Cutest chocolate peanut butter teddy bear buns

Name: Cutest chocolate peanut butter teddy bear buns
Prep time: 3 h
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 3 h 15 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 25 g Bread flour; 35 g Boiling water; 300 g Bread flour / high gluten flour; 4 g Instant dry yeast; 40 g Sugar; 12 g Cocoa powder; 190 g Milk; 20 g Unsalted butter; 60 g Yudane; ½ cup Peanut butter; 2 tbsp Unsalted butter; ⅓ tsp Fine sea salt; ⅓ cup Powdered sugar; 1 tbsp Melted dark chocolate; 1 tbsp Melted white chocolate

AuthorYun Zhang JohnCategoryBread, SweetsDifficultyIntermediateRating

Yields8 Servings

Prep Time3 hrsCook Time15 minsTotal Time3 hrs 15 mins

Cutest chocolate peanut butter teddy bear buns

“This is the BEST chocolate bread ever! Make it again please!!”

This coming from my pickiest eater is like music to my ears.

But he is not exaggerating, these ARE that good. Enriched chocolate bread filled with a sweet and salty chocolate and peanut butter filling. Reminiscent of Reeses peanut butter cups, the filling is decadent, rich and pairs perfectly with the soft, chewy cocoa scented bread.

Come on, how can anyone resist taking a bite out of these adorable teddy bear faces!?!

Yudane & Tangzhong

There are plenty of recipes for chocolate bread. What sets this one apart from the rest is the addition of a water roux to the yeast bread. Often called Tangzhong or Yudane, this is the method popularized in Asia for its proven ability of producing soft, fluffy bread.

The roux is made by either cooking a small amount of flour and water on the stove top before mixing the cooled roux into the rest of the bread mixture as Tangzhong. OR combining small amounts of flour with hot boiling water, allowing it to rest over night before continuing with the bread dough as is the case with Yudane.

Why it works?

Both methods pre-gelatinizes the starches in the flour which allows it to absorb more liquid whilst retaining that liquid throughout the shaping, baking and storing life cycle of the bread.

Doing this extra step means an easier dough to work with, a softer, chewy texture after baking and a bread that will retain its moisture and stay fresh for longer.

And having tested quite a few other chocolate bread recipes, I swear by this method in producing the BEST chocolate bread.

The peanut butter filling

The filling as easy to make as stirring a few common ingredients together, but there are a couple of important details.

- Use smooth and preferably not natural peanut butter. By that I mean use a brand that's a bit processed because it’s homogenized.
- Add a decent amount of salt. This really does balance out the sweetness and cut into the richness.

Shaping the cute little teddy bears

To successfully make adorable and uniform sized teddy buns:

- Do use a scale to divide the dough into equal size pieces.
- Do try to make the balls as round and as smooth as possible by using my pulling and rolling technique as shown in the video.
- Do attach the ears of the teddy bears once the buns have already been transferred to the baking tray
- Do melt the white and dark chocolate in separate bowls and use different utensils

Now you are all set! Ready to bring these yummy teddy bear buns to live in your very own kitchen.

Wanting more sweet little breads? Check out:

Soft sweet potato bread rolls
Buttery crunchy bread knots
Asian coconut bread

You Will Need

Yudane

25 g Bread flour

35 g Boiling water

Bread dough

300 g Bread flour / high gluten flour2 cups

4 g Instant dry yeast1 tsp

40 g Sugar~1/4 cup

12 g Cocoa powder2 tbsp

190 g Milk3/4 cup

20 g Unsalted butter2 tbsp

60 g YudaneAll of the mixture

Filling

½ cup Peanut butter

2 tbsp Unsalted butter

⅓ tsp Fine sea salt

⅓ cup Powdered sugar~40g

For decorating

1 tbsp Melted dark chocolate

1 tbsp Melted white chocolate

Instructions

Make the Yudane by mixing flour with boiling water. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and left it over night.

Make bread dough by combining flour, yeast, milk, Yudane, sugar and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine and if using, move to stand mixer to mix on low until a ball of dough forms.

Add soften butter to the dough and mix again on low to incorporate the butter into the dough. Once the butter has been absorbed, knead on speed 2 or 3 for 7-10min.

Once it's done kneading, removed dough, pull it into a smooth ball and put into a bowl to proof. Spread a little neutral oil on the surface of the dough, cover and leave it in a warm, draft-free place such as your oven with the light on.

While the bread is proofing. Make the peanut butter filling by combing all the filling ingredients together. Then put that into the fridge to firm up.

When the dough has doubled in size, remove from the bowl and onto a clean flat surface. Slightly flatten and then divide into 9 equal pieces that weights around 67-70g each.

Then pre-shape each piece by pulling it and forming it into a smooth ball. Do this to each piece and leave them until a tea towel or plastic wrap to rest for 10min.

After about 5min, take one of the small dough ball and divide that into 16 pieces, weighting around 3-4g each. For each of these small pieces into balls with the same technique used before and leave them to rest covered.

Take the other dough balls and roll it out into a disk. Fill with around 1 tbsp of the now firm peanut butter mixture and around 1/2 tbsp of chocolate chips. Wrap the dough around the filling and pinch the opening tightly to close. Roll the now closed dough ball in the palm of your hands on the table to form into a round ball.

Place the filled buns onto a baking tray and then attach 2 small dough balls with some milk to each big one to form the teddy bears ears.

Leave the shaped buns to rise again for 45min-1hr. If you prefer a softer bun, cover loosely with plastic during this proofing time.

When the buns are ready, place into a preheated 180C / 355F degree oven for 15-17min. When they are done baking, place onto a wire rack to cool down.

After about 10min of cooling, you can decorate the buns with melted dark and white chocolate. Use white chocolate for the nose and dark for the eyes and centre of the nose.

Ingredients