Asian Bakery Style Frankfurt and Corn Salad Soft Roll

Asian Bakery Style Corn Salad and Frankfurt Buns

These buns are popular in Asian Bakeries and it often enjoyed for breakfast or lunch. Frankfurt is just one of the many things you can use as topping as you can pretty much put anything savoury or sweet on top.

The bread itself is made from my own Tang Zhong bread recipe and it is always my preferred for any soft roll, although I have different variations for a similar recipe that uses whole wheat or other flours as well, and if you are interested, check out my post on Whole Wheat Shokupan.

Tang Zhong bread uses a different method of bread making very similar to the European bread that uses poolish or biga. Although poolish and biga are made by mixing water and flour with a small amount of yeast and leave to pre ferment for several hours to a day, the Tang Zhong Method is much more straight forward and less time consuming. Poolish and Biga are also often used in European Bread to enhance flavour but the Tang Zhong Method is predominantly utilised in Asian bread for the soft texture.

Tang Zhong

When making bread with the Tang Zhong method, a small portion of the flour and liquid (milk/water) are heated and whisked over a heat source until the starch in the flour starts to absorb all of the liquid and turns to a thick sticky mass. This chemical changes in the starch is called "swelling". When starch in the wheat flour absorbs liquid through heat, it starts to swell and thicken and are non reversible. This substance is called "Tang Zhong". The ratio for Tang Zhong is always 1:5, with 1 part flour and 5 parts liquid. The flour quantity of the Tang Zhong is usually around 8-10% extraction from the flour quantity as a whole.

This retention of water is what creates a soft and moist bread that does not dry overnight like most bread recipe. I have tried leaving some of the baked bread over a week that was kept at room temperature and wrap tight in cling film. The texture was just like from the first day it was baked. This always fascinates me.

If you are interested in knowing more about Tang Zhong bases breads, you can visit my page on Shokupan.

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RECIPE

Makes 6 x rolls

Tang Zhong

30 g Bread Flour

150 g Full Cream Milk

Yeast Sponge

7 g Instant Yeast

30 g Full Cream Milk (30°C)

5 g Castor sugar

Final Bread dough

325 g Bread Flour

55 g Castor Sugar

90 g Full Cream Milk

4 g Salt

50 g Egg

60 g Butter (Softened)

Egg Wash

50 g Egg

50 g Milk

Whisk to combine and reserve until ready to use

Toppings

50 g Mayonnaise (Kewpie)

30g Celery ( 1 Stalk) - Diced

20 g Diced Onions

70 g Sweet Corns

½ cup Bonito Flakes

60 g Mozzarella Cheese

Qs. Siracha (For drizzling) - optional

6 pc. Frankfurts

Mix everything together in a bowl except for the siracha, bonito flakes and Frankfurts. Set aside in the fridge until ready to use.

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Method

1. Start by Preparing the Tang Zhong. Whisk the flour and milk together in a saucepan and cook it over the stove on medium heat. Continue whisking until it thickens and forms a thick milky paste. Transfer the Tang Zhong onto a clean bowl then place a cling film touching the surface of the tang Zhong and put in the fridge or room temperature to fully cool.