Brown Sugar Banana Bread 黑糖香蕉面包

I seem to have a habit of buying recipe books and not "using" them. So I left clear instructions to the kids NOT to eat the last banana left. I need the last one to try out a new recipe from my newly bought bread maker book (麵包機新手的第一本書).

The original recipe was for a sandwich loaf. But I was feeling a little creative that afternoon, so I made the recipe into little individual bear buns instead. I was on the fence on whether to add fillings to the buns or not. But since there's banana and brown sugar inside, I decided to just make it plain.

The recipe is so easy to make and the bear was so cute! But I would definitely skip the egg wash the next time as it turned out too brown!

90g Milk
90g Banana Puree
20g Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
230g Bread Flour
20g Wholewheat Flour
20g Unsalted Butter
3/4 tsp Instant Yeast
black food colouring

1. Put all ingredients in to the bread making machine and select "DOUGH" mode. This will mix, knead and proof the dough for you. If you don't have a bread maker: 
• Make sure all ingredients are in room temperature. 
• Mix the yeast with the milk and wait for a few minutes until the yeast blooms. 
• Put all ingredients except butter into a mixer with a paddler attachment and mix it all up. 
• Once the ingredients are well mixed, add in the butter. Switch to the hook attachment and knead the dough in medium speed for about 10-15min. 
• Remove the hook and cover up the bowl with cling flim and proof until the dough double in size.
2. When the dough is ready knock out all the air and weight it. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.
3. From each piece cut out about 5 grams and cut it into 2 pieces for the ears.
4. Roll all the dough into balls. Place them into muffin tins, add the ears. 
5. Cover the muffin tin with a clean tea towel and let it rise again for about 20 minutes.
6. Using a toothpick and black food colouring, draw eyes and nose on the bears.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degress celsius for 15 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack before eating!

The next morning, I toasted the bears a little and spread a little peanut butter for the kids. They loved it! For me, I'm a Nutella fan, and Nutella on banana buns was SO DIVINE! Maybe next time I'll wrap it inside the buns.