a great move, so go for it if you feel so inclined
3. These also make great breakfast rolls, that's what I did with my leftovers
4. I don't like a very heavy cinnamon flavour but if you do, increase the amount of cinnamon by another 1/2 tsp or so
5. You can use any type of apples in this recipe although granny smith would probably work best
6. The Feburary theme in the We Knead to Bake group started by Aparna was to bake anything we like so these apple cinnamon rolls are my contribution

Focaccia Caprese Recipe - How to Make Focaccia Bread - Step by Step

Learn how to make Focaccia Caprese, a type of focaccia bread that has fresh tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella topping. It's quite similar to the margarita pizza if you look at just the ingredients but a focaccia is baked differently than a traditional pizza and this version has a delicious herb oil that really makes the focaccia taste amazing.

A traditional focaccia, which is also on my to-bake list, usually just has (lots of) olive oil, garlic, and herbs often kneaded into the dough before being baked into a flat bread. Today there are variations with different toppings that makes it almost similar to pizza. That's really nothing to complain about though, is it? Focaccia, however, is distinct in one way though and that's the oily crust that it bakes up into. Since olive oil is used very liberally, it develops a lovely crunchy crust on the bread and makes it taste amazing, especially with dips, or even on its own.

I went and bought a good 'ball' of buffalo mozzarella and a fresh pack of Italian basil to bake this Focaccia Caprese. Some gorgeous truss tomatoes sealed the deal and I knew this was going to be one amazing loaf of bread. We had it as a light meal at brunch time and it went perfectly with some sriracha sauce. Maybe this is a good time to mention that we eat sriracha sauce with pretty much anything.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to bake this focaccia bread at the next given opportunity. It's pretty easy to put together as far as breads go and there's no pressure of creating a fluffy and airy loaf that rises well because this is a flat bread. The only thing I'd suggest is to eat it warm out of the oven, much like a pizza.

If you'd rather just make a pizza, then check out my 30-min pizza recipe. It's really really good. Or, browse all bread recipes in Edible Garden. These garlic pull-apart rolls are probably the most popular bread recipe in the site and lots of people have tried it with good success.

FOCACCIA CAPRESE RECIPE

Preparation time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes 2 large loaves
Serves 4-6
Recipe source: Kitchen Whisperer, adapted by Aparna

INGREDIENTS:
3.5 cups of bread flour (see notes)
1/4 cup of olive oil + another 1 tbsp for brushing
2 tsp of instant yeast
1.5 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of warm water (you may need a bit more)
For the topping:
4 large tomatoes, sliced thin
One 7" ball of buffalo mozzarella, sliced into 1/4" discs (see notes)
1/4 cup of packed basil leaves, cut into strips
For the herb oil:
1/4 cup of olive oil
1.5 tsp of mixed herbs like basil, oregano, etc
1/2 tsp of red chilli flakes
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp of salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Add all ingredients for dough except water into the bowl of a stand mixer and using the dough hook on slow speed, mix until combined.

With the machine running, add the warm water until the dough comes together into a ball just short of sticky. Knead for about 3 mins. You can add more water if needed, I only needed this much.

You can definitely do this step by hand too. Just make sure to knead well for about 5 mins. The dough will be a bit sticky and that's perfect.

2. Lightly oil a bowl and shape the dough into a ball with your hands before transferring it to the bowl. Turn it around until all sides are lightly coated with the oil. Cover with cling wrap or a plastic bag and leave in a warm place until almost doubled in size.

Like so. This took me one hour but if you live in a warmer place, it may take lesser.

3. Punch the dough down gently and transfer to a lined baking tray. You can use greasing paper (parchment paper) or baking sheets like I have to line the tray. Gently shape into an oblong shape, oval ore rectangular (whatever you prefer) by pressing down with your fingertips. Make sure the thickness is uniformly about 1/2". Then, using your fingertips, dig holes into the dough all over.

4. Brush with olive oil and let this rise loosely covered for another 20-30 mins. The dough will puff up just a bit but won't rise much due to the holes we dug.

5. Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F) and bake this for about 15-20 mins or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, make the herb oil and set aside by combining all ingredients.

6. Once the first round of baking is down and the focaccia is lightly browned, remove from oven and drizzle half the herb oil all over it uniformly.

7. Layer the cheese over this as uniformly as possible

followed by the tomato slices. You can layer them up thicker by overlapping them or just distribute them evenly. Either ways, make sure to cover the surface of the bread as much as possible.

Add the chopped basil leaves on top and drizzle the remaining oil over this. Bake again (same temperature as above) for about 8-10 mins or until the cheese has melted and the basil has crisped up.

Slice with a pizza cutter and serve warm.

Notes:

1. If you cannot find bread flour, you can add 1 tbsp of Vital Wheat Gluten to 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and mix together well. Otherwise just use 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour which is what I did
2. If you are unable to find fresh mozzarella, use the sliced version or any pizza cheese that's available. Taste will be different but delicious, I am sure
3. I halved the recipe above and got enough to serve 2 as a light meal
4. This Focaccia Caprese is bread #1 for 2014 being baked by the We Knead to Bake group on Facebook. Huge thanks to Aparna for managing the group and for the detailed recipe

Quick & Easy Pizza Crust Recipe (30-Min Pizza Dough from Scratch)

Pizza is TH's absolute favourite food of all times. That and Palak Paneer - in fact I am planning to combine the two soon and try a fusion version! Wherever we travel to we taste the local pizza from there, he's that into it. On that note, the Japanese make amazing pizza (among almost all other things) and their version with mayo and sweet corn is incredible. So anyway, since he loves pizza so much and Pizza Hut is not exactly the healthiest of choices, I make pizza at home as often as I can. I make the dough for the pizza base in bulk and refrigerate it to use it on a weeknight. In fact, if you have all the ingredients for the topping, pizza is a super quick weeknight meal that requires very litte hands-on time.

The pizza recipe that I always default to is the one I made with Gouda cheese. The original recipe is from PW and I have tweaked it over many attempts to make it my own. But a couple of weeks back, I had about 1 hour to make lunch and I wanted a super quick and easy pizza base to throw some topping on and bake while I cleaned up the kitchen (ok fine, while TH cleaned up the kitchen!).

Super spongy and soft pizza base in 30 mins - win!

This recipe hit the mark and it had so many rave reviews that I had to try it. The result was fabulous and I make a thick crust with loads of tomatoes and capsicum, just the way TH likes it. I also had some almost-limp broccoli which I threw into the mix. Let your imagination go wild, I really have no fixed recipe for pizza since the toppings are pretty much what I have in hand but this pizza dough recipe, it sure is a keeper!

QUICK & EASY PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Rising time: 25 minutes
Makes 1 hearty 12" pizza
Serves 4
Recipe source: bestrecipes.com.au

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of plain flour / maida
• 2 and 1/4 tsp (one sachet) of instant or active dry yeast (I use and recommend Fleischmann Yeast)
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/2 cup of warm water

How to make the Pizza Dough:

1. Combine all the ingredients and gently knead with fingertips until a slightly sticky dough forms. You don't have to knead too much, just until the dough forms. In the Kitchenaid, it took me about 3 mins.

2. Place in an oiled bowl and turn the dough so the oil coats it. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it rise for about 20-25 mins or until doubled in volume. In sunny Singapore, it barely took me 25 mins.

3. Punch down the dough and knead lightly until it forms a ball. Transfer to a floured surface.

4. Roll the dough into a circle or rectangle, flouring it as you go. You can make two smaller pizzas, use half the dough and refrigerate the rest, or just make one large pizza like I did. I just transferred the dough to my baking tray and used my fingertips to flatten it.

5. First, add some tomato sauce (if you are using it). My easy pizza sauce involves about 4 tbsp canned tomato sauce boiled for 2 mins with some dried basil and oregano with some salt. Add some cheddar cheese on top and then pile on any vegetables you wish to use. I have used broccoli, cherry tomatoes, onion, and some capsicum.

6. Sprinkle more salt + oregano on top and bake for about 15 mins in a pre-heated oven at 200C. The vegetables will get charred a bit and the base will turn a lovely golden brown.

Notes:

1. As I mentioned, go crazy with your own idea for toppings for the pizza
2. The dough can be refrigerated for a day or two but it will continue to rise slowly. If you plan to use it after a day, I'd recommend refrigerating the dough as soon as you have mixed it up; don't let it rise outside
3. I find that my homemade pizza always lacks salt so I increased the amount of salt in this than the original recipe. It was still on the less-salty category so keep that in mind if you try this quick and easy pizza dough

Bialys - Chewy Bread Rolls with Onion Filling - Step by Step Recipe

Bialys (pronounced bee-ah-lee) was something unknown to me until Aparna chose it for our baking group this month. A little research shed some light on it, like how it's often compared to a bagel although they are made quite differently, and how it's relatively unknown outside New York when it's popular, although not as much as the bagels are. The texture is definitely comparable although I found the bialys to be much softer and less dense. The bialys has a chewy exterior and quite a soft interior, the onion filling complementing the bread-y part beautifully.

Bialys is quite easy to make at home, in fact it's not any different from making regular rolls at home. The shaping is a bit different though and since I didn't make a deep enough depression in the centre of the bilays, mine look more puffed up than they should.

In spite of that, they tasted delicious and we enjoyed hot off the oven with our evening tea. While they are best eaten warm and fresh. bialys keeps well for a day in an airtight container. Just make sure to warm up lightly before you eat them.

BIALYS RECIPE

Preparation time: 5 hours
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes 12 medium-sized bialys
Adapted from: King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of bread flour (check notes)
• 1 1/4 cups of warm water
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of instant or active dry yeast (I use and love Fleischmann Yeast)
• 2 tbsp of milk, for brushing the rolls
• 2 cups of finely sliced onions
• 1 tbsp of oil
• 1/2 tsp of roasted cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of garam masala

How to Make Bialys

Note: I used 1/3rd of all ingredients to get 4 rolls.

1. Add flour, sugar, salt, yeast to a large bowl and mix well. Slowly trickle in the warm water and knead together to form a sticky dough. I used my Kitchenaid for this but you can very well knead by hand too.

2. Once the dough takes form, let it rest for 10 mins and continue kneading until you get a soft pliable dough that's not too sticky. If it is, sprinkle some flour and knead again but do this only if required. I didn't need to.

3. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and turn to coat it well.

4. Cover with cling wrap and let it double in size - takes about 1-2 hours. You can also let the dough rise in the refrigerator overnight. Just make sure to set it out for 30 mins before proceeding with the next steps.

5. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts.

Form each into rolls by kneading with fingertips and making a smooth ball within your fist.

6. Smooth into a ball and place on a baking tray lined with greased baking paper. Repeat with the rest of the rolls and loosely cover with cling wrap (use the same one as before) and let them rise for another or two.

7. Meanwhile, make the filling by heating the oil, adding the cumin, and sauteeing the onions until golden brown. When onions are done, add salt and garam masala and mix well. Set aside to cool completely.

8. Once the rolls have doubled, take each onto floured palms and make a dent in the centre by rotating it with both hands like a steering wheel.

9. Place on the same baking sheet and poke holes in the centre with a fork so that it doesn't rise while baking. The depression in the centre needs to be well pronounced. Mine wasn't done enough so the entire roll rose a bit in my bialys making the shape less pronounced.

10. Repeat with all the risen rolls and add the filling.

11. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 230C / 450F for 15 mins. Don't let the rolls overbake, otherwise they turn hard. Once they start to brown on the sides, you can remove them.

Notes:

• You can replace bread flour with same amount of all-purpose flour or maida + 1 tsp vital wheat gluten. Some folks tried it with just the flour and it still turned out fine.
• You can play around with the filling. I really wished I had some pizza cheese in hand, would have added some. You can also add some grated paneer when the rolls are almost done baking.
• To check if the water for the dough is warm enough (or not too hot), place a finger in the water for 10 seconds and take out. Your finger should be able to bear the heat and feel warm once you have taken it out. This test always works for me.
• Bialys is #5 in the list of 12 that the We Knead to Bake group is baking this year.