Sakura Anpan Sweet Bean Paste Filled Buns with Cherry Blossoms with a Bread Machine - Bread

Method

• Gently rinse the salt off the cherry blossoms, and pat them dry with paper towels.
• Divide the anko into 8 portions and form them into balls.
• Cover with plastic wrap.
• Each portion weighs about 30 g.
• Put all the bread dough ingredients in the main bread machine compartment except for the yeast, and put the dry yeast in the yeast container.
• Press Start.
• The program to use will vary depending on your bread machine.
• Choose the one that will allow you to take the dough out after the 1st rising to form as you please.
• After the program is done (after the 1st rising), take the dough out.
• Weigh the dough and divide into 8 equal portions.
• Round each portion of into a smooth ball.
• For reference: The entire amount of dough weighs about 400 g, and 1 portion is about 50 g for a total of 8 portions.
• Cover the balls of dough with a tightly wrung out moistened kitchen towel so that they don't dry out.
• Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
• Press the dough balls evenly to deflate them and to make then about 10 cm in diamater.
• Put a ball of anko in the center.
• Make sure the thickness of the dough is even all over!
• Bring the top and bottom edges of the dough over the filling first.
• Then bring the left and right sides over the filling in the same way.
• Pinch the dough tightly sealed.
• Put the buns on a kitchen parchment paper lined baking tray with the seam sides down.
• Repeat for all 8 buns.
• Keep the dough covered with the moist kitchen towel as you work.
• Cover the dough on the tray with a piece of canvas.
• When all the buns are formed, press lightly down on each bun.
• If you do this with the canvas covering the buns, the surface will be nice and smooth.
• Put some bread flour (not listed in the ingredients) on your finger, and make a dent in the middle of each bun.
• Press down to about 1/3 of the depth of the bun.
• If you press straight down with your finger the dough may tear, so go in a bit diagonally to make the dent.
• Put a cherry blossom in the dent.
• Repeat for all 8 buns.
• Cover the buns with the piece of canvas cloth and then a tightly wrung out moistened kitchen towel.
• Leave to rise (2nd rising) for 15 minutes at 40C Preheat the oven to 40C beforehand.
• After letting the buns rise in the oven for 15 minutes, leave to rise for 10 to 15 minutes at room temperature.
• You need to take the buns out before they are done rising since the oven needs to be preheated for baking.
• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Start preheating it once you have taken the tray of buns out of the oven.
• The buns should rise enough that they are about doubled in volume.
• This is the same even if you let them rise at room temperature for the whole 2nd rising.
• Brush the surface of the buns with egg wash. Brush them down to the bottom for a nice looking finish after baking.
• Bake in a 200C oven for about 12 minutes, or 12 to 14 minutes.
• Check the buns after 12 minutes.
• Take them out once they are as browned as you want them to be.
• Cool the baked buns on a cooling rack.
• When they have cooled down, they're done!
• The buns look like this when you cut into them.
• The dough is pressed out in Step 8 in order to ensure the anko filling is distributed nicely, so be sure to press the dough out evenly.
• When adding the dry yeast and flour etc.
• to the bread machine, make sure the yeast and salt are not touching each other.