Circular aluminum trays fill with golden, buttery, ultra soft milk buns are a common sight in my parents home growing up. The simple buttery milk bun is the most common (not to be confused with Butter Milk Bun), but occasionally we have ones with raisin or filled with coconut paste.
I didn’t realized there was another kind: Butter Milk Buns, not to be confused with buttermilk buns, or buttery milk buns. On instagram, one of my fellow bakers, Grace, posted buns filled with red bean paste and butter milk paste (her favorite) and reminisced on their nostalgia factor. Red bean is very familiar, but I never heard of butter milk paste before– or maybe I have had it but never knew what it was called. I knew I have to give it a try so I DMed her asking for the paste recipe and the rest is history!
So her original recipe calls for:
53g butter
33g icing sugar
1/6 tsp salt
1/3 egg
1 tbsp corn flour
66g milk powder
1 tbsp custard powder
However, I didn’t have access to custard powder. She described custard powder as a combination of milk powder, egg yolk and sugar so I made adjustments in the recipe to accommodate the ingredients I do have.
The paste is light in color when I mixed it together, so I decided to pair it with white milk buns to emphasize the contrast between the filling and bread. White milk buns are just milk buns without egg, like the snowy white Japanese shokupan aka “hokkaido milk buns”. When baked, the paste turns a beautiful golden honeycomb color that truly stands out against the white of the bun. For more richness, an egg is advised, so I added a note about that in the recipe.
The flavors of the buns came out, surprising familiar! It sorta remind me of the coconut paste filled buns I had growing up, but minus the coconut. Its sweet, buttery and milky– a delightful simple filling.
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Looking for sourdough Asian pastry recipes? Check these out:
- Baked Ube Bun [Sourdough or Yeasted]
- Basic Soft Bread Rolls (Tangzong)
- Pork Sung Bun [Sourdough or Yeasted]
- Sourdough Mamon: Filipino Egg Sponge Cake
Butter Milk Buns (Sourdough or Yeasted)
Ingredients
Main Dough
Butter Milk Filling
- 23 g butter room temperature
- 10 g powdered sugar
- 25 g egg ~1/2 an egg. Use the other half for an egg wash.
- 1/2 tbsp corn starch
- 40 g milk powder
- pinch salt
Egg wash (optional)
- 25 g egg
- 1.5 tsp water
Instructions
- Once doubled, transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide dough into equal pieces and roll into a smooth ball. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- While the dough is resting, make the butter milk filling: first cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Then, mix in egg until the mixture is light and fluffy. Finally, add in salt, corn starch and milk powder. The mixture should be thick. Divide into 4 equal pieces and roll into balls.
- Flatten the dough balls into a circle. Add the butter milk filling to the center and enclose it with dough, pinches the ends closed. Tightly roll into smooth balls and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the rest. Let rise ~2-3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Make the egg wash and brush it on top on the risen dough. Alternatively, you can brush the top of the dough with warm milk, cream or coconut cream. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.
