Pillowy soft buns topped with gooey caramel with a hint of savoriness from the miso paste and some crunch from the walnuts are a morning treat to look forward to. The buns stay soft and moist thanks to the tangzhong.
40gred or white miso pastered miso gives more intense flavor
Instructions
Prepare tangzhong: (the day before if possible)
Place milk and the bread flour in a small saucepan. Whisk until there are no more lumps. Cook this mixture over low-medium heat until it reaches 65 C (149 F) or until it thickens into a spreadable paste consistency.
Remove from the heat and cover with a plastic wrap, touching the tangzhong so the skin won't form. I highly suggest using this the next day instead of using it on the same day. Store this in the fridge
Prepare the dough:
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients and the tangzhong. Use a dough hook to stir it roughly so that when you start the machine, the flour won't fly all over.
Knead the dough on low speed until all the crumbly dough starts to come together into one mass, it may take about 2-3 minutes for this to happen. Don't try to add any flour or liquid. You may need to stop halfway and scrape the dough off the hook and the sides of the bowl and knead again several times
Once you get a rough dough, add the softened butter and continue to knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes or longer, depending on your mixer.
When you gently stretch a small portion of the dough thinly, it won't break. This shows sufficient gluten development
1st proofing:
Place this dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, cover it with a clean and damp tea cloth or plastic wrap and let it rise at a warm place for about 1 hour.
The dough will puff up, may be double in size or may be close to double.
Prepare the filling:
About 15 minutes before the end of proofing for the dough, prepare the filling. Combine brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt some butter and set aside. Proceed to prepare the miso caramel topping
Prepare the miso caramel topping:
Place butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, miso paste in a saucepan. Use a whisk to break the miso paste so it blends well with the rest of the ingredients. Cook over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves and no lumps of miso paste in the mixture. Set aside to let it cool down
Shaping:
Lightly oil your pan, I used a 9 x 9 inch square pan and line the pan with a heavy-duty aluminum foil, covering the bottom and the sides, corner to corner. Apply oil on the foil to prevent sticking. You can also use a non-stick cooking spray.
Pour the miso caramel topping into the pan. It should cover the base of the pan. Sprinkle evenly with the rest of the chopped walnut
Deflate the dough by folding the edges towards the center to deflate the dough
Round it up into a dough ball. Cover it loosely with a cling wrap and let it rest for 5 minutes to relax the gluten
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out using a rolling pin (lightly flour the rolling pin if necessary) to a rectangle about 12 x 15 inches.
Spread the melted butter on top of the dough, leaving 1/2 inch along the edges. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling all over, leaving 1/2 inch along the edges. Use your clean hands to press the filling into the dough. The melted butter helps to keep the filling in place. Sprinkle half of the walnuts on top
Start rolling from the long side all the way to the other end. You get a long log now. Take care not to get the butter on your fingers while rolling the dough because it makes the dough slippery and hard to seal later.
Pinch the seams together to seal
Use a serrated knife and cut the dough into 9 equal pieces.
Arrange the pieces on top of the caramel topping inside the pan. It should be 3 x 3
2nd proofing:
Let the shaped dough proof again they fill up the pan and really puffy. When you gently push on the dough, it bounces back slowly and leave an indentation. This may take 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how warm it is where you are
10 minutes before the end of 2nd proofing, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven and 330 F (165 C) for convection oven
Baking:
Put the pan on the middle rack and let it bake for 40-45 minutes or a toothpick inserted into the center piece of the bun comes out with some sticky caramel is okay, but no sticky dough. If it does, bake for another 5 minutes and test again. Loosely tent the top of the pan with aluminum foil halfway through baking if the top gets brown too fast
Cool down:
Remove from the oven and let the buns cool in the pan for 10 minutes. DO NOT skip this step.
Place a large piece of parchment paper on top of the buns. Then place a half-sheet pan on top (pan not shown in the photo)
Quickly but carefully invert the pan. Let it sit like this, do not remove the 9 x 9 pan. Let it cool down this way for at least 20 minutes. If you remove the pan now, the caramel is still hot and thin and it just gushes out. The caramel thickens up and becomes gooey when it cools down. So let it sit and thicken up
To serve:
After about 20 minutes or so, remove the pan covering the buns. There are still some caramel that drips down but they are thick and gooey and can be easily scoop and drizzle on the buns for extra topping. The buns are best served warm