Melon Pan (Bread)

The long awaited recipe for Melon Pan is here! Melon Pan (or Melon Bread) is a Japanese pastry that is named after its shape, not because it has melon in it. Though if you can find melon extract you can add it if you like. Melon Pan is composed of a sweet bun with a layer of pastry on top. Once it's been cooked the pastry will crack a little causing the surface to look like the skin of a melon, hence its name. I got this recipe from a blog called Happy Home Baking. There are a lot of good recipes on here that you should check out. The recipe for Melon Pan is in grams so I am posting it with the conversions on here so you don't have to look them up yourself. But if you happen to have a food scale I am leaving it in grams also.

 

 Japanese Melon Pan

Ingredients:
(makes about 12 buns)

Bread Dough:
300g bread flour (3 cups)
6g instant yeast (1 tsp)
36g caster sugar (3 TBS)
5g salt (1 tsp)
6g skim milk powder (2 1/2 tsp)
200g warm water (3/4 cup + 1 1/2 TBS) (37~38 deg C) (I didn't bother, just made sure water is not cold)
30g unsalted butter (2 TBS) (bring to room temperature)

Pastry layer
80g unsalted butter (5 1/2 TBS) (bring to room temperature)
90g caster sugar (1/4 cup + 3 1/2 TBS)
80g egg, lightly beaten (1/4 cup + 1 1/2 TBS) (oh, I hate weighing eggs!)
200g cake flour (2 1/4 cup)
2g baking powder (1/2 tsp)
some melon extract (or vanilla extract) (I leave this out as I don't have this)

some caster sugar for dusting/coating

How I made them:

1. Sift bread flour, caster sugar, salt, milk powder into a mixing bowl. Add in instant yeast and mix the powdered mixture a little.
2. Add in warm water. DO NOT add in all the water at one go, leave a little bit so as to adjust the texture of the dough.
3. Mix the ingredients with hand and slowly form into a dough. Add the remaining water if it is too dry.
4. Transfer dough to work surface. Knead until the dough longer sticks to the work surface. This should take about less than 5 mins.
5. Flatten the dough and add in the butter. Continue to knead. Initially, the dough will be very oily, after a few kneads, the butter will be absorbed by the dough. Continue to knead until the dough no longer feel sticky to your hand and will not stick to the work surface. This should take about 15 to 20 mins.
6. Place dough in a lightly greased (with butter) bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof for about one hour, or until double in bulk.
7. While the dough is proofing, prepare the pastry layer. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until mixture turns pale.
8. Add in a few drops of melon extract if desired.
9. Add in lightly beaten eggs in 3 addition. Beat well after each addition.
10. Sift over cake flour and baking powder. Mix with a spatula until flour mixture is fully incorporate. Divide into 12 portions, about 35~40g each. For the chocolate chips version, wrapped some chocolate chips into each pastry dough. (Feel free to experiment. I like adding shredded coconut into mine.) Place in a tray and let the dough chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
11. Punch out the gas in the bread dough and divide into 12 portion, about 45g each. Roll into rounds. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let the dough relax for 10mins.
12. Remove chilled pastry dough from the fridge. Roll out each dough in between 2 layers of cling wraps (I used clear plastic bags). Roll the bread dough again into rounds again. Remove the top layer of the cling wrap and place the bread dough onto the pastry dough. With the bottom layer of the cling wrap still intact, wrap the pastry dough around the bread dough. Carefully remove the bottom layer of the cling wrap, at the same time, smoothing the edges of the pastry dough. NOTE: DO NOT cover the Entire bread dough with the pastry dough. Leave the bottom 2 ~ 3 cm uncovered. The dough needs the space to expand, otherwise the pastry dough will burst and the resulting appearance will not be very pleasing.
13. Coat the exterior with caster sugar, stamp patterns on the surface with cookie cutters or decorate as desired. Leave doughs to proof for the second time for about 40 ~ 50mins.
14. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C (325 deg F) (I set mine as 180 deg C (350 deg F) for 10 ~ 12 mins. Note: mine took 20mins to brown!

Enjoy!

Dora Yaki どら焼き

It's been awhile since any recipes have been posted but here is a recipe for Dora Yaki or Japanese pancakes. You don't but syrup on them or anything, they just resemble pancakes except they are a lot sweeter. We made these at a Japan Club activity and they were a big hit. We almost didn't have enough for everybody! If you have any questions feel free to post comments.

Dora Yaki どら焼き

Ingredients:
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 cup flour, sifted
• 3/4 lb sweet azuki beans

Directions:
Put eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk very well. Dissolve baking soda in water. Add the water in the egg mixture. Add sifted flour in the egg mixture gradually. Heat a skillet or hot plate and lightly oil it. Pour a scoop of the batter into the skillet and make a small pancake. Turn over when bubbles appear on the surface. Repeat this process to make 8-10 pancakes. Cool the pancakes. Divide pancakes into pairs, matching size and shape as best you can and put a 1 1/2 Tbsp (or an amount to your liking) red bean paste between each pair. Slice in half before serving.

Makes about five 4" dorayaki cakes or ten 2.5" cakes.

A note about the recipe: If you're used to making typical pancakes, it tempting to want to let these cook on the first side until bubbles appear and the sides of the top start to dry out. With dorayaki pancakes, do not wait for the sides to dry out or the pancake will most likely burn. Be sure to flip them once the surface becomes bubbly.

Because of the moisture still present in the edges, these are a bit tougher to flip than breakfast pancakes. The easiest way I found to do this while preserving the round shape of the pancake was to slide a spatula under the pancake slightly, lifting it up enough to fit a chopstick underneath it. You can then lift the pancake with the chopstick, allowing you to slide the spatula far enough under the pancake to flip it properly.

Oyakodon

Jessica here. Today, I used my wiles to convince Staci and Jamie to come over after class and make Oyakodon (親子丼) with me. In Japanese, "oya" means "parent" and "ko" is "child," so "oyokodon" basically means "Parent and child donburi." It consists of chicken and egg. Pretty cute, huh?

This recipe is pretty easy, although not super speedy. I modified it slightly off of an English recipe I found via google. So here it goes:



Oyakodon 親子丼
makes about 4 servings
1 large or medium sized onion
2 small chicken breasts, or one large chicken breast
about 1/4 head cabbage, chopped medium (optional)
Dashi (fish stock- I dissolved about 1 Tbsp in 1 1/2 cups of hot water)
4 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Mirin
1 Tbsp Sugar
2-3 eggs (or to match preference) mixed slightly
---
about 2 cups rice

1. Slice onion. Add 2 Tbsp of oil to the bottom of a pot; heat over medium-low to medium heat. Add Onions in one layer on the bottom of the pan. Don't stir them, just let them sit there and begin to cook. They'll be there for a while, so make sure the heat isn't too high or they will burn.

2. Cut your chicken into small cubes-- about 1/4 inch cubes are good. If they seem really small to you, don't worry. It's better they be a little too small than a little too big. Place chicken in a layer over the onions.

3. Mix your wet ingredients together: Dashi, Soy Sauce, Mirin, and Sugar. Pour the sauce over the chicken and onions-- aim to cover the chicken so everything cooks through. (If you don't have enough sauce to cover the chicken, you can cover the pot for a bit while cooking to ensure the chicken on top is cooked).
(Now's a good time to start the rice-- cook according to your rice's directions!!)

4. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer until reduced by about half. Now's the time to add the cabbage, if you so desire (I like cabbage in mine!) The cabbage will cook down a lot so don't worry if it looks like a lot. Let it simmer for a while longer, until much of the liquid is gone.

5. Pour your lightly mixed egg on top and cook until it reaches your desired cooked-ness. In Japan, the eggs are usually left pretty raw and runny, but if you want yours more cooked that is totally okay! Oyakodon on top of it. With this recipe, I usually make about 4 servings, so just cut the pan into fourths and dish out the goodness.