turtle melon pan. a cute twist to the popular japanese melon pan. melon pan is a sweet soft bread roll encased by a layer of crunchy sugar cookie dough.
turtle melon pan. makes 10 ingredients:
dough: 300g bread flour 6g instant yeast 36g fine crystal sugar 5g salt 6g milk powder 200g warm tap water 30g unsalted butter (make sure butter is soft)
crunchy layer: 80g unsalted butter (bring to room temperature) 90g extra fine crystal sugar 80g egg, beaten 200g cake flour 2g baking powder 1tsp vanilla extract 2tsp cocoa powder
green colored sugar for coating
instruction
dough: sift bread flour, sugar, salt, milk powder into a mixing bowl. add instant yeast and mix. add in warm water little at a time. I used a stand mixer with a dough hook at low-medium speed to kneed the dough. you can also kneed by hand. when the dough no longer sticks to the side of the dough. turn off the mixer. cut butter into small slices and stick them into the dough. mix on lower speed with dough hook. when the butter melts a little, turn to medium speed for 2 minutes, then mix on low speed until all the butter is absorbed and the dough to shiny and extremely pliable. this will take a long time about 20 minutes. your stand mixer will get hot. try mixing in 5 minute intervals and let the stand mixer cool for 2 minutes in between. place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover bowl and let proof for about one hour, or until double in bulk.
cookie crust: with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until mixture turns pale. add in vanilla extract. add in beaten eggs in 3 addition. beat well after each addition. sift over cake flour and baking powder. mix with a spatula until flour mixture is fully incorporate. you can make a chocolate swirl version by adding cocoa powder to a part of the crust mixture. divide the mixture into 10 portions. place on parchment paper and let the dough chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
punch out the air in the bread dough and divide into 12 portion, about 45g each. roll into rounds. take 2 rounds and divide each into 5 pieces (so you have 10 small pieces in total). divide and roll each of the 10 pieces into 1 bigger piece and 5 smaller pieces of tear drop shapes for the turtles’ heads, arms, legs and tails. cover with a damp cloth and let the dough relax for 10mins. remove chilled pastry dough from the fridge. roll out each dough in between 2 layers of cling wraps. roll the bread dough again into rounds again. Remove the top layer of the cling wrap and place the bread dough onto the cookie dough. with the bottom layer of the cling wrap still intact, wrap the pastry dough around the bread dough. remove the bottom layer of the cling wrap. do not cover the entire bread dough with the pastry. the dough needs the space to expand. coat the exterior with green sugar. use back of knife to make diagonal lines into the dough, making diamond shaped indents. take the tear drop shapes and tuck them under the bread to make the turtle shapes. leave doughs in a draft free and warm area to proof for the second time for about 40 ~ 50mins. THE DOUGH HAS TO DOUBLE IN SIZE. This is critical to the texture and fluffiness of the bread. bake in pre-heated oven at 355F for 10 ~ 15 mine took 15 minutes to brown.
inspired by 酥皮麵包大集合by 佐藤律子
