Melon Pan

Ingredients

• 250 g strong white bread flour
• 30 g caster sugar
• 4 g fine sea salt
• 5 g instant dried yeast
• 150 ml whole milk, lukewarm
• 1 egg, beaten, about 25 g used in the dough
• 25 g unsalted butter, softened
• 60 g unsalted butter, softened, for the cookie dough
• 90 g caster sugar, for the cookie dough
• 1 egg, beaten, for the cookie dough
• 180 g plain flour
• 3 g baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar, for rolling

Before you cook

• Warm the milk to blood temperature.
• Mix the bread flour, 30 g caster sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl, keeping the salt and yeast apart until you stir.
• Beat the 60 g softened butter with the 90 g caster sugar in a second bowl until pale and fluffy.
• Beat the egg into the creamed butter a little at a time.
• Sift the plain flour and baking powder into the creamed mixture with the vanilla and fold to a soft dough.
• Divide the cookie dough into eight balls, wrap them and chill for 30 minutes.
• Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Steps

1. Pour the warm milk and 25 g of beaten egg into the flour mixture and bring it together into a shaggy dough.
2. Knead the dough on an unfloured surface for 8 minutes, until it starts to smooth out.
3. Work the 25 g of softened butter into the dough in small pieces, which will make it slippery before it comes back together.
4. Keep kneading for 8 minutes more, until the dough is smooth, elastic and can be stretched thin enough to see light through.
5. Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it and leave it somewhere warm for 60 minutes, until doubled.
6. Knock the dough back gently and divide it into eight equal pieces of about 60 g.
7. Roll each piece into a tight ball by cupping your hand and dragging it in circles on the work surface.
8. Rest the dough balls under a cloth for 10 minutes.
9. Roll each chilled cookie dough ball between two sheets of baking paper into a 10 cm disc.
10. Drape a cookie disc over a bread ball and press it down the sides, leaving the bottom third bare so steam can escape.
11. Roll the covered top and sides in granulated sugar.
12. Score a diamond lattice into the cookie layer with the back of a knife, cutting only halfway through.
13. Set the buns on the lined trays, well apart, and cover them loosely.
14. Prove for 40 minutes, until the buns look puffed and the cookie layer has begun to crack along the scored lines.
15. Heat the oven to 180C fan about ten minutes before the prove is done.
16. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until the cookie crust is pale gold and firm and the exposed bread base is lightly coloured.
17. Cool the buns on a rack for at least 20 minutes, as the crust only crisps as it cools.