Matcha Pan

Course: Baked Buns

Cuisine: Japanese

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 18

Proof the dough twice:: 2

Total Time: 2 48

Servings: servings

Calories: 363kcal

Author: Marvellina

Pillowy soft and fluffy buns filled with matcha white chocolate ganache is perfect for breakfast or as snacks to go with that cup of coffee or tea.

Place the chopped white chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Pour the heavy cream and add salt in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the matcha powder and whisk to combine until smooth. Add the chopped white chocolate and let it sit for about 3-4 minutes. Then whisk until the ganache is smooth and silky
Cover and keep it chilled in the fridge for up to 3 days

Place milk and the bread flour in a small saucepan. Whisk until there is no more lumps. Cook this mixture over low-medium heat until it reaches 65 C (149 F) if you have a instant-read digital thermometer. Otherwise, it's about 1 1/2-2 minutes.
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
If you decide to use it on the same day, let it cool down to lukewarm before mixing with the rest of the ingredients

Add the rest of the ingredients for the dough, except for the butter, into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Start the machine and knead the dough on speed 2 until the dough starts to come together into one sticky mass, about 3 minutes
Increase the speed to 4 and continue to knead until the dough is relatively smooth. You need to stop and scrape the dough off the hook and the bowl several times during this process
Gradually add the butter, one pat at a time. It is a REAL sticky mess again because of the butter, just keep kneading and stop halfway and scrape the dough off the hook and bowl again and continue to knead until the butter is absorbed by the dough. Don't add any flour.
You will get a shiny smooth dough that is very elastic and sticky. It may take 10-15 minutes of kneading with a machine on speed 4.
The dough will clear the sides of the bowl but still stick to the bottom of the bowl and that's ok.
If you gently stretch a small amount of the dough slowly, it shouldn't break easily. This shows that the dough has good gluten development already and you can stop kneading

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 and double in volume.
When you poke your finger into the dough, the indentation stays and the dough won't deflate

Lightly oil your pan, I used a 9 x 9 inch square pan and line with a parchment paper. Deflate the dough and knead a few times to push out all the air
Divide the dough into 9 equal portions.
Fold each dough onto itself to form a round dough ball. Keep them covered to prevent them from drying out and let them rest for about 5 minutes before you fill the dough with ganache
Work with one dough at a time. Flatten one piece of dough into a disc, about 3-4 inches in diameter. Scoop a heaping spoonful of the ganache onto the center. Try not to stuff too much (I did and some of them leak out)
Fold the dough over to wrap the ganache. Seal tightly to prevent the ganache from leaking out and roll and reshape the dough again into a round shape
Place it inside a prepared baking pan, seam side down. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling

Let the shaped dough proof again for another 45 minutes to 1 hour or until they fill up the pan. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash. Sprinkle with panko bread crumbs on top

10 minutes before the end of the final proofing, preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C) for conventional oven, 350 F (180 C) for convection oven. Position the oven rack in the middle of the oven
Place the baking pan in the positioned rack. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the top is golden brown. If you have an instant digital thermometer, it should read at least 190 F (88 C)
Remove from the oven and let them cool in the pan set on top of cooling rack before serving. Some of the filling may leak out if you don't seal the dough properly, but no worries, once the buns have cooled down, the filling will set and won't be as messy to eat
The buns are best at room temperature when the ganache has time to "set". Though you can served it warm too, it would just be messier and busy licking fingers (not that it's a bad thing!). The bread crumbs soften the next day but will crisp back up when you reheat the rolls