Sausage Cheese Bread Rolls

Nothing beats the wonderful aromas of freshly baked bread wafting through the house.  I've been wanting to try this Japanese-Style Sweet Bun Dough recipe for the past few months but since it was winter, I didn't have the patience to sit there for hours waiting for the dough to prove.  At last,  it was a glorious spring day today,  sunny and warm, so I decided  to make some sausage bread rolls.

This recipe calls for the addition of water-roux paste  (湯種 Tang Zhong)  into the bread dough which was suppose to produce a soft and fluffy texture in the buns.  However, I didn't think mine turned out as fluffy as I expected.   What did I miss?   This sweet bun dough recipe is supposed to be filled with sweet filling but I decided to use it for savoury filling instead - sausages, and it tastes quite good too.  

Ingredients:   (Makes 16 buns)

Water-Roux Paste

25g  bread flour
125ml (1/2 cup) water

• Mix flour and water in a small saucepan. 
• Cook over low to medium heat, stirring continuously until thickened to a paste (when you stir you can see the bottom of the pan). 
• Remove from heat, cover the paste with cling wrap and leave until lukewarm, or room temperature, before using.

For the Sweet Bun Dough:

375g high protein flour (bread flour)
100g plain flour
35g milk powder
75g caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 sachet (7g) instant dry yeast
1 egg, lightly beaten
150ml (approx.) lukewarm water, adjust as necessary
40g butter, cubed

16 skinless sausages
cheese slices, cut into strips

1 egg + a little milk, lightly beaten - for glazing

• Sift bread flour, plain flour, milk powder, caster sugar and salt into the mixing bowl.  Add instant dry yeast and mix well. Form the flour mixture into a well. Add egg and lukewarm water and water-roux paste. 
• Turn on the mixer with dough hooks attached.  Gradually add just enough lukewarm water to form into a slightly sticky, soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. 
• Add butter and knead until butter is incorporated into the dough.  
• Take the dough out and knead with hand. The dough also needs to be thrown onto the working surface once every few minutes between kneading to improve the dough structure.  [You should be able to pull and stretch the dough into a thin membrane without tearing]
• Form the dough into a ball and place it  in a greased mixing bowl and cover with clingwrap.  Let it prove in a warm place for about an hour until the dough doubled in size.   (I left the dough inside a warm oven with a saucepan of hot water to provide steam).
• Remove the dough from the bowl.  Press the air from the dough and knead briefly.  Divide dough into 16 balls of 56g each.  Rest for 10 minutes.
• Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into oval shape.  Place sausage in the middle and cut both sides of the dough into strips.  Place the cheese strips onto the sausage.  Fold the strips over the sausage, alternating  the left and right side  of the strips.
• Place rolls on a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Cover with clingwrap and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).
• Brush rolls with egg wash.
• Bake in preheated oven of 180 deg C for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.