Pooh in Autumn Pull Apart Bread

I have a soft spot for cute things. If you know me well, you know that I have a wide collection of cute things from Disney and Sanrio. Every now and then, I will buy such things to add to my collection. I would be so over the moon acquiring such things rather than owning a designer bag, believe it or not =). Because of my love for cute things, it leads me to love making cute food as well. So today, I will make cute bread for you. After preparing the composition in my photo, I decided to call this “Pooh in autumn pull apart bread”. Isn’t it cute? A nutritious cute buns that are infused with carrot juice and goji berry. Want to try making it?

Ingredients

250g bread flour
20g sugar
3g instant active yeast
130g carrot juice (pokka)
25g goji berries (presoaked with hot water then drain)
40g egg
30g butter
3g salt

Other

20×20 cm tray
baking paper
melted chocolate (double boil or microwave a 20 seconds and mix until all chocolates are melted)
3 sticks pasta (cooked pasta to be used for sticking the ears and bee in between the bread)
6 pieces of sliced almond (these will be the wings of the bee)
foil for tenting the bread
toothpick for drawing pooh’s face
Edam cheese (cube)

Method

Preheat the oven at 160 degree celsius
Lay the baking paper on the tray
Use the blender to puree the carrot juice and goji berries together, then sieve. Set aside. The addition of goji berries will help make the dough colour more vibrant.
Add all the bread flour, yeast, and sugar into the mixer followed by the wet ingredients (eggs and carrots and goji berry puree)
Use the dough hook to knead the dough at low speed. Knead until dough is formed
Add in the butter and knead for about 2 minutes at speed 2 ( low speed)
Add in the salt and continue to knead at speed 2. Knead until you reach window pane stage. This will take about 15-17 minutes, depending on your machine; I am using Kenwood ChefXL titanium. The window pane stage is essential (refer to picture below)
Remove from the mixer, cover the dough and let it rest for 5 minutes. Please refrain from adding more flour unless it is way too sticky to handle.
Set aside 20g then divide the rest of the big dough equally to 16 pcs. Divide the 20g dough to 32 pieces of round dough, 0.5g each( these will be the ears), remainder of the dough, divide it into 3 oblong (these will be the bees)
Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Wrap 3 small cube of cheese inside the dough then round it up tightly into a smooth ball and place it on the baking tray, smooth side up. Do the same for the rest of the dough. Remember to cover the dough as you work on. Let it proof until double in size. Note : the ears and bees have to be baked separately, so place it on a different tray with baking paper while the bigger dough should be placed on the 20×20 cm tray with baking paper.
Bake the ears and bees. Bake for a total of 6 mins. Tent it with foil at 3 minutes, reflective side up, then turn the tray. During this time you can place the sticks of pasta on the side to bake together. Note that I indicated tent not cover, as fully covering it would create steam which we don’t want that.
Bake the buns on 20×20 cm tray. Tent the tray with foil , reflective side up at 5 minutes. then continue baking. Turn the tray after 10 minutes. Bake for a total of 20 minutes.
Remove from the tray after 5 minutes. let it cool down for about 15 minutes. Use the toothpick to poke small hole on the bun and ears. Stick in a small piece of pasta, then poke the ears on the bun. Do the same for the rest of the ears
Melt some chocolate to draw the face of pooh. Poke hole using toothpick on the body of the bee, then stick in a small piece of pasta. Hold the pasta stick and draw the lines for the body of the bee, eyes and lips. Use a knife to make a slit on the back of the bee. Dip the almond in melted chocolate and stick in on the slit of the bee. You need two pieces of almond per bee. Stick the bee on the bun as shown on the picture below.