Hungarian Hunza Bread

My in-laws have many chickens.  This means they have many eggs.  Since we are a larger family, and I cook a wider variety of foods, they end up sending many of them our way.

Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming.

The other day, after feeling mildly triumphant at finishing off a dozen eggs by serving my family breakfast burritos (with homemade tortillas and salsa, of course), I was surprised to see my mother-in-law at the door with a large bag of filled egg cartons.

"The 18-pack ones and the dozen at the bottom need to be used.  They're older."

I did a quick count and realized that I'd been handed 7 dozen eggs, 4 dozen of which needed to be used quickly.

I ran through my mind ways to freeze eggs in portions, but realized that may or may not do me any good, with the chickens continually producing, and more chickens getting into the productive stage soon.  After all, when would I choose to access the frozen eggs, if I am still getting more?

I pulled out my cookbooks and started browsing.  The largest criteria for consideration was the number of eggs required in the recipe.  Between a yeast coffecake, egg bread, and a quiche, I managed to go through 17 of the 4 dozen eggs.  I planned German pancakes for the next morning (6 more eggs), and then turned to the Internet, searching for egg-y breads.

One such bread, seemingly tailor-made to my need to rapidly consume eggs, was this recipe for Hungarian Hunza Bread.

See that?  6 egg yolks!  I put it on my list of breads to work on the next day, after garden planting.  (It ended up being before garden planting . . . A huge windstorm came through our area, blowing up so much dust that digging in the dirt would have been an exercise in futility.  Anything we might have turned up would have blown away.)

Ingredients:

3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (2 T of my yeast--not sure if it's active dry)
1 cup warm water for yeast
8 cups bread flour (I used all-purpose.)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
6 egg yolks
1 cup margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups warm milk (I used hot water and powdered milk.)
1 cup golden raisins
2 egg whites, beaten, for the tops of the loaves before baking

Mix the yeast in the warm water and set aside for about 10 minutes to allow it to dissolve and become frothy.

Prep other ingredients by melting the margarine and separating the egg yolks from the egg whites.

I used to separate eggs by moving the yolk from one half of the eggshell to the other, which method never really failed me.  But with our change to home-grown eggs, rather than store-bought eggs, I started using an egg separator.  Why?  Well, it's a rare home-grown egg, indeed, which is completely clean on the outside, even if you take the time to wash it just before using it.  (It's unwise to wash an egg in water unless you are planning on using it right away, because it removes the protective bloom on it which keeps it fresh for long periods of time.)  So, to avoid having bits of hay, dirt, or simply bacteria in my eggs, I no longer use my eggshells as egg separators.

 

I'll be honest:  it's harder with an egg separator.  But it's worth it to me to know the end product is clean.

 

The recipe in the link is written to be mixed by hand, without a stand mixer.  But after reading reviews from other bakers, I decided to go ahead and use my stand mixer, starting with the standard beater, rather than the bread hook.

 

First, I put the warm milk, melted margarine, sugar, and salt in the stand mixer bowl and mixed them.  When I was convinced the temperature was cool enough to not be a danger to the eggs (ie., they wouldn't become partially cooked upon entering the mixture) I added the egg yolks and kept stirring.

 

I added a couple of cups of flour and mixed, then added the now frothy yeast mixture.  When that was mixed in, I continued adding flour until the mixture started looking "stringy" behind the standard beater.  Changing the beater for the bread hook, I gradually added flour until the dough formed a ball around the hook, then continued adding small amounts of flour to the bowl so the dough wouldn't stick to the sides while it was being kneaded.

 

I've found, with bread doughs containing more eggs, it is very difficult to successfully perform my trick of adding a small amount of oil right at the end, then letting the ball of dough go around once more, greasing the bowl.  (After which, of course, I would stop the mixer, remove the dough hook, and flip the dough over for rising.)  For some reason, although the dough does reach a point in the mixing where it will be kneaded without sticking to the bowl, the moment I stop the mixer, it sticks horribly!

 

So instead of rising the dough in the same bowl, I now cave to necessity, oil a separate bowl, then turn out the dough into it.  After twirling the dough around a few times to make sure the bowl is well-oiled and to oil the dough, I flip the dough, then cover it with a damp cloth and allow it to rise.



See?  Dough in separate bowl . . .



You can see how much is still sticking to the mixer bowl, even after scraping.

I should know by now that egg doughs take longer to rise, but I was still surprised when I returned to my kitchen in a panic after having forgotten all about my rising dough to find . . . nothing much had happened.

Given that our area was experiencing a storm and my kitchen was a bit cooler than usual, I decided to use my broken oven as a proofing area.  I used the oven light and a pot of boiling water to add heat to the small space and prayed the dough would rise more quickly in this slightly warmer environment.

 

It worked!  It still took a while (um . . . 2 hours after being put in there?) but the dough finally reached a point where I was satisfied it was ready to be shaped.

 

 

I'm sure my family thinks I decided to omit the golden raisins, as I am notorious for hating raisins, but here they are!  In the recesses of my mind, I seemed to remember that golden raisins weren't as noxious as regular raisins, so I decided to go ahead and use them.

 

The instructions merely stated, "Knead in the raisins," after placing the dough on a lightly floured surface, of course.  I had no idea how one kneaded in raisins, but recalling to my memory a picture in a book about kneading bits of cheese into bread dough, I figured it couldn't be much different.

Many thanks to the Senior Master Kitchen Helper, without whose assistance these pictures would not have been possible!!

Place the loaves into greased loaf pans, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place.  (I put them back into my "proofing oven", with freshly boiled water.)

 

This time, it only took about an hour for the loaves to rise to a reasonable size for baking.  After brushing egg white on the top surfaces, they were ready!

I am sure this bread would have done much better in maintaining an even appearance if I had been able to bake them in a regular size oven.  But, as my indoor propane oven is broken, and with the horrible winds and blowind dust outside, I was unwilling to take them to the electric oven installed in my pumphouse, I was limited to using my electric countertop oven.  (The one in which I baked Rieska in my former office!)

When baking larger loaves in a small oven, there is the danger the top may brown too much, even with the convection oven function on.  This can be avoided by placing aluminum foil on the tops of the loaves for the last 10 minutes or so of baking, but it is not foolproof.

The recipe said to bake these loaves at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35-40 minutes.  I know from experience that when convection cooking, it is better to lower the temperature slightly and bake longer, but at about 38 minutes, the loaves looked so brown and seemed to be done, even with the aluminum foil slowing down the browning process, so I went ahead and took them out of the oven.  (Despite misgivings . . . I had made an egg bread the day before, and it was supposed to bake closer to 50 minutes or an hour . . .)

They looked beautiful and nicely brown, but they really should have been left in longer.

See that doughy spot?  If I had followed my instincts and left them in as long as the other egg bread, it would probably have come out well.

Even so, we tasted the bread, around the undone part.  I couldn't really taste the raisins, so that was good (unless, of course, it means that my taste buds are starting to disappear as I get older), and the bread, itself, was very sweet, fluffy, and delicious.  My husband and most daughters like it enough I will probably try it again, this time putting the aluminum foil on a little earlier and cooking the bread at least 10 minutes longer, if not more, for good measure.

And hopefully next time I'll have the added advantage of being able to use a large oven!

Romanian Easter Bread

At long last!  I finally decided I had the energy to start another bread!

With Easter coming up, I started searching for something appropriate to the season to bake.  I'd seen several Easter bread recipes, but most of them required raisins, other fruit, or a pail in which to bake the bread.  It took a while to locate a good-sounding recipe which didn't require these kinds of special ingredients or supplies.

I found a likely-looking candidate at a blog entitled Baking Glory:  an Easter bread apparently made in several Eastern European countries, including the author's native Romania.  The braided bread recipe included a lot of butter and eggs, but what clinched it were the poppy seeds sprinkled on the top.  (Which I actually had in my cupboard!)

Ingredients:

1 cup milk (I used dry milk plus the water required to make a cup.)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup margarine  (Butter and margarine?  I could hardly wait.)
1 cup sugar
½ cup lukewarm water for yeast
2 teaspoons sugar, to mix with yeast
2 envelopes dry active yeast (about 1.5 Tablespoons of the yeast I use)
5 eggs
6 cups all purpose flour plus more for kneading (I think I ended up using 8 or 9)
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons salt
1 egg white, for egg wash
2 Tablespoons sesame or poppy seeds

First, combine the milk, butter, and margarine and either heat it on the stove until the fats melt or use the microwave to accomplish the same thing.  I put it all in a 4-cup Pyrex container and microwaved it until everything was almost melted.  Mix the 1 cup sugar in this mixture and let it cool to lukewarm.

While waiting for the milk mixture to cool, add the yeast to the lukewarm water and mix in the 2 teaspoons sugar.  Allow this to sit for about 5 minutes, until you can see the yeast frothing up.

Beat the eggs.  Slowly add the milk mixture to the eggs, beating as you go.  If your milk mixture is cool enough, there is no real complication, but if it's a little warm, you run the risk of cooking bits and pieces of your eggs as you combine them.  Beating as you add the mixture reduces this risk.

In my stand mixture, I put the baking powder, salt, and about 3 cups of the flour.  I added the wet mixtures and mixed the whole together, adding more flour as I went.  Because of the high quantity of fats and eggs, this dough behaved differently than most bread doughs, actually forming into something of a cohesive lump more quickly than some other doughs and sticking to the side of the bowl less readily.  (Review about mixing a yeast bread in a stand mixer located here.)

After the dough was mixed, I greased the bowl and flipped the dough, covering it for its long rise.  After a little over an hour, it had doubled in size and was ready to be punched down and risen again.  (Yes, this recipe requires two rises before shaping.)

Finally, at long last, it was ready to be shaped!  Divide the dough into four equal parts.  (I used my kitchen scale to get as close to the same size as possible.)  Working with one part at a time, shape the dough into a braided loaf, as follows.

First, divide the dough into three portions.  Roll each portion into something resembling a snake, roughly a foot long.  Recognizing that my "snakes" never look very good, I decided to try something else I'd read in a book.  I flattened each of my snakes, then folded the top half to the center, and the bottom half to the center.  Then I pinched the seam together rolled them slightly again, with the seam on the bottom.  I think it made a better shape by the time I was finished with it.

Next step:  braiding the bread on the greased baking sheets.

I did not take pictures of the actual braiding process, but I've already talked about how to make braided bread in my post about Norwegian Cardamom Braid.

After the braiding was complete, it was time to cover the loaves with damp paper towels and let them rise again until about doubled, roughly an hour.

 

After rising, I brushed the loaves with the egg wash and sprinkled those much-beloved poppy seeds on the loaves and took them to the oven, which had been preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  (Yes, this bread bakes at a slightly lower temperature.) 

 

After about 30 minutes, the bread was ready to come out.

When I first took a bite of the finished product, I was slightly surprised to find the texture was so much different than the Norwegian Cardamom Braid.  (Although, given that the recipe is substantially different in quantities of fats, etc., I'm not sure why I was surprised.)  The crust was slightly reminiscent to me of a croissant--a somewhat flaky feel and buttery taste.  The interior, also, was lighter and less cake-like than the other braid.

One thing was sure, however:  it was fabulously delicious!  My family ate two of the loaves within 24 hours, gave one away to another family, and froze the last to save for Easter.  Hopefully it will taste as good when we thaw it.

Bunny Buns

This year, I made Bunny Buns for the second time.  Last year, my kids found the recipe in a children's magazine and pleaded so much, I finally decided to try them out, even though they took a little extra work.

The dough is actually a reasonably normal sweet roll dough with orange flavoring, found in my Sunset cookbook, as well as other sources.  But this twist (pun intended) on the recipe makes it a fun Easter treat.

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
1 cup milk, warmed not quite to boiling
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tablespoons grated orange peel
5 1/2 cups flour, sifted
Glaze, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup hot water, 1 teaspoon butter

I did vary a little bit from this recipe, as written.  For one thing, I used 1 1/4 cup warm water and 1/3 cup of dry milk, instead of the 1/4 cup warm water and the 1 cup milk.  This removes the necessity of staring at the walls while the milk mixture cools enough to add into the bowl without fear of killing the yeast.  I also heated the shortening a little to make it softer and simulate the effect of putting shortening into hot milk.  (It doesn't usually melt completely when you do.)

My Senior Master Kitchen Helper helped me with the oranges, grating the peel and squeezing out the juice.

Yes, that is a Mexican key lime in the background.  We'd just finished a pie.

If you intend to mix this recipe by hand, refer to the link at the very top of this page, as the original recipe is written with this in mind.  (You will notice it really is written for kids, as the first step directs the baker to wash their hands with soap and water . . .)

First, mix the yeast and sugar in with the warm water.  Allow it to sit for at least 5 minutes to proof.

In the stand mixer bowl with a bread hook, add the salt, softened shortening, and powdered milk.  Add the beaten eggs, orange juice, grated orange peel, and the yeast mixture.  Gradually add the flour and mix until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.  Continue mixing, adding flour a little at a time to keep the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl, allowing it to knead for at least 5 minutes.  (For more complete directions on mixing a yeast dough with a stand mixer, click here.)

When the dough is ready, drizzle a little cooking oil in the bowl and allow the mixer to twirl once to spread it around.  Remove the bread hook and twirl the dough to distribute the oil more completely, then turn it upside down so the oiled side is up.  Cover with paper towels and allow to rise 2 hours or until about doubled in size.

After rising . . .

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick.  Cut the dough into strips about 1/2 inch wide and 14 inches long.  (A pizza cutter is handy here.)

Roll the strips between your hands to make a rounded snake shape.  (I confess I'm not terribly good at this part.)  Cut one strip into pieces 1/2 inch long and roll those into balls.  (I usually can get these from the ends and edges . . . Why cut up a perfectly good strip?)

Place one long strip on a greased cookie sheet.  The recipe then says to place one end of the strip over the other to make a loop; bring the end that is underneath up and cross it over the other end.  I find it simpler to understand this way:

Place the long strip on the greased cookie sheet as if it were hanging from a nail or something, with the two ends roughly even.

Then take hold of both ends and twist them twice.  They will end up on their original sides.

Place a ball of dough on top of the loop, as if you are filling in the hole there.

Cover the bunnies and let them rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes, until almost double in size.  Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-15 minutes.

Remove the bunnies when they are lightly browned.  Stir the glaze ingredients together and frost the bunnies while they are still warm.

These bunnies come out a little large, especially if your strips get out of control while rolling and increase their length.  (Never happened to me . . . nope . . .)  After about a dozen, I get tired of shaping them and just roll the rest of the dough into balls.  This serves the dual purpose of getting me off my feet faster and making smaller rolls for people like me, who don't usually want to eat an entire bunny bun.

Regardless of the shape, they all taste delicious!

Mexican Pan Dulce

Pan Dulce is a Mexican sweet bread.  (In fact, "Pan Dulce" literally translates as "sweet bread".)  Down here in the desert Southwest, it is very easy to find it in grocery store bakeries.  The topping on the bread comes in a variety of colors, usually pink, white, yellow, or chocolate brown.

I found a few recipes for Pan Dulce on the internet, but this one from Allrecipes was the one I finally settled on making this time.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1 cup milk
6 Tablespoons butter
1 package active dry yeast (for me, a little less than a Tablespoon--I kind of eyeballed 2/3 of it.)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour

For the topping:

1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 egg yolks

The recipe said to heat the milk, then add the butter, stir until melted, and leave to cool, then dissolve the yeast into this mixture.

Ugh.  It drives me crazy to wait for things to cool, so I look for workarounds.

I decided to make life more simple on myself by using powdered milk and lukewarm water, instead of milk from the refrigerator.  This water could then be used to dissolve the yeast, along with the sugar.  I also decided to melt the butter separately and add it to the dry ingredient mixture apart from the yeast mixture.  In this way, I wouldn't have to sit there, wondering when the milk and butter mixture would actually reach the correct temperature to not kill the yeast, which has sometimes been a tricky proposition.


Yeast, sugar, and water mixture on the left, melted butter on the right.

In a stand mixer, add the salt, melted butter, and, if you are using it, powdered milk.  Add a cup of the flour and mix with a bread hook.  Add the eggs and mix again.  Add the yeast mixture and mix again, adding more flour, until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is well-kneaded.  (For a review of mixing a bread dough in a stand mixer, see here.  If you want to mix it by hand, see these general directions or look at the original recipe link.)

A note here:  I was counting on the flour and powdered milk to help mitigate any extra heat from the butter, which I had heated just to the point of melting.  If I had added the melted butter into the mixture too hot and then added the eggs, I might have ended up with bits of cooked egg in my dough, which was not what I wanted.  Be aware of this possibility when working with warm melted butter and eggs.

Cover the dough and allow it to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about an hour.

An hour??  Remember, this dough has not only eggs, but also butter, which means it takes a little longer to rise than a dough with no eggs or butter.

By the time my dough had finished rising, I had gone on a walk with my husband, lifted a few weights at the community weight room, gone to the local convenience store, walked home carrying jugs of milk (we counted it as part of our workout), taken a shower, and totally pampered myself with lotions, etc.

I'm not exactly sure how much time had passed, but it was closer to two hours, despite my pellet stove adding heat to my house.  Good thing I had covered it with plastic wrap, then a kitchen towel, so the top of the dough didn't end up drying out.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces and roll them into balls.

With a rolling pin, flatten the rolls into oval shapes and place them on a greased baking sheet.

Time to rise again!  Cover the dough and allow to rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.  (This time, I covered them with wet paper towels to avoid drying out.  Rising time was a little over an hour.)

While the dough is rising, it is time to make the topping.  Here, the Kitchen Artiste in Training helps me separate the eggs.

Mix the sugar, flour, and softened butter in a bowl until well-blended.  I mixed the sugar and flour, then added the butter cut in small pieces.  Reaching deep into my memory from making Scottish scones (which I haven't posted yet), I put my fingers into the bowl and rubbed the butter into the dry ingredients until it was evenly distributed, nice and crumbly.

Beat the egg yolks with a fork to break them up, then add them to the flour mixture and mix.

This was the result.  I decided to leave it plain, instead of using food coloring to make it pretty or cocoa powder to make it chocolate.  (I can hear my family now . . . "What?  She passed up an opportunity for chocolate?")

When the bread dough has finished rising, it is time to sprinkle on the topping.  But when I got ready to sprinkle the topping on the rolls, I realized I had a problem.

How can someone sprinkle a crumbly topping on a roll with a somewhat rounded top and expect it to stay on the roll, instead of falling all around the roll?

Obviously, you can't.  Even the rolls which still maintained a certain amount of flatness on the top had a tough time keeping this topping on top, and a lot was being wasted on the pan.

I had read in the comments beneath the recipe a suggestion to add a little milk and make the topping into a sort of paste, then spread it on the rolls, so I decided to try it.



It sounded simple, but it proved to be much more difficult than it sounded.  How do you spread a somewhat sticky substance on a risen roll without smashing the roll?  Very, very carefully . . . and it might have a difficult time coming off the spatula and sticking to the roll . . .

I topped some of the first tray of Pan Dulce with the crumbly version and some with the paste version.  But after baking, I realized there was another problem relating to mixing two varieties of toppings on the same tray:  the toppings don't brown at the same rate.

To be honest, I didn't like either of those results, because neither was like the topping we were used to seeing in the store.  The crumbled topping tasted fine, but it didn't have the delightful texture I wanted.  And the texture of the paste was not satisfactory at all.  Partly because I had had to remove the tray before it had properly browned, it did not have the crunch we associate with Pan Dulce.

Back to the drawing board.

I remembered reading somewhere that another way of topping Pan Dulce is to roll the topping out with a rolling pin and lay it on the roll.  I had actually tried that way with a different recipe some time earlier and had not been too pleased with the results, so I had been reluctant to do it again.  But at this point, I decided it was time to cave and pull out my rolling pin.  Perhaps this topping recipe would work out better than the other one had.

I took some of the crumbled topping and squished it together in my hands, then rolled it out thinly with my rolling pin.

I placed the topping on the rolls and baked them.

At last!  Something which looks closer to the Pan Dulce in the store!  If you want the straight lines you frequently see on bakery Pan Dulce, cut the lines into the topping after rolling it and before placing it on the rolls.

So we ended up with quite a variety of topping styles, but at least I figured out which one I like the best.  Next time, I think I will divide the topping and try a little variety.  Maybe I'll put cocoa in some, to make the chocolate topping.  Or maybe I'll add cinnamon to some, which sounds like it would be very, very good.

When the girls tasted it, the first thing one said was, "That doesn't taste like Pan Dulce!"

"That," replied my husband, "is because you've only eaten them stale."

The ones in the store are usually very dry, while these were much softer.  The topping was delightfully sweet and buttery, with enough crispness in the ones where the topping was rolled out to crack and crunch just a little.  They were definitely delicious, and almost all were gone by the end of the day.

It's just as well they were, because they are definitely better the day they are made.

An Pan

Japan traditionally has relied on rice as their staple grain, so breads haven't played a large role.  In fact, when I was in Japan, in the early 90's, most people I knew didn't even own an oven larger than a largish toaster oven.  (Try baking bread in that . . . I did . . .)

But despite the lack of bread varieties in Japanese history, one of the great pleasures I had while there was eating a bread which can only be described as Japanese:  an pan.  The word "pan" comes from Portuguese and is the Japanese word for "bread".  "An" is also known as "anko", a sweet bean paste.

An pan is made in many forms.  In any grocery or corner store, there are sold pre-packaged an pan looking something like two small pancakes, with an anko filling.  At certain vendor stands (or in the lower-level section of certain department stores, sort of like a deli section) there are people who make an pan in molds, pouring in a batter and adding a dollop of anko in the middle, which is covered with more batter.  The an pan is commonly in the form of a circle, but my favorite was actually shaped like a fish.

Last February, my family and I went to a Japan cultural festival in Phoenix, where my girls got to taste, for the first time, anko in a yeast-raised sweet bun.  When we returned home, I looked up a recipe.

It was not terribly easy to find, and when I did find a couple, I ended up synthesizing them to make one I really preferred, which is why I am not providing any links.

First, however, in order to make anko buns, you need anko.  If you are lucky enough to live near an Oriental mart which carries canned anko, life becomes much simpler.  If, however, you are like me, or if you'd rather just learn to do the whole process from start to finish, you will have to make your own anko.  Rather than make this page enormously long by including the anko recipe, as well, I am putting it in its own post, which can be found here.

Once you have your anko, you're ready to start working on the dough for the bun.

Ingredients:

1 package active, dried yeast (about a little less than a Tablespoon of the kind I use)
1 1/4 cup of warm milk (or warm water and the amount of powdered milk to make it milk)
3 Tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour (as needed)
2.5 cups anko

For topping (optional):
1 egg yolk or melted butter
Toasted sesame seeds

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk (or water, if you're using powdered milk), with the sugar.  Remember to have the milk at around 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit, so the yeast will dissolve nicely, but not be killed.  Slightly melt the margarine in a cup in the microwave.  (It doesn't have to be totally melted.)

In a stand mixer, add 2 cups of the flour and the salt.  Add the yeast mixture and stir.  Add the margarine and the eggs.  (If you are using a bread hook, it's a good idea to beat them a little first.)  Continue adding flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixer bowl.  Pour a little oil in the bowl, allow the dough hook to turn the dough around to spread the oil, then stop mixing.  Remove the dough hook, turn the dough upside down, and cover the bowl with a damp cloth.  (For more detailed directions on mixing a yeast dough in a stand mixer, visit this page.)

Before rising . . .

This dough is rather slow-rising.  Check it after an hour and see if it has more or less doubled in size.  If not, make sure the cloth is still damp and check it 20 minutes or so later.

After rising . . .

When the dough is finished rising, turn it out on a lightly floured surface and divide into fourths.  This recipe ends up making roughly 3 dozen buns, but as I find dividing doughs in thirds to be cumbersome, I settle for 32.  In this way, I can divide in halves, then halves, etc.  Each fourth will be divided into 8 portions.  Roll each portion into a ball.

Roll each ball to a circle about 4 inches in diameter.

Place about a rounded teaspoonful of anko into the center of the circle.

Bring the dough around to cover it, using water to seal the dough, if necessary.  (I find it necessary.)  I bring the dough around in much the same fashion as the center of a pinwheel, bit by bit, all the way around.  (There has to be a proper cooking term for it, but I have no idea what it is.  I learned it by examining steamed Asian buns . . .)

Place the bun, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet.

Allow the buns to rise, covered, again, by a damp cheesecloth or paper towel, for about an hour or so.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  If desired, brush the buns with melted butter or egg yolk and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.  (I used melted butter and skipped the sesame seeds this time . . .)

Bake in the 375 degree oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from the tray and allow the buns to cool.

This makes a fun snack which my daughters love.  I prefer to heat mine a few seconds in the microwave, if they have cooled completely, but they are also good at room temperature.