Go Back

Cream Pan

The best Japanese Sweet Bread
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
fermentation time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 10 buns

Equipment

  • bowl, oven

Ingredients
  

Sweet Bread Dough

  • 250 g bread flour
  • 50 g sugar
  • 2 g salt
  • 4 g active dry yeast
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 150 ml whole milk
  • 30 g unsalted butter

Pastry Cream

  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 75 g sugar
  • 10 g all-purpose flour
  • 10 g corn starch
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste or essence
  • 15 g unsalted butter

Rum icing

  • 2 tbsp powdered sugar
  • ½ tsp dark rum

Instructions
 

Sweet Bread Dough

  • ※Keep a teaspoon of egg yolk for the egg Wash.
    Mix yolks and Lukewarm whole milk.
  • In a large bowl put  in the bread flour, sugar and  salt, whisk to combine.
    And then, add in active dry East and whisk to combine.
    ※I always mix dry ingredients with my top stick because it’s much easier and faster to even out the dry ingredients.
  • Pour in egg milk mixture into the dry ingredients in 3 stages.
    When it forms a dough, cover with a plastic wrap and leave it for 10 minutes until the bread flour absorb the moisture and relax the gluten.
  • Now let’s start needing the dough by hand.
    You can also use stand mixer of calls or bread maker do you need dough.
    This is the rich dough so it’s not easy to knead by hand but let’s give it a try.
    Take out the door onto your working surface and spread it by your hand and put it back together.
    Repeat the spread and put it back together motion until Del smooth to the touch.
    ※What this does is combining all the ingredients together and binding together.
  • Then knead until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.
    The dough is very sticky so use a scraper to scrape down the bread dough from your hand and working surface.
    After 5 to 6 minutes, the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
    Please be patient until the gluten develop and easy to handle.
  • Let’s give it a window pane test.
    When you pull the dough and it stretch like paper thin, it's OK to add unsalted butter.
  • Once you add the butter, the dough will separate. Knead the dough until comes back together and smooth.
  • Shape the dough into a ball, and put it in a greased bowl.
    Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at warm place (30℃, 86℉) for about 60 minutes until double in volume.
  • After 60 minutes it looks like this keep it the pork test.
    Poke the dough in the center with flour dusted finger, in the hole is not shrinking back, the first rise is successfully done.

Pastry Cream

  • In a heavy bottomed pot, add in the whole milk and half the amount of sugar.
    Start heating on medium-low heat.
    Adding the sugar to the milk prevents the forming the film on the surface.
  • Add the rest of the sugar into the egg yolk and whisk well until it looks pale yellow.
    Add in flour and corn starch and whisk to combine.
  • Add 3 tablespoons of hot milk mixture into the egg mixture.
    Whisk well, then add hot milk mixture in 2 to 3 stages.
    Whisk well and bring it back to the Pot pass through a sieve.
  • Prepare a bowl set on the ice bath beside you to transfer the cooked pastry cream.
    Cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
    Do not stop stirring, otherwise you will end up lumpy pastry cream.
  • Cook until bubbling and it started forming a cream, cook one more minute to cook thoroughly.
    If you don’t cook thoroughly the cream will taste like raw flour, and it’s not comfortable to eat.
  • Turn the heat off and add in the butter and whisking the butter works for our texture the melt in your mouth.
  • Transfer to a bowl we prepared, cover with the plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent forming the film. Leave it until cool.

Shaping the Classic Cream Pan

  • Divide the dough into 5×50 g ball.
    Rest the dough for five minutes for a Bench rest.
    The gluten relax and it’s become easy to shape.
  • Loosen the chilled custard cream to make it easy to handle with a spoon.
    Roll out the dough into 5 mm in thickness and shape into an oval.
    Put the 50 g of pastry cream in the center,  And Hold the dough over the cream, pinch to seal.
    The shape is like half moon.
  • Put the shaped Cream Pan on the individual parchment paper, and cover with a piece of plastic wrap.
  • Let rise at worm place for 30 minutes until puff up, and a little bit bigger than the original size.

Rum raisin Cream Pan

  • Roll out the rest of the 250g dough into 20 x 25 cm rectangle.
    Spread the rest of the custard cream, not too thick but evenly.
    Sprinkle the rum raisin all over.
    Roll up the door as if you were making a cinnamon rolls.
    Pinch to seal you the end.
  • Cut into 6, and put it in the muffin cup the cut side up.
    Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at worm place for 30 minutes until puff up and a little bit bigger than the original size.
  • Use your scraper and cut 4~5 slit around the edges.
    What this does is releasing the steam from the pastry cream and it Lebois the explosion of the bread dough.

Bake in the oven

  • While the fermentation, preheat the oven for 190℃（374℉）
  • Mix saved egg yolk and 1 teaspoon of whole milk and make egg wash.
    Brush onto the Cream pan.
  • Sprinkle the sliced almonds if you have and bake it in the 190°C over for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
  • For the rum raisin cream pan, brush egg wash just outside.
    And bake it about 12 minutes at 190°C.

Rum icing

  • Mix well the powdered sugar and dark rum.
    Drizzle on the cream pan, while still warm and let it dry.
Keyword baking, cream pan, custard buns, japanese baking, japanese food