Pumpkin bread for this season and every day

Just in time for the holidays is this gorgeous—and gorgeous tasting—bread. Pumpkin has gradually become more than a bit beloved in Chinese bakery goods over the years. 

This vegetable is, of course, an all-American native, but everything about it seems to appeal to the Chinese aesthetic, especially when it’s used in a food that ostensibly is as nutritionally empty as white bread, because then—voilà—your kids are eating vegetables!

Pumpkin has a gorgeous color going for it, which doesn’t hurt in the least. This reddish cast is auspicious. Until modern times, Chinese didn’t have a word for “orange” in Chinese (one of life’s many mysteries), and so the color “gold” was traditionally assigned instead, which is even better when you’re trying to describe something with more cachet. So there’s that.

Pumpkin schmear

And melon seeds are a big deal with the Chinese. Teatime has always included a little saucer of salted, roasted watermelon seeds on the side for nibbling. It’s a female art, though. 

My old girlfriends in Taipei loved this snack so much that many (most?) of them had a little notch in one of their front teeth from cracking zillions of them over the years. I never quite mastered this, and often ended up with a mush of shells and kernels in my mouth that I would then try to inconspicuously get rid of, usually failing grandly in the process.

But anyway. I’ve been playing around with the idea of making a pumpkin bread that wasn’t cakelike, but truly a bread. I didn’t want it too sweet or buttery, but finely textured and full of flavor, with just enough pumpkin to turn the bread into, well, a lovely shade of gold.

Fold over the long edges

I was thinking of a ribbon of pumpkin winding its way around in the bread, both because it would be so darned pretty, and also because it would lend a wonderful moistness to the affair and completely use up the can of pumpkin puree, which I did not want to see moldering away in the back of the fridge. 

Tastewise, I put my foot firmly down on there being no pumpkin spice. But a dash of ginger is nice, as is the coconut sugar that lends a slightly honeyed aroma without turning things too saccharine.

The crowning touch is the coating of pumpkin seeds. I mean, the loaf looks bejeweled when you get done with it! Their jade color contrasts perfectly with the loaf itself, and they brown just the right amount while the dough is cooking. Full of crunch and flavor, I’ve come to adore the end pieces because then I get a ridiculous amount of the toasted seeds in each mouthful. Yet another reason to be in charge of the bread knife in your house.

A Pullman pan

Again, I’m calling for a Pullman loaf pan. This will ensure that the loaf’s surface is completely embedded with the seeds and the top doesn’t get away with bald bits. It makes a whole lot of difference here, so try it out and see.

Pumpkin times three Pullman loaf

Nánguā nánguā nánguā tŭsī miànbāo 南瓜南瓜南瓜吐司麵包

Makes 1 (9 x 4 inch | 22 x 10 cm) loaf

Dough:

1 teaspoon active yeast

3 tablespoons | 45 ml warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

⅔ cup | 180 g canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling—see Tips)

2 cups | 300 g Chinese flour, plus about ½ cup | 750 g for kneading

Patting on the seeds

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup | 60 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

Filling:

1 cup | 265 g pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons coconut sugar, or packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon sea salt

¾ teaspoon powdered ginger

The rest:

Spray oil

1 cup | 150 g untoasted, shelled pumpkin seeds

Water for sprinkling

Ready to rise

1. Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (Theoretically, you can make this bread by hand, but the dough ends up being so soft and sticky that it’s definitely easier to have the mixer do all the work.) Let the yeast bloom for about 20 minutes, and then add the egg, pumpkin puree, flour, and salt. Mix these together and then knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is elastic and silky. Add the butter and continue to knead the dough for another 5 minutes or so to really build up the gluten. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm area until the dough is at least double in size, around 1 to 2 hours. Punch it down and then let it rise another time until at least double in bulk. Dump the puffy dough out on to a board covered with flour and knead it by hand until it is not very sticky. Cover it again and let the dough rest for around 20 minutes.

Risen to the top

2. To make the filling, mix the puree, sugar, salt, and ginger together in small work bowl.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, sprinkle some flour on top, and use a rolling pin to roll it out into a long strap around 18 x 8 inches | 45 x 20 cm. Use a silicone spatula to spread the filling all over the dough up to around 1 inch | 2 cm from the edges. Fold the long edges over toward the center to completely hide the filling, and then fold the short edges over each other to give you a squarish shape about 9 x 4 inches | 22 x 10 cm, which (ta-da!) is the size of your pan.  

4. Spray your Pullman loaf pan and lid with oil. Pour half of the pumpkin seeds in a large, rimmed dish. Wet your hands and smear this all over the loaf before placing it in the seeds. Pour the rest of the seeds over the top of the loaf and pat as many of the seeds into the wet dough as you can, but don’t stress if some of them fall off or refuse to fuse. What you do is sprinkle half of these renegade seeds into your pan before laying the seed-studded dough on top of them and then dust the top with any remaining seeds. Flick some more water over the dough and cover the pan with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it almost reaches the top of the pan. (Remember that you must be able to slide the lid on top, so don’t let it overproof.)

Fresh from the oven

5. Set a rack just below the middle of your oven and set it for 350°F | 175°C. When the oven is ready, sprinkle some water over the dough to create steam inside the pan. Slide the lid onto the pan, set the pan in the oven, and bake for around 40 minutes. When you open the pan, the loaf should be a lovely golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it in the center. Remove the pan from the oven, turn the loaf out onto a cake rack, and let it cool before cutting it into slices. This freezes well, of course.

Tips

Use pumpkin puree here, not pumpkin pie filling, which has sugar and spices added.

This recipe uses up one 15 ounce | 425 g can so that you don’t have any leftovers. Yay.

What your life needs right now: Taiwanese scallion buns

I have always loved Taiwanese bakeries. Even back at the beginning of my life in Taipei, I often indulged my passion for cakes and pastries by making the rounds of my favorite baked goods shops. These buns were one of my most memorable crushes. And now you get to taste why.

If you like things like scallion pancakes (cōngyóubĭng 蔥油餅), where the fragrant green confetti of chopped green onions collides against a dab of oil, a sprinkle of salt, and enough starchy goodness to spread out the flavors in a perfect pattern, then you are going to adore these little breads.

And the thing is, these are super, super easy to pull together. The fact that they are drop-dead gorgeous just makes them irresistible.

Even if this is your first attempt at making raised bread, you will be successful. The actual hands-on time is minimal, as for the lion’s share of the prep you’ll simply be waiting around for the yeast to wake up, the dough to rise, and the buns to bake.

Really foamy yeast is important

If you want, you can make these in a stand mixer with a dough hook or a food processor. It doesn’t really matter. But I like to just whip these up in a bowl and then quickly knead everything on a counter, since I find it’s even faster and simpler that way.

I’m not sure of their history, but I’m guessing that these started out as one of Hong Kong’s many variations on the Parker House roll theme that has worked its way into so many Chinatown bakeries and dim sum teahouses. Perhaps Japan had a hand in this somewhere along the way, as its influence on Taiwan’s Western-style baked goods has always been pretty strong and, admittedly, delicious.

But no matter what their provenance, these buns really took off as culinary stars once they took root in Taiwan. Fortunes have been made with bakeries specializing in these soft breads—both savory and sweet—and many a Chinese market on this side of the Pacific will have a beloved satellite bakery attached to it, or at least very close by.

Fully risen dough

Taiwanese baked breads tend to be much softer and lighter than what we make in the West. There are eggs and shortening in the dough to make the bread even fluffier, but the key to the perfect texture is (as with all Chinese pastas and breads) the flour. Try to find good Korean wheat flour, since it has the right amount of gluten and tends to be of excellent quality. The ones with the polar bear somewhere on the bag are my favorite brand. If that’s not an option, just use my go-to recipe for Chinese flour: 2 parts all-purpose plus 1 part pastry flour.

Although the dough recipe is my own, the source for the shaping of these buns is an excellent blog called The Woks of Life. The ones they showed there were so beautiful that they really caught my eye. This blog deserves a lot of credit and is worth bookmarking, so here’s a shout out and a whole lot of thanks to this adorable family of food writers and bloggers!

These freeze and reheat incredibly well, so make a big batch and stash them away for breakfasts and snacks. If you’re a vegetarian, leave out the pork fluff and you’ll still have amazing buns on your hands.

Mayo as glue = yum

Green onion and pork fluff buns

Xiāngcōng ròusōng miànbāo 香蔥肉鬆麵包

Taiwan

Makes 16 (6-inch | 15 cm) batons

Dough:

1½ cups | 300 ml warm water

½ cup | 50 g powdered milk (nonfat or regular)

1 tablespoon bread yeast

¼ cup | 60 g sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 cups | 600 g Chinese flour, plus about 1 cup | 150 g more for kneading and shaping 

1½ teaspoons sea salt

¼ cup fresh peanut or vegetable oil

Filling:

2 cups lightly packed | 150 g finely chopped green onions

About 1¼ cups | 100 g homemade pork fluff (see Tips), optional

1 cup | 240 ml mayonnaise

Toppings:

Slit the cigar down the middle

1 large egg, lightly beaten, mixed with 1 teaspoon water

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1 tablespoon sugar dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

1. Mix the warm water, powdered milk, yeast, and sugar together in a large work bowl. Give the yeast time to wake up and become very foamy, which should take around 20 to 30 minutes. If you don’t get a good head of foam, buy fresh yeast and start over.

2. Stir the egg, flour, salt, and oil into the yeast mixture to form a soft dough. Flour a smooth work surface and dump the dough out on top. Quickly knead the dough, adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is smooth and bouncy. Roll the dough into a ball lightly flour it. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel, invert the bowl over the top to help keep the dough moist, and wait until the dough has risen to at least twice its original size, which will take about an hour.

Ready for the oven

3. Cut the dough into 16 even pieces. Toss them with flour and cover with a dry tea towel to keep them from drying out. Cover 2 baking sheets with either Silpat or parchment paper. Heat a convection oven to 350°F | 175°C (regular oven 375°F | 190°C) and set 1 rack near the center. Working on one piece at a time, roll a piece into a rectangle about 2 x 4 inches | 10 x 5 cm in size. Spread 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise over the dough and sprinkle it with about 2 tablespoons green onion and an optional 1 tablespoon of pork fluff. 

4. Roll the rectangle up from a long side into a cigar, gently flatten it, and then cut it down the middle, leaving one end uncut. Lightly twist these two pieces together with the cut sides out so that they look pretty. Pinch the cut end closed. Place the bun on a prepared baking sheet. You should be able to fit 8 of these buns on each sheet, but be sure to leave around 1 inch | 2 cm between them on all sides, as they will rise. Repeat this step with 7 more balls of dough in order to fill up the sheet.

5. Brush the egg wash all over each of the twists, and then sprinkle them generously with the sesame seeds. Set the pan in the center of the oven and bake for about 13 minutes, or until the buns are a lovely golden brown. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for the remaining 8 pieces of dough while the first batch is cooking.

6. Once the buns have baked, brush them with the sugar-water glaze, which will not only add an edge of sweetness, but also make them beautifully shiny. Refrigerate or freeze in resealable bags. To reheat, set them in a 250°F |120°C oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Tips

Yes, please

You can of course use store-bought pork fluff. It is much lighter and flossier than the homemade stuff, and also has less flavor but a more delicate crunch, so feel free to use more. If you don’t eat pork, be on the lookout for chicken (jīsõng 雞鬆) or fish (yúsōng 魚鬆) or even vegetarian fluff (sùròusōng 素肉鬆).

Nowadays you can find all sorts of pork fluff on the market. One is called ròusū 肉酥 and seems to be more or less the same thing as pork fluff, or ròusōng 肉鬆. Often stacked nearby will be containers of ròupú 肉脯, and from what I can figure out, these are more or less the same thing, just longer and consisting of slightly coarser threads than rousong.

Again, you can use fluff of some sort here or leave it out. These buns will be fantastic any way you do them.

Taro horseshoe buns

One of the homiest, most comforting flavors around has to be that of taro. If you have never enjoyed this lovely tropical root, let me say that you should stop right here, head for an Asian store, buy some taro, and prepare to fall in love.

There is a warmth to taro that you just don’t find in other starchy vegetables. Yes, potatoes are nice in all their permutations, but they are, when you get right down to it, there is not an immense amount of flavor or texture. Sweet potatoes—especially delectable Garnets—are fabulous, but in a totally different way from taro. They are moist and honeyed, and when cooked the Shaanxi way, will ooze out caramel like nobody’s business.

Taro, though, has something else going on. Slightly fibrous, it cooks into a potato-like mass that smells slightly of vanilla and nuts (at least to my nose). My house has the most wonderful aromas whenever I cook with it, summoning my husband downstairs in an anticipatory trot to find out what’s on today’s menu.

Taro with my mighty peeler

Which brings us to today’s menu: baked taro buns. Nobody does baked buns like the Taiwanese. There is a lovely pan-Pacific carnival involved here, a perfect marriage between East and West. Like in those delicious green onion buns from two weeks ago, this is basically a variation on Parker House rolls, for they are rich and yeasty, with eggs and oil in the dough.

But what makes these so quintessentially Chinese are the taro filling and the spectacular shapes. I have, naturally, made these less sweet than what is traditional—you can of course make them as sweet as you want. I’ve opted instead for just a smidgen of white sugar in order to keep the pale lavender hue and a hunk of butter that is there just to keep things properly luscious. And since we have butter in the filling, I also used butter in the dough so that we have some happy harmony in each bite. Do note that I have not colored the taro, as way too many commercial bakeries do. (To be honest, I’m pretty sure that powdered mixes are involved, which sneaks in nasty old vanillin and a plethora of chemicals.) If you want, you can give this a violent violet hue. I’m not judging. Much.

Lavender-specked slices

Also note that the dough here is slightly less sweet than with those used for savory fillings. This will give you the proper juxtaposition between flavors so that you’re not overwhelmed with sugar. I’ve sanded them with coarse sugar, too, which is another reason to dial down the sweetness where you can.

As for the shapes, aren’t they beautiful? They look impossibly hard to make, but in fact are incredibly easy once you do a couple in order to get the knack down. Just fill a piece of dough as if you were making baozi, flatten it, and then slash it before rolling it up. How hard is that?

Fresh from the steamer

Like all of these buns I’m going to be talking about in the near future (I’ve been on a bit of a bun binge lately), these freeze well and heat up deliciously. Get a nice, crisp edge on them when you do that, and they might even be better than fresh out of the oven.

Taiwanese taro horseshoe buns

Yùní miànbāo 芋泥麵包

Taiwan

Makes 16 large buns

Filling:

Around 1½ pounds | 700 g taro

½ cup | 115 g sugar

¼ cup | 55 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

3 tablespoons cream or milk

½ teaspoon sea salt

Dough:

1½ cups | 300 ml warm water

Filling the dough

½ cup | 50 g powdered milk (nonfat or regular)

1 tablespoon bread yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 cups | 600 g Chinese flour, plus about 1 cup | 150 g more for kneading

1½ teaspoons sea salt

¼ cup | 55 g | ½ stick unsalted butter, softened

Toppings:

1 large egg, lightly beaten, mixed with 1 teaspoon water

¼ cup sanding sugar

1. First make the filling: Wear kitchen or latex gloves when working with raw taro unless you are sure you’re not allergic to it. Remove the skin with a potato peeler, rinse the taro, and cut it lengthwise into quarters. Then cut it into ½ inch | 1 cm slices. Steam the taro for 15 – 20 minutes, or until it can be easily flaked with a fork.

2. Mash the taro (make it as coarse or fine as you like), either by placing it in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or by hand.  Add the sugar, butter, cream or milk, and salt, and mix thoroughly; if you’re using a food processor or stand mixer, you can beat it until it is light and fluffy. Taste and adjust the seasoning. If you want to add food coloring, now is the time. Divide the filling into 16 even pieces.

A baozi shape

3. Now make the dough: Mix the warm water, powdered milk, yeast, and sugar together in your food processor, stand mixer bowl, or a large work bowl. (BTW, you don’t need to wash out the bowl before you do this.) Give the yeast time to wake up and become very foamy, which should take around 20 to 30 minutes. If you don’t get a good head of foam, buy fresh yeast and start over.

4. Stir the egg, flour, salt, and oil into the yeast mixture to form a soft dough. If you’re using a stand mixer, use the hook attachment; use a metal blade for the food processor, of it you’re doing this by hand, flour a smooth work surface and dump the dough out on top. Quickly knead the dough, adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is smooth and bouncy. Roll the dough into a ball and lightly flour it. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel, stick the bowl over the top to help keep the dough moist, and wait until the dough has risen to at least twice its original size, which will take about an hour.

Slash the dough

5. Cut the dough into 16 even pieces. Toss them with flour and cover with a dry tea towel to keep them from drying out. Cover 2 baking sheets with either Silpat or parchment paper. Heat a convection oven to 350°F | 175°C (375°F | 190°C for a regular oven) and set 1 rack near the center.

6. Working on one piece at a time, and working on a lightly floured surface, roll a piece into a disc about 5 inches| 13 cm in diameter. Place one ball of filling in the center and bring up the edges around it to seal the filling well. Gently flatten the ball with the heel of your hand. Roll it out into a rectangular-ish shape about 8 x 4 inches | 20 x 10 cm.

7. Flip it over so the smooth side is on top, and then slash it horizontally about every ½ inch | 1 cm so that you just cut through the top layer, but not all the way through the dough. Flip it back over. Starting at the long edge, loosely roll the dough up so that the cuts are on the outside. Gently shape the bun into a horseshoe and use a pastry scraper to lift the bun onto  a prepared baking sheet. You should be able to fit 8 of these buns on each sheet, but be sure to leave around 1 inch | 2 cm between them on all sides, as they will rise. Repeat this step with 7 more balls of dough in order to fill up the sheet.

Roll it up

8. Brush the egg wash all over each of the twists, and then sprinkle them generously with the sanding sugar. Set the pan in the center of the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the buns are a lovely golden brown. Repeat Steps 6 and 7 for the remaining 8 pieces of dough while the first batch is cooking.

Tips

Use the large taro for this sort of filling, since it is very flavorful and starchy. Baby taro bulblets are much too moist and vegetal for this.

Some taro will be larger than footballs, and some will be cut into chunks. It doesn’t matter. Feel them all over and attempt to locate any soft spots, which indicates bruising and spoilage. Peel them with a heavy-duty potato or sugar cane peeler, remove any discolored or soft spots, and trim off the cut ends.

Love

Prep more taro than you can use, as it will come in very handy once you become a taro addict. Simply place the cut-up slices in freezer bags and freeze. Use them before there’s a frost buildup, but otherwise these are ready to go when you are.

Reheat the buns before you eat them, if they’ve been refrigerated or frozen. Really try to aim for a crispy exterior, as this will magnify your eating pleasure immeasurably.

Video of the roll-making process

Heavenly double pineapple buns

Pineapple buns are an iconic part of any good Taiwanese style bakery, but the fact that there is never any pineapple inside them has puzzled and, to be frank, annoyed the heck out of me for years and years.

I decided recently that it was high time I did something about this. And I have to admit, this was a no-brainer, and in fact is totally easy. All you really need to do is make some pineapple filling.

Now, as the weather gradually turns cooler, I thought some ginger would be really good in there. No cinnamon or nutmeg, thank you… I have had enough of the uber-prevalent pumpkin spice that insinuates itself into just about everything nowadays from early October until someone just after Thanksgiving decides to sub in oodles of sinus-clearing peppermint. 

A nice blob of pineapple jam

Instead, we have in here a good pinch of my favorite spice, a dribble of honey in both the filling and the bread, some freshly ground black pepper to add a touch of mystery, and a dollop of butter to keep things really luscious.

You can, of course, use ready-made pineapple filling or even pineapple preserves here. I just find those a bit too sweet. However, use what’s available and what you like—that’s always most important. Plus, you can always tweak them with lemon juice and spices to (literally) tart them up. It’s your call.

Do note that I've updated that previous recipe here. Just some little tweaks in the ingredients and directions, but the results are really fantastic, especially if you can enjoy them right out of the oven. 

Pinch the bun closed

Like all the Taiwanese breads I’ve been promoting lately, these are fantastic to keep on hand for whenever friends pop by or you get a tad hungry. They really freeze well and don’t stick together. Just be careful not to stack anything on top of them, as the brittle cookie dough might get crushed. Not the end of the world, but still.

Heavenly double pineapple buns

Fènglíxiàn bōluó bāo 鳳梨餡菠蘿包

Taiwan, kind of

Makes 16 buns

Filling:

2 (20 ounce | 600 g) cans unsweetened crushed pineapple

2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

The correct "fried egg" shape

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup | 60 ml honey

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Dough:

1½ cups | 300 ml warm water

½ cup | 50 g powdered milk

1 tablespoon bread yeast

¼ cup | 85 g honey

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 cups | 600 g Chinese flour, plus about 1 cup | 150 g more for kneading

1½ teaspoons sea salt

2 tablespoons | ¼ stick unsalted butter, softened

Cookie dough:

2 sticks (1 cup | 120 g) unsalted butter, softened

Cook the pineapple down

6 tablespoons | 80 g sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1½ cups | 240 g unbleached bread flour

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Water, as needed

1. First make the filling: Empty the cans into a medium saucepan, preferably stainless steel so that you can keep an eye on the color of the pineapple. Cook the pineapple and juice down over medium-high heat until almost all the liquid has evaporated. As the liquid recedes, be sure to stir and scrape the pan so that the natural sugars in the juice don’t burn. They will begin to caramelize, though, which is really nice, so lower the heat as needed. Once the pineapple is a golden color, add the spices, salt, honey, and butter, and continue to stir over medium-low heat until the pineapple mixture is thick. Let the filling cool while you prepare the bread and cookie doughs. This will give you about 2 cups | 475 ml of pineapple jam, and you can prepare this step far in advance, if you like; just refrigerate or freeze it for later.

Flatten the cookie dough with bags

2. Now make the bread dough: Place the water in a medium work bowl, add the yeast, powdered milk, and honey, and let the yeast soften and bloom while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Using a food processor, stand mixer with a hook attachment, or just a bowl with a wooden spoon, stir in the egg, flour, salt, and butter, and then knead to form a sticky dough, adding more flour as needed, until it is soft and tensile. Clean and dry a work bowl, form the dough into a smooth ball, and place it in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until it is double in bulk. Punch it down, turn it over, and cover again until it is again double in size.

3. Now for the cookie dough: As soon as the bread dough is getting its first rise, use a food processor, stand mixer, or hand mixer to beat the butter and sugar together until light. Add the egg and flour, and then mix until smooth. Scrape the cookie dough into a smaller container, cover, and chill for at least an hour. 

4. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper. Divide the bread dough into 16 balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and fill every one with about 2 tablespoons of the pineapple jam. Pinch the dough around the jam as if you were making a baozi. Smooth the pinched area, making sure that the jam is securely sealed inside the dough. Turn the filled bun over so the smooth side is on top and shape it into a slightly flattened ball about 3 inches | 7.5 cm wide. Arrange 8 buns on each of the baking sheets. Brush each of the buns with the egg wash.

5. Prepare 2 small plastic sandwich bags and set one of them (if the bag has a fold, put that side on the bottom) on a wet washcloth on your work surface, as the cloth will help prevent the plastic from sliding around. Divide the cookie dough into 16 even pieces and roll these into balls. Try to use only your fingers and the heel of your hand, rather than your palm, as these will not warm up the dough.  

Dabbed with water

6. Place a ball of cookie dough on the plastic bag, cover it with the other bag, and press down on the dough with the heel of your hand to form a wide disc about 3 inches | 7.5 cm wide. Drape the disc over one of the balls of bread dough and pat the edges against the bread. Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough until all of the buns have been covered..

7. Dip a plastic pastry scraper in flour and make 4 even lines across the top of a bun, then crisscross these with 4 diagonal lines. (Don’t cut all the way down through the cookie dough, but rather mark them clearly, about halfway down the cookie dough, as otherwise the cookie bits will drop off into little diamonds, which would be sad.) Wipe your scraper often on a wet towel and dip the edge in flour, as otherwise it will stick and make raggedly edges. Repeat this with the rest of the buns. Use a pastry brush to dab water over the cookie topping on each bun. Let the buns rise for about 20 minutes.

8. Arrange 2 racks in the oven toward the center and then heat the oven to 350°F | 170°C. Just before you place the buns in the oven, brush that last beaten egg over the top of each one, hitting the whole cookie, so that it will brown evenly. Bake the buns for about 30 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through the cooking time, until the tops are a golden brown. Slide the sheets with the buns onto a counter so that they stop cooking on the bottom, and nudge them free once they have cooled. Eat warm or cooled. Store in an airtight container or freeze in resealable bags.