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!