Japanese Sea Salt Butter Rolls (Shio Pan) ❤️ So Addictive I Make Them on Repeat

🥐Ingredients: (Makes 10 rolls)

🎈Old dough (pâte fermentée): Water 25g, bread flour 35g, salt 0.5g, instant dry yeast 0.5g.

🎈Main dough: Bread flour 300g, ice water 190g, sugar 15g, salt 3g, milk powder 15g, unsalted butter 20g, instant dry yeast 4g.

🎈Other: Flaky sea salt for topping, salted butter 50g for rolling inside.

🥐Method:

1️⃣ Mix the old dough ingredients together, let ferment at room temperature for 2 hours, then store in the fridge overnight for use the next day.

2️⃣ The next day, combine the old dough with all main dough ingredients except the butter, and place in the fridge for a 30-minute cold autolyse.

3️⃣ After chilling, the dough will easily mix to a thick membrane stage. Add the softened butter and mix until it stretches into a thin windowpane.

4️⃣ Shape the dough into a tight ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size. Meanwhile, portion the salted butter for rolling inside as shown in Photo 4, cover with plastic wrap, and keep chilled in the fridge.

5️⃣ Gently degas and divide the dough into 10 equal pieces (about 60g each). Shape each piece into a teardrop (cone), cover tightly with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge to relax for about 45 minutes. This controls the dough temperature and makes rolling out much easier.

6️⃣ Roll out and coil around the butter sticks as shown in Photos 5 and 6.

7️⃣ Cover with plastic wrap for the final proof. Right after shaping, I start preheating my oven since my oven takes about 45 minutes to fully preheat.

8️⃣ Right before baking, mist the rolls lightly with water and sprinkle flaky sea salt on top.

9️⃣ Bake at 225°C for about 12 minutes, adding steam twice.

❣️Helpful Tips:

1. Regarding liquid: I have tried both milk and water, and milk tastes richer. If you swap water for icy cold milk, adjust the amount since milk is about 88% water. My dough felt slightly dry today, so I added an extra 10g of water (the photo shows 180g, actual total was 190g).

2. Dough temperature control is vital. Both the cold autolyse and the pre-shaping chill in the fridge keep the dough cool.

3. For distinct crisp layers on the sea salt rolls, brushing melted butter along the edges before coiling (as shown in Photo 5) is essential.

4. To create steam, I preheat an old cast-iron skillet inside the oven. Right after loading the rolls, I pour a cup of hot water into the hot skillet. One minute later, I mist the rolls once more with a spray bottle (Photo 7).

5. If you only have unsalted butter at home, sprinkle a tiny pinch of salt onto the butter stick when rolling it up (Photo 8).

6. You can make a larger batch of old dough at the same ratio; it keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge or about a month in the freezer.

7. Flour absorption and oven performance vary greatly, so adjust the liquid amount, baking temperature, and time for your own kitchen.