Ube Pinwheel Buns
These ube pinwheel buns are playful yet elegant. With a striped encasing, the contrast of ube and bread mirror the stripes of a fictional snail. The pattern, though seemingly complex, is no harder than a few rolls and cuts into the dough. At the same time, the rich filling with milky bread presents a nostalgic mouthful, transporting me back to downtown Shanghai, where bakeries trip over each other with endless variations of milk bread. This is the second recipe in the ube trilogy: the first being ube “yam” bread.
Ingredients:
Ube Filling:
250g ube / purple yam
60g granulated sugar
20g butter, softened to room temperature
Bread:
300g bread flour
160g whole milk
20g non-fat dry milk powder
25g granulated sugar
2 eggs, 1 for bread and 1 beaten for egg wash
3g instant yeast
30g butter, softened at room temperature
Steps:
Filling can be made a night before/in advance: Roast ube in an oven at 350º F for 30-40 minutes until softened, peel the skin once done and smash into mush. In a saucepan, add the ube paste, sugar, and butter. Mix thoroughly and, constantly stirring, cook over medium for 10 minutes to further reduce water content — until the mixture nearly a thick paste. Take off heat and cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, divide the paste into 6 equal portions and roll into balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Place the balls in the fridge to solidify for easy use.
In a clean bowl, mix bread flour, whole milk, milk powder, sugar, 1 egg, and yeast with a spoon until a dough forms. Either using a stand mixer or dumping the dough out on a work surface and using your hands, knead the dough for around 8-10 minutes. Add butter in and continue to knead for another 10-12 minutes until a smooth and elastic dough forms. Make sure the dough passes the window pane test — you can stretch the dough into a thin membrane without any tears or breaks.
Proof bread in a clean bowl for 1-2 hours until doubled. Gently deflate the dough by punching it down. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls, either eye-balling or weighing it out with a kitchen scale. Let rest for 10 minutes until a plastic wrap.
Take ube balls out of the fridge. Gently rolling out one dough ball into a circle, encase the entire ube ball and pinch tightly at the opening to seal. Repeat this process for the rest filling and dough. Cover with plastic wrap again and let rest for 10 minutes.
Line a baking sheet in the meantime with parchment paper.
Taking one ball, gently roll out with a rolling pin into an oblong shape, or oval with around 3-4 inches in length. Be careful not to tear the dough! Using a small knife or bread lame, lightly grease the blade and slit only the TOP layer of the dough into thin strips along the short side, leaving a 1cm margin at the edge of the dough (similar to the stitching on a football except the stitches run almost all the way to the edge). Turn the dough over so the smooth side faces up and roll along the long side into a tight, thin log. Connect the two ends to form a donut shape and tightly pinch the ends together. Repeat the process for the other balls.
Preheat oven to 360º F.
Place balls onto the lined baking tray and cover with plastic wrap to proof in a warm environment (75-80º F) for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Brush egg wash on top of the buns and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.