Ube Buns

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I was in Philippines during the long Ramadan and National Day holiday. My Filippino-Chinese friend arranged a fully packed eight days Philippines holiday for us. It was truly wonderful holiday, from volcano watching, to dolphin watching, to snorkelling and eating balut. Okay, I'll have to admit, the balut part wasn't really enjoyable, but it's an experience. And the food was really nice too! As my friend knows that I like ube jam, she bought a tub for me.

Ube is purple yam. I'm suprised it's so common in Philippines even though I read that many countries have them too. With its precious one tub, I decided to make buns with it, replacing yam recipe with ube since they are from similar family. The bread was soft and chewy, it was really good.

Recipe for Ube Buns, modified from 孟老师的100道麵包.
Makes 20 mini buns

Ingredients:
(A) Water Roux
40g Ube paste/jam
20g Bread flour
100g Water

(B) Dough
420g Bread flour
40g Caster sugar
6g Instant yeast
1/2 tsp Salt
190g Water
30g Liv Unsalted butter

(C) Fillings
300g Ube paste, divided into 15g each

Method:

1. Water Roux: Place all the ingredients in (A) in a pot and mix well. Place it on the stove and cook over low fire until it becomes a paste.
2. Transfer the paste into a plate, cover it with cling wrap and put it into the fridge for about 60mins.
3. Dough: In a large mixing bowl, place the water roux (A) and mix in all the ingredients in (B), except butter. Mix until smooth, then add in the butter to continue mixing for at least 15mins or until dough is very smooth (my dough was still quite wet when I left it to proof).
4. Cover it with cling wrap and let it proof for 80mins.
5. Divide the dough into 20 pieces. Let it rest for 10mins.
6. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough, place the ube paste (C) into the centre of the dough, then wrapped it tightly. Flatten it, roll it up like swiss roll, then roll it together and place it into the paper cup. Continue doing it for the remaining pieces.