The Making of 5C and Sweet Sausage Buns Dough

I finally challenged myself to knead bread dough with my bare hands without any assistance from the machine. I'm so glad that I finally achieved a remarkable result in bread baking though I'm still far compared to those professional bakers.

I have attempted croissants previously. The way of making is not exactly the same with this sausage sweet bun dough. It didn't require that much effort to knead.

I also made Mexico coffee buns before. They turned out to be rather hard the next day/immediately few hours after baking. It is disappointing and urgh - felt like effort wasted after baking.

A friend of mine shared a wonderful recipe to make bread dough soft and chewy. It's called 5度冷藏液种 in Mandarin. I do not know if it actually has an English name for it. Since I'm writing in English, I'll just name it as 5C. The purpose of 5C is to enhance the softness and texture of the bread. It allows more moisture to stay in the bread. To make this simple to understand, it is basically like a special ingredient which is added into your recipe to make your food tastes extraordinary tastier.

Okay so, this blog post will be divided into 2 parts. The making of 5C and the making of sweet sausage bun dough. All credits go to Stella Pang who shared this wonderful baking secret and recipe with me. ;) You gotta try this yourself if you are a bread lover like me.

The Making of 5C

Ingredients: 

300g  high protein flour (bread flour)
300g  ice water
1g      instant yeast (approximately 1/2 - 1 teaspoon)

Utensils:
Tall container with a lid/cover *important*
Spatula

Steps:

1. Place all the ingredients into the container. 
2. Mix them well with a spatula. It is normal if you feel that the mixture is sticky and a little hard. 
3. Cover up the container with its lid and leave it to rise in room temperature for 1 hour. 
4. Place the container into the vegetable slot in the (bottom of the fridge) to be refrigerated and rise for a minimum of 18 hours before it is ready to be used. The level of the mixture should increase by double its original height. 

Here are some pictures to aid your understanding. 

It should look like this after 18 hours of refrigeration. 

You will see some bubbles popping and its height increased. 

The yeast is working inside. 

Note the difference in height before and after the 5C is being refrigerated 18 hours in the fridge.

I left mine to be refrigerated more than 18 hours. 

Around 22 hours because I was busy with my English Lemon Gateu.

It doesn't matter. 

You can keep this in your fridge for about 5 days.

Simple. Nothing difficult. Very effective to enhance your bread quality. 

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The Making of Sweet Sausage Bun Dough 

I guess this is the most basic dough for buns sold in the bakery 

- especially those with sausages and pizza looking bread. 

It's also known as sweet dough if I'm not mistaken. 

Various patterns sausage and cheese buns 

 Ingredients: 
(A)
200g  5C
330g  high protein flour (bread flour)
20g    milk powder
60g    powdered sugar
120g  cold milk (liquid)
4g      yeast (approximately 2 teaspoons)
1        egg

(B)
40g    butter (room temperature)

(C)
1       egg yolk
2       teaspoons of water

Filing / Decoration 
sausages
sandwich cheese slices
granulated sugar

Utensils:

Weighing scale 

Mixing bowl  

Chopsticks 

Knife 

Bowl

Brush

Greased baking trays

Mini rolling pin 

Additional flour for dusting *shaping dough* 

Oven 

  

Steps:

1. Mix ingredients (A) in a mixing bowl with a pair of chopsticks until they form a rough dough. 
2. Put the rough dough onto your working counter. Knead the dough until it becomes non-sticky. The way of kneading is basically in the movement of pushing the dough forward and pull it back to its original shape. Continue this movement of moving forward and backward till you get a non-sticky dough. NOTE: You will undergo a part where your dough seems super sticky and insufficient of flour. Do not add additional flour. 
3. When the dough is less sticky, add in ingredient (B) and knead continuously to allow butter to mix well into the dough. NOTE: It is normal to feel that the dough is super slippery at this stage. Just go on kneading and the oily-ness will go away soon. 
4. Knead until your dough can form a thin layer of mask-kind of texture when you pull it. *study the picture below* 
5. Rest the dough in a big bowl for 10 minutes. 
6. Form desired shape and pattern for your buns. This is the part where you can add filing like sausage/cheese. Place them on greased baking tray for 1 hour until they are double in size, preferably a dry place which is not humid. NOTE: Do not make your buns too big as you need to remember that they will expand double in size later. Do not put them too near apart. 
7. Mix ingredients (C) in a small bowl and brush your buns with the egg wash. 
8. Put any decoration you want to have on your buns - such as sesame seeds and cheese slice etc.
9. Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for approximately 10 - 20 minutes. 
10. Get the buns from the baking trays to the cooling rack after baked. When the buns still have some remaining heat, place them in air-tight containers to be stored. NOTE: Do not wait till your buns are completely cooled down under the fan. Your buns will turn rocky hard very quickly as they lose moisture to the surrounding. 

Tips: 

Different ways to make your buns pretty - Pattern Buns 

http://www.haokanbu.com/story/141771

Here are some pictures to help you to understand better. I cannot manage to capture all the photos throughout the process as I'm too busy kneading and wiping my sweat. It's really a great effort to hand knead the dough by bare hands. 

The bottom is plastic wrap. 

It didn't work well. 

It got off when I was kneading. 

Also, I forgot to get this done in a big bowl instead. 

You should mix the ingredients in a big bowl first. 

After adding the soft slimy 5C at the middle and egg yolk. 

I can't capture anymore after I add in the milk.

I could if I used a bowl instead of the working counter straight away. *pouts*

Though this is not exactly perfect yet.. 

I have already tried my best. 

This is the best that I can go after kneading for approximately 1 hour. 

Phew - - - - ! 

This is the thin mask sheet that I was talking about in Step 4.

Your dough is considered done kneading after when you reach this stage. 

Otherwise, your dough will turn out hard and less-done. 

You will know it when you bite your buns. 

This is how it looks like - shiny and smooth surface after 1 hour plus of kneading. 

This is snapped when I left it to rest for 10 minutes. 

The size will expand slightly. 

So, don't get a too-small bowl to fit the dough. 

My second batch of buns 

Some of the patterns are my creativity

It's fun to play with the dough

You will need scissors, knife, rolling pin and dusting flour while shaping them

It felt like playing Plasticine 

Though it takes dedicated great effort, patience and time to make your own buns from scratch, they are really delicate and satisfying goodies when you taste them in your mouth with the soft and chewy bites.