Bun of the Month: Honey Sesame Milk Bread Knots

is it a dinner roll? is it dessert? does it matter?

Nov 26, 2024

∙ Paid

Have You Eaten Yet? Here’s a new recipe from my kitchen to yours that I hope you’ll love! For more recipes, you can order my new cookbook, Chinese Enough, or purchase Mooncakes and Milk Bread for all things Chinese Baking!

How are we feeling this week? I just went to Berkeley Bowl for my weekly grocery shop, but Thanksgiving edition, and it was a mad house in there but I eventually got out of their unscathed. We’re not hosting this year but joining friends-who-feel-like family for Thanksgiving in San Francisco. I’m making dinner rolls, my MIL’s double mushroom savory bread pudding (I picked up a gorgeous whole wheat sesame sourdough from The Midwife and The Baker for it!), and one last persimmon custard tart. I think that tart might be my most popular recipe ever since writing on Substack! Thank you for the love and hello! to all the new subscribers! I’m genuinely so thankful for every one of you and every paid subscriber who helps allow this newsletter/favorite corner of internet to go out each week with a new recipe from my kitchen to yours. So happy to have you here!

If you’re in charge of bread this year or even Thanksgiving breakfast treat I have you covered. I have few Thanksgiving traditions, but you can always bet on me baking some form of dinner roll and it’s obviously going to be milk bread based. The Mother of All Milk Bread from my first book, Mooncakes and Milk Bread is always giving. This year I was inspired to make a bun that blurs the line between sweet and savory. These Honey Sesame Milk Bread Knots are not very sweet but could almost be considered dessert, resembling a layered pastry or cardamom bun, however their nuttiness would taste right at home dipped in some gravy or pinched in a bite with some juicy turkey and cranberry sauce. If sweet potato casserole can break free of the pie table, these knots can be a dinner roll too.

The base milk bread has been adjust slightly to be sweetened with honey and there’s also tahini in the dough for a rich and nutty foundation of flavor. The dough is still pillowy as ever though. After the first proof, you roll out the dough into a large square and then spread honey butter over top with a sprinkle of ground toasted sesame seeds. Then you fold the dough and essentially create a lamination, which results in a tender bun with flaky layers, pockets of honey buttery sweetness, and a coveted center dough nugget. I formed each bun much like a cardamom bun, I don’t know my trip to Copenhagen earlier this year has really stuck with me!

If you don’t make these for Thanksgiving, keep the recipe in your back pocket for the next time your hosting a cozy gathering or just craving a sweet and savory pillowy bun!