A Passion for Baking - Custard Cream Competition

Following Jo Wheatley's popular competition, she decided to host another!  This time Custard Creams (a biscuit sandwiched with vanilla custard) sweet but an old British classic :)   Again, the recipe is taken from her book, A Passion for Baking.

This was a fun recipe to do but I did find the biscuit dough tricky to handle.  My tip is to keep it between sheets of cling film to roll out. :)

These biscuits were a hit with my son (he's only an almost 2 year-old toddler and; quite the biscuit connoisseur!) and my mummy friends. :)

As you can see from the first two photos, they were taken outdoors.  I had forgotten part of the competition rules which stipulate the book must be present in the photo.  Hence, I had to do a second bake as it was only when I was about to upload my photo for the competition, that I discovered my error.  As luck would have it, the 'nice-looking' biscuits were eaten :p

The last photo is an indoor shot and I only just managed to get baked, biscuits arranged and uploaded before time ran out! :p  Even had me nipping out in darkness to snip a few lavender stems to prettify the photo!

Bun Bakery - Char Siu (BBQ Pork) Bun 叉燒餐包, Pineapple Bun 菠蘿包 & Custard Bun 奶黃包

PlumLeaf Bakery with four trays of buns ready for the baking!

Had a crazy bout of bun bakery this weekend!  I doubled the quantity in EEWIF's Sweet Bread Dough recipe as I intended to give some buns to my brother and his family who are visiting my mum whilst my niece is on half-term holiday.

Char Siu Piggy hiding next to the Pineapple buns!

Piggies fighting in oven?!  Out of place ears and snouts!

Custard Filled Hedgehog

Tray of Custard Buns

We always loved Char Siu Buns as kids and sometimes Dad would buy buns from Chinese Bakery in Chinatown as treats.  I also tried some different toppings and fillings.  My bro' likes Bor Lor Bao ~ Pineapple Bun 菠蘿包 so I thought I'd try recreate that one.  There are several different recipes for pineapple topping floating around the internet but I like the sound of this one from Bao/Bread and as it was enough for 6 buns it gave me opportunity to whip up a batch of custard filling as my third bun flavour.

Char Siu buns had more room on tray at front - ugly ones at back of queue!

I must remember to space out my buns better as I had Char Siu Buns that had merged into one another (like my red bean ones did a few weeks back).  Instead of being beautiful burnished domes of porky bun goodness, it resembled burnt honeycomb.  Not a good look.  Had fun making a couple of Char Siu Pigs though!  Those two had slightly more filling than the rest (only 5 g extra) so I thought I'd make fat pigs out of them!  They did swell out - looked almost ready to burst!

Custard Buns

Have still yet to make my Hong Kong favourite - Tuna Bun 吞拿魚包.  Also got to dream up of some more tasty fillings! Yum Yum!  Am loving this recipe so much!  I have to thank Everybody Eats Well In Flanders again for sharing an excellent recipe!