Spooky Halloween Japanese Melon Pan Recipeメロンパン 🎃

Tired of your same old lockdown sourdough? 

Try something new and spooktacular with this Japanese halloween melon pan recipe. Shared exclusively with you by Yumiko-san from delicious Japanese micro-bakery : Gu Choki Pan ❤

Gu Choki Pan is a London based Japanese micro bakery baking authentic Japanese pans with sourdough such as melon pan, curry pan, and other classics

Yumiko-san was kind enough to share three variations - Pumpkin, Black biscuit and Matcha so you can pick the one that sounds tastiest to you! 

INGREDIENTS:

Dough for the pan:

Active dry yeast -  3g
Strong bread flour -  150g
Plain flour - 50g
Golden granulated sugar - 20g
Salt - 3g
Egg - 25g
Milk (lukewarm) - 110g
Butter - 15g

Dough for the biscuit top:

Pumpkin biscuit dough
Kabocha pumpkin 1
Plain flour – 440g
Sugar – 230g
Butter – 120g
Egg – 2 large eggs (beaten)

Black biscuit dough
Plain flour – 390g
Activated charcoal powder – 20g
Sugar – 230g
Butter – 120g
Egg – 2 large eggs (beaten)

Matcha biscuit dough
Plain flour – 390g
Matcha powder – 20g
Sugar – 230g
Butter – 120g
Egg – 2 large eggs (beaten)

METHOD:

Step ①: Place all the ingredients except milk and butter in a bowl. 
Step ②: Pour lukewarm milk into the bowl. 
Step ③: Mix with a fork to start with until all the ingredients in the bowl is combined. 
Step ④: Swap to your hand and start kneading for a few minutes, add butter and keep kneading until the dough looks nice and smooth (this could take approximately 20 minute)
Step ⑤: Place the dough in a bowl and cover. Leave the dough to proof until it’s doubled in size.

While your dough is rising make the biscuit top and the filling.

Make the Pumpkin filling: 
(optional, but if you skip this, you will still need 100grams of pureed pumpkin for the biscuit topping*)

Step ① Cut up the pumpkin in to cubes, peel the skin off
Step ② Place the pumpkin in a microwaveable bowl, and microwave for approximately 10 minutes or until soft enough to mush up.
Step ③ Put100g of mushed pumpkin aside. 
Step ④ Weigh the rest of the mushed pumpkin in a pot, add 40 - 50 % weight of sugar to the pumpkin. Cook it over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the paste looks shiny. Leave it to cool.

Now, let’s make the biscuits. 

(You will end up with more than enough biscuit dough the amount of dough you prepared earlier. You can freeze it.)

Pumpkin biscuit (for topping):

  • Place the butter and sugar in a bowl.
  • Beat them together until they are pale.
  • Add beaten eggs little by little, mix in after each addition.
  • Add 1/3 of sifted flour, fold in, add another 1/3 of flour, fold in.
  • Add 100 grams mushed pumpkin that you kept aside early, fold in.
  • Add the remaining flour, fold in.
  • Gather the biscuit dough into a ball.
  • Put in a freezer bag and place it in the fridge to chill.

Black biscuit (for topping):

  • Place the butter and sugar in a bowl.
  • Beat them together until they are pale.
  • Add beaten eggs little by little, mix in after each addition.
  • Sift flour and activated charcoal powder together.
  • Add 1/3 of sifted flour, fold in, add another 1/3 of flour, fold in.
  • Add the remaining flour, fold in.
  • Gather the biscuit dough into a ball.
  • Put in a freezer bag and place it in the fridge to chill.

Matcha biscuit (for topping):

  • Place the butter and sugar in a bowl.
  • Beat them together until they are pale.
  • Add beaten eggs little by little, mix in after each addition.
  • Sift flour and matcha powder together.
  • Add 1/3 of sifted flour, fold in, add another 1/3 of flour, fold in.
  • Add the remaining flour, fold in.
  • Gather the biscuit dough into a ball.
  • Put in a freezer bag and place it in the fridge to chill.

Meanwhile, check on your Pan dough...

When the dough is ready, divide it in to 50g each ball. 
Cover the balls and leave them for 10minutes.Melon_Pan_dough

While you wait, divide the biscuit into balls - 40g each.
(Make the same number of balls as your dough balls). 

Roll out each biscuit ball into a circle (approximately 10cm diameter)

Roll out the dough balls, put 35g up pumpkin paste in the middle, wrap the filling, seal it to close.
Melon Pan Rolling

Now, time to build the melon pan! 

Have a dough ball in one hand and the rolled out biscuit in the other hand. 

Flip the biscuit on top of the dough ball. 

Wrap the dough ball with the biscuit so that the dough ball is covered nicely all around the edges. 

Sprinkle the sugar on top and score lines downwards with a dough cutter or edge to make it look like pumpkin! 

(Or crisscross if you want to make it look more traditional style melon pan😉) 

Place it on baking tray, leave to rise to doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 170 c degrees . 

Use your biscuit dough to cut out little eyes and shapes to give faces to your melon pans. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until the melon pans are slightly colored. 

Devour your crunchy, sweet, fluffy Halloween 🎃 melon pans 👻
Melon Pan Halloween

(Note that Gu Choki Pan's pans are all made with sourdough but for this recipe active dry yeast was used for simplicity.) 

For more details, follow Gu Choki Pan and checkout the Gu Choki Pan website.

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