Learn how to make bakery-style soft and fluffy milk buns filled with savory, spicy, and aromatic sardine filling. They are budget-friendly to make and super delicious.
Beat one egg in a bowl with a fork or whisk. You will only need half of this. Save the other half as an egg wash for the buns later
Place all ingredients for the dough in a mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Mix on low speed for about 2 minutes, then increase speed by one notch to medium and knead for about 10 minutes. The dough should leave the sides of the bowl. Stop the kneading. The dough will be very soft and just slightly sticky and if you stretch it thin, it won't break. It has reached a windowpane stage. If not, knead just a bit longer
Proofing:
Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and let it proof at a warm place until it is doubled in size. It may take 1 to 1 1/2 hours or longer depending on how warm your place is
Prepare sardine filling (can be prepared the day before):
Mash the sardines with a fork to break it into little pieces. Preheat a large skillet with oil. Add onion and saute until aromatic, about 3 minutes. Add the sardines along with the sauce, and the rest of the ingredients, except for the lime juice. Continue to stir fry until the filling is somewhat wet but not soupy. Squeeze in the lime juice. Have a taste and adjust seasonings to your preference
Turn off the heat and let the filling to cool down completely
Fill and shape:
Once the dough has doubled in size and when you gently press on it, it never bounces back, the dough is done proofing. Lightly dust your work surface with a little bit of flour. Get the dough out and punch the air out on the dough to flatten. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. Keep them covered and work with one dough at a time
Get one dough and flatten into a round circle. Gather the sides and pull until you get a nice round ball. Repeat this with the rest of the dough. Cover and let them rest for 10 minutes. This is to relax the gluten so we can shape the dough without much resistance later.
Work with one dough at a time. Roll one dough out into a circle about 4-5 inches in diameter. Place the filling on top and gather the side to enclose and pinch to seal tightly so the filling won't leake out butter during baking. Shape the dough into a round shape and place on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. You will need two baking sheets. Cover them with a clean cloth and let them rise again until about double in size. This may take 45 minutes to 1 hour. When you press on the dough gently, it will gradually bounce back
Baking:
15 minutes before the end of proofing, preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). My oven setting is conventional oven that uses bottom heat, no fan. If yours have top and bottom heat, you may need to do some adjustment by lowering the temperature by 15-20 degrees. You will know your oven best
Brush the top of the buns with leftover egg earlier. Sprinkle with some white sesame seeds. Place the baking sheets on the middle rack and bake for 18-20 minutes. If both trays can fit on the same rack, you can do so, if not, place the other one at the bottom rack and then rotate them halfway through baking so they bake evenly
Remove from the oven and then transfer to a cooling rack to let them cool down completely