Shio Pan (Salt Butter Roll)
A Japanese roll wrapped around a stick of butter. While baking, the butter melts out and fries the base crisp, leaving a hollow, buttery inside. It's topped with flaky salt. It's savoury-sweet, so it suits guests who skip desserts.
- Yield: ~50 rolls (40 g dough + 7 g butter each)
- Equipment: spiral mixer, proofer, oven, freezer
- Allergens: gluten (wheat), milk
Ingredients
Dough (leaner than the milk bread dough)
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bread flour | 1000 g |
| Sugar | 60 g |
| Salt | 18 g |
| Milk powder | 30 g |
| Instant yeast (or fresh 35 g) | 12 g |
| Cold water | 640 g |
| Butter, soft | 50 g |
Filling and topping
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cold salted butter, cut into 7 g sticks | 350 g |
| Flaky salt (e.g. Maldon) | ~20 g |
Method
- Mix everything except the butter: 4 min slow, 4 min fast. Add the butter and mix until smooth and elastic. Target dough temperature is 25–26 °C.
- Bulk ferment for 40 min.
- Divide into 40 g pieces. Shape each into a short teardrop (carrot) shape. Cover and chill for 15 min.
- Roll each teardrop out into a long triangle about 25–30 cm long.
- Place a butter stick at the wide end and roll up towards the tip. Put the rolls on a tray with the tip underneath.
- Freeze on trays, then bag. Use within 3 weeks.
Baking
- Proof from frozen at 30 °C / 75% humidity for 60–75 min. Keep it under 32 °C so the butter doesn't melt early.
- Lightly brush or spray with water and sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Bake on baking paper (not a perforated tray, since the melted butter needs to fry the base) at 200 °C for 13–15 min until deep golden with a crisp base.
Buffet notes
Best within 3–4 hours of baking. Bake small batches through service.
Variations
- Saffron shio pan (Lucia): dissolve 1 g saffron in a little warm water and add it to the dough.
- Black sesame: add 40 g toasted black sesame seeds to the dough.
- Sweet: sprinkle pearl sugar instead of salt.