Ultra soft custard buns

What a name that these little buns have to live up to! I saw this recipe while browsing through a food blog called the viewfinder of Mr. and Mrs. Kwok. She made it into a loaf, but when I finished with the dough, it didn't look like it would fill my loaf pan. so..I decided to make them into baby buns.

Now, you might ask, do these buns live up to their name?! YES!! a million times yes!! They're super soft and they're so flavorful. The procedure is similar to the water-roux method, only this includes an egg yolk in the mixture. The original recipe says to use a mixer for this, but I find that the dough was so small, the mixer couldn't really knead it properly. So I ended up kneading the dough by hand...which I really enjoy anyway! In the beginning, this dough is really sticky, but after you work with it a little while, it starts to come together. Here's the recipe:

Ultra soft custard buns
adapted from The Viewfinder of Mr. And Mrs. Kwok

For the bread dough:
200 g bread flour
30 g sugar
½ tsp salt
100g milk
1 tsp instant yeast
15 g milk powder
15 g butter

custard batter
1 egg yolk
10g sugar
15g bread flour
65g milk

1. In a pot, combine all the ingredients for the custard batter and cook over low heat. Constantly stir the mixture to make sure that it doesn't burn. Cook the mixture until it starts to thicken, this will happen very quickly. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool.

2. Combine the bread flour, sugar, salt, milk powder, and yeast. Slowly add the milk into the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms. Add the cooled custard mixture and knead the mixture together. Once the dough starts to come together, knead in the butter. Knead dough until it's smooth and elastic.

3. Allow dough to rise until it doubles in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Cut the dough into 9 equal portions, and allow them to rest for 15 minutes.

5. Form the doughs into balls and place them on a greased baking sheet. Allow the rolls to proof for another 60 minutes.

6. Glaze the rolls with egg wash, and bake them in a 350 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes.