Zongzi Bread with Raw Cane Sugar | Triangle Bun with Matcha Shortbread Skin

A bread that looks like a zongzi

Zongzi bread is a triangle bun shaped like the dumpling but baked instead of steamed. Soft enriched dough wrapped around a red bean centre, then dressed in a matcha shortbread skin scored with diagonal lines to mimic bamboo leaves. Bakes at 175 C top heat, 190 C bottom heat for 20 minutes, with foil on at minute 8 to keep the green skin from browning. Ready on Dragon Boat morning, pulled apart with the kind of soft tear that says fresh bakery.

Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar in the dough gives that clean molasses sweetness, the kind that holds up beside red bean and matcha. In the skin we use 14 grams to keep it short and crisp.

Watch

Why this sugar

Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar is the same heritage cane we have milled in Hong Kong since 1948, just left golden instead of refined white. Twenty-five grams in the bread dough gives the crumb a soft amber colour. Fourteen grams in the matcha skin makes the shortbread short, with caramel undertones that play with the matcha.

Made with Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar. Shop the sugar.

Recipe

Yield: 6 buns
Prep: 30 minutes active
Proof: 90 minutes first proof, 45 minutes second proof
Bake: 20 minutes
Total: about 3.5 hours

Dough

• 250 g bread flour
• 15 g milk powder
• 25 g Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar
• 3 g fresh yeast (or 1.5 g instant)
• 140 g milk
• 1 large egg
• 3 g salt
• 10 g unsalted butter, softened
• 180 g red bean paste, divided into 6 portions

Matcha shortbread skin

• 15 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 14 g Ship Brand Raw Cane Sugar
• 8 g beaten egg
• 30 g cake flour
• 2 g matcha powder

Method

1. Knead the dough ingredients (except butter) until smooth. Add butter, knead to window-pane. First proof 90 minutes until doubled.
2. Mix the matcha skin: cream butter and sugar, mix in egg, fold in sifted flour and matcha. Wrap, chill 30 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Wrap each around a portion of red bean paste, shape into triangles. Place on a lined tray.
4. Roll the matcha skin between parchment to 2 mm. Cut into 6 squares slightly larger than each triangle.
5. Drape a skin over each triangle. Score diagonal lines with a knife to mimic bamboo leaves.
6. Second proof 45 minutes.
7. Bake at 175 C top / 190 C bottom for 20 minutes. Tent with foil at minute 8 to keep the matcha green.
8. Cool 10 minutes on a rack. Best eaten warm, on Dragon Boat morning or any morning.

About Ship Brand

Ship Brand (帆船牌) is the retail line of Yuen Tung Sugar Factory Industrial Company Limited. Sugar refined in Hong Kong since 1948.