Pandan Raisin Buns

My Dad used to own a bakery store when I was a teenager and as a bread lover, that was the best part time job I could ever have. One of the perks of the job was that I can eat anything I want in the store. The warm cheese bread, the sugar donuts fresh from the fryer, the fluffy cakes, and yes, the raisin buns. My Dad would make a whole load of them and I LOVE eating them warm from the oven, the sugary top sweet and sticky. Till now I still love them, so I decided to hunt down a similar recipe and recreate my favourite raisin buns.

To be honest, I'm terrible at kneading bread dough. I could never get the hang of it, so I always use my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer to do the job for me. They say you have to knead with your hand, but hey, so far the mixer has been doing a great job. Just make sure you give it more time to knead and proof the dough properly! Never make bread if you don't have time. Plan ahead! Like last night I mixed everything together 1st and put my kid to bed while the dough proofs. When I'm out the dough is ready for me!

The original recipe used a bread maker, so I tweaked it and wrote down instructions for using a kitchen mixer.

Ingredients:

240g bread flour
60g wholewheat flour
50g castor sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp pandan paste *
1 egg
150g slightly warm milk
20g unsalted butter
5 g salt
1/4 cup raisins

Sugar syrup (melt 1 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp water)

1. Soak raisins in warm water. 
2. Using a kitchen mixer, mix warm milk, castor sugar and yeast together and wait 5 minutes till bubbly. 
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for butter. Using a hook attachment, knead until a dough ball is formed and the bowl is clean of all flour. Add in butter and knead until butter is mixed in and dough is elastic and smooth. 
4. Gather dough to form a ball. Oil the mixing bowl, put the dough back in and cover bowl with cling wrap. Let it rest for about 50-60 mins or double in size. 
5. Divide dough into portions of 60 gm each. Shape into balls and put into muffin pan lined with papercups. Let it proof for another 50-60 mins or until dough has doubled in size. 
6. Apply milk on dough and bake at 180-190ºC for about 12 mins or till lightly brown.
7. Immediately after taking the buns out of the oven, brush buns with sugar syrup.

* On hindsight, this is the 1st time I used pandan paste and although it is very fragrant, I would cut down the portion a little next time. The bread is WAY too green and the flavour a little too strong. Maybe use natural pandan next time?

The bread is soft and fluffy but not to the point of sticking to your teeth. I love it! Will definitely do it again.

The muffin cups gives the buns a nice shape! Would definitely try this with different flavours next time.

Got some spare dough so tried my braiding skills. Nice? :)