Asian Style Potato Custard Buns (Agnes Chang vs Alan Ooi)

If you are a Singaporean or Malaysian, do you remember growing up eating potato bread from Carrefour?

In mid 90s, Carrefour came to Singapore with the concept of hyper-mart. I remember buying lots of their freshly baked breads, cakes and tarts whenever I passed by Carrefour at Suntec City. Now, Carrefour had closed all their shops in Singapore...

I remember loving Carrefour's apple flan and potato bread the most. Being a young adult in the 90s, I had no idea on how to bake and NO intention to bakenat all. All I did is to take a train to Suntec City and buy these... How convenient! Being a mum now, I have changed! These days, I rather choose the unconventional way of enjoying these treats and like to cook or bake everything by myself... Hmmm...

The Carrefour sort of potato bread that I used to eat and like is the doughy, chewy type with sweet fragrant custard crosses on top. A while back, Doreen from my little favourite DIY and I had a whatsapp chat and she told me that Agnes Chang's potato bread is good! At that time, I was thinking of baking Alan Ooi's potato bread too. And so, here we are having a mini "bake-along" as we both decided to bake both!

Agnes Chang? Alan Ooi? Who are they?

Agnes Chang is a Malaysian food writer and has published many good cookbooks. I'm a fan of her and have a few of her bilingual Asian style cookbooks.

All I know is... Alan Ooi is Doreen's favourite handsome Malaysian pastry chef... and that's why she helped me to buy his books. LOL! I have several of his Asian style baking cookbooks and love to explore his recipes too.

Let see the two types of potato breads that I have baked...

Agnes Chang's potato bread

Alan Ooi's potato bread

Both are "kind of the same" because they are made with potatoes but they are very different!

Although both buns are made of potatoes, they are different in their compositions, tastes and textures. Agnes Chang's ones are denser with Carrefour's potato bread-like texture while Alan Ooi's ones are spongy and light. Light in the sense that there is no obvious potato moisture and taste detectable in Alan Ooi's buns. Personally, I like the Agnes Chang's potato bread more, relating to what I have been used to taste in Carrefour's potato bread but my boy prefer the light and spongier Alan Ooi's bread, saying that Agnes Chang's ones are too dense and rich for him. I guess that this preference is really up to each individual.

In regardless, I would highly recommend baking these breads with custard made from scratch. Why? I guess there must be a mistake in Alan Ooi's custard recipe. The custard was too runny and so I had to cook it into something very doughy and thick! I called this Alan Ooi's very very very thick and scary custard!!! - LOL! Strangely, my boy said that doughy custard tastes ok and didn't mind eating it!

This is how I baked my potato bread using Alan Oo's recipe...

This is the custard that has scared me pretty badly!

See! Nice bread dough after proving...

See! The doughy custard crosses are destroying my bread!!!

Light and spongy! This is what I see in the bread made with Alan Ooi's recipe.

And so, this is how I baked my potato bread using Agnes Chang's recipe...

... but I didn't follow her recipe exactly and made my own custard

Cover custard with wrap and chill until ready to use.

Agnes Chang uses these including water to boil the potato in her recipe.

I didn't add bread improver in my dough and thought that leaving it overnight might help.

Custard is difficult to colour at this stage and recommend colouring to be done before cooking it to thicken.

These are larger buns.

Happy that the custard crosses are not scary-looking!

Happier when I see this ... as I pull a bun off to taste!

Very nice! Just like the potato bread I used to eat :D

Here are the recipe mostly adapted from both bilingual books, In Love with Bread by Alan Ooi and I can bake by Agnes Chang.

I like to write these recipes in my words as I reckon that some parts of the recipes are lacking in details.

This is how I baked Alan's Ooi's Potato Bread.

For the dough:
90g potato, peeled, boiled and mashed
190ml water at room temperature (not lukewarm)
1 large egg
400g bread flour
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
35g milk powder
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
60g butter, soften and extra for greasing

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tbsp milk

For the custard:
200ml milk
75g custard powder
Warning: Please note that I wouldn't recommend this custard recipe!

Using a breadmaker, combine all dough ingredients and use the "dough setting"to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr.

Alternatively, using an electric mixer with hook attachment, mix all dough ingredients except butter until combined and forming a dough. While kneading, add batches of butter gradually and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hr or its size doubled.

Grease large baking tray (35 cm x 25 cm) Divide the dough into 24 portions. Allow the dough to rest for 5 mins. Shape each portion into balls and arrange them in the prepared tray. Allow it to rise for 60 mins or double in size.

Apply egg wash. Combine milk and custard powder to form custard paste - Please note that this mixture made with the recommended amount is too much and too runny to pipe and so I have cooked the custard mixture into a paste. Transfer it to a pastry bag and snip off the end to make a hole. Pipe a cross on each bun and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (or 160°C fan forced) for 20 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, leave the bread on a wire rack to cool. Serve.

This is how I baked Agnes Chang's Potato Bread with minor modifications (but not mention).

For the dough:
350g bread flour
1/4 tsp salt
30g milk powder
2 tsp instant yeast
50g sugar
150g potatoes, peeled and mashed
1 large egg
80ml water used to boil the potatoes
75g butter, softened

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tbsp milk and a pinch of salt

For the custard:
Please note that this is my own recipe.
150ml milk
20g caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
20g cornflour
food colouring, optional

Using a breadmaker, combine all dough ingredients and use the "dough setting"to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr.

Alternatively, using an electric mixer with hook attachment, mix all dough ingredients except butter until combined and forming a dough. While kneading, add batches of butter gradually and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hr or its size doubled. As bread improver is not added into my bread dough, I thought that leaving the dough in the fridge overnight can help to develop its texture better. However, I think that this step is totally perceptional and can be optional.

To make your own custard, whisk sugar, vanilla, egg yolk and cornflour to form a paste. In a saucepan, bring milk to almost boiling. Carefully whisk in 50ml of hot milk into egg mixture until incorporated and slowly whisk in remaining hot milk. Continue whisking until smooth and combined. Add colouring to mixture if you wish. Return mixture to saucepan and whisk over low heat until very thick. Remove the saucepan from heat. Transfer mixture into a shallow dish and cover with plastic wrap pressing the plastic directly onto the surface of the custard to avoid a skin forming. Refrigerate for several hours until cold and set. Note: I made a mistake by adding my colouring after my custard has been chilled. The colouring is not easily mixed into the custard but fortunately, it still looks good.

If you leave your dough in the fridge, take it out from the fridge on the next day and allow the dough to thaw to room temperature. Grease 20 cm x 20 cm square tin. Divide the dough into 9 portions. Allow the dough to rest for 5 mins. Shape each portion into balls and arrange them in the prepared tray. Allow it to rise for 60 mins or double in size.

Apply egg wash. Pipe custard crosses on each bun and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C or 160°C fan forced for about 20 mins until cooked and golden brown. Remove from the oven, leave the bread on a wire rack to cool. Serve.

Happy Baking
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