Japanese Melonpan

Few days ago i was trying this japanese chocolate cornets , and then i ran into another recipe , called Melonpan . Curious , i watched the youtube video ( cooking with dog )  and thinking .. wonder what kind of flavor is melonpan . I would think it must have used melon extract as an ingredients . Well to my surprise , melon bread has NOTHING to do with melon flavor . Turned out the melon pan name comes from the way the topping looks , it looks like cracked skin , just like melon , or cantaloupe skin .

Another thing that i noticed , melonpan is very similar to Mexican Sweet Bread , called Conchas . They’re also bread with cookie topping . However , conchas is slightly different than melonpan . The difference lays on the cookie dough , the cookie dough that we use for conchas , are similar to a paste , while the melonpan’s cookie dough is similar to butter cookie where i can roll it out and shape it . Then with conchas , i only lay the topping on top of the bread , with melonpan i have to literally wrap the bread dough inside the cookie dough . Both i have to score the topping , with the japanese melonpan i only have to score it like diamond , while for the conchas , there is no limit to whatever you want to do , your imagination is your limit .

So anyway .. here is melonpan recipe , only for 5 buns , not many at all but they’re big . This amount of recipe is perfect for family of 3 like mine .

Have fun !

Ingredients for bread dough : 

140 grams of bread flour

25 grams of sugar

pinch of salt

5 grams of milk powder

3 grams of yeast

1 tbsp. of beaten egg mixed with 70 ml warm water

15 grams of melted unsalted butter

1/2 tsp. of vanilla

1. In a medium bowl , mix the dry ingredients together , bread flour , sugar , salt , milk powder , yeast . Mix well .

2. Mix the beaten egg with water , and vanilla and melted butter . Pour the ingredients into the flour mixture . Stir with wooden spoon .

3. Keep mixing until it’s hard to use the spoon , use your hand to start mixing the dough and kneading the dough ,add flour as needed , until it cleans the side of the bowl . .

4. Remove from the bowl , and keep kneading the dough on the counter top until the dough becomes smooth , glossy and elastic . About 8 minutes .

5. Grease the bowl and place the ball of dough in the bowl , cover with plastic wrap , place in a warm place to double in size . Takes about 1 hour .

6. Meanwhile make the cookie dough while waiting for the dough to finish rising . Ingredients for cookie dough : 

25 grams of softened butter , unsalted

35 grams of sugar

25 grams of beaten egg ( about half of an egg )

80 grams of cake flour ( 1 cup of all purpose flour – 2 tbsp. of all purpose flour + 2 tbsp. of cornstarch = 1 cup of cake clour )

1/4 tsp. of baking powder .

– Cream the softened butter and then add the sugar , beat until light and fluffy for few minutes .

– Add egg little at a time til combine . Keep beating until light and pale . Add the cake flour mixture with baking powder . Shape into a log and wrap with plastic wrap , and chill in the fridge until the bread dough is done rising .

7. Now that the dough has double in size , take it out from the bowl , and knead to release the gas , and divide into 5 small size balls , seam down . Rest for 20 minutes .

8. Meanwhile , you can take the cookie dough out from the fridge and like the bread dough , divide the cookie dough into 5 equal size , and roll into a ball , and flatten until it’s big enough to wrap the bread ball about 3.5 inches in diameter .

9. Line a parchment paper on cookie sheet . Reshape the bread dough balls , , then cover with cookie dough that has been flattened into 3.5 inch diameter circle . Roll into sugar , and place it on the cookie sheet .

10 . Score the topping with a sharp knife .

11. Let rise again for 40 minutes in warm place .

12. Preheat oven to 340 F , and bake for about 12-15 minutes , depending on your oven . It took mine for about 17 minutes actually to get done .Enjoy !!