Melon Pan

Melon pan used to be my favorite when I was little. Sometimes they even had choco-melon pan! Until recently, I had forgotten about this sweet bread and how delicious they are. And it was only when I decided to make it that I discovered that there's a thin layer of cookie dough that wraps the bread before baking! When fresh, the outside is crunchy and the inside is soft. I think it's just the right amount of sweetness that it can be served for breakfast, as well as an afternoon snack.





Melon Pan

Bread
300 grams bread flour
30 grams sugar
30 grams butter, room temperature
4 grams salt
4 grams rapid-rise yeast
200 milliliters milk, 80-90 degrees

Cookie Dough
220 grams flour
100 grams butter, room temperature
90 grams sugar
1 egg
dash vanilla
Garnish raw sugar

Directions
1. USING BREAD MACHINE: Place all bread dough ingredients in bread machine (follow machine instructions) and hit start.
BY HAND: Place all dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. Add butter and milk and mix until dough comes together. Remove from bowl and knead on surface for 10 min. The dough should be smooth. Transfer the dough into a large bowl, plastic wrap it and let it rise for 1 hour.
2. To make the cookie dough, place butter in a medium bowl and whip with mixer until it turns white and creamy. Add a third of the sugar into the butter, and blend well. Repeat until all of the sugar is blended in.
3. Add the egg and vanilla. Finally, add all of the flour into the bowl all at once and blend until you have a sticky dough. Transfer the dough into plastic wrap and refrigerate.
4. Take the bread dough out of the machine (or out of bowl) and divide into 12 pieces (48 grams each). Form them into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Place plastic wrap over it and let dough rise for 15 min. Reform the balls.
5. Take cookie dough out of the refrigerator. Divide the dough into 12 pieces (30 grams). Sandwich dough between two pieces of plastic wrap, then roll out dough. Peel one side of the plastic wrap off, and wrap around the bread dough. Peel remaining plastic wrap off, and sprinkle some raw sugar onto cookie dough surface.
6. Line up the dough on the cookie sheet, place a new layer of plastic wrap over it and let dough rise for 30-40 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 356 degrees F. Bake bread for 15 minutes. Serve room temperature.