Wool Roll Bread is so popular and trendy nowadays! Usually, we are not following trends closely, but this time we decided to be one of the pioneers and make our own version.
Firstly, what is Wool Roll Bread?
Wool roll bread is a soft fluffy bread loaf that bakes with a round cake tin (or a round pot that can go into the oven). The special thing about it is the bread shaping method, which after baking, the bread looks like a roll of wool. That is why it is called wool roll bread.
Where does the Wool Roll Bread originate?
It seems that the Wool Roll Bread has become trendy because of a Malaysian YouTuber “Apron”. Their Wool Roll Bread recipe already has over 6 million views by the time we write the blog (and the video was uploaded 3 weeks ago). Their YouTube channel is mostly sharing a lot of baking recipes, from bread to cakes. Most of the videos also don’t have any sound, really focus on the process of making the food.
The Wool Roll Bread from “Apron” is stuffed with cranberries. They also use cream and egg to make the bread really soft. From the comments on the YouTube channel, many people who try their recipe say it’s really delicious!
Our version of Wool Roll Bread
We find a lot of the wool roll bread recipes are with sweet fillings, so we decided to go with a savory one! (Update: we made a triple chocolate wool roll bread later on!) Originally we wanted to use garlic, but the garlic we have at home is running low in stock, so let’s use green onion this time, and we can give it another go with garlic for our next wool roll bread!
To make sure our bread is very soft, we use tangzhong method. That means before we knead the bread dough, we make a water roux by cooking flour and water together until it becomes a paste. This way the flour has absorbed more water and the bread will usually stay soft and fluffy even if you can’t finish it on the same day. (Though it’s too delicious, we finish everything after we took the photos and videos!)
What makes the wool roll bread stands out is the shape of the bread. It takes a little bit of time and effort to make it, but it is not difficult at all. You can also be creative about what fillings you want to put in the bread. Some of the fillings we want to try with our next wool roll bread will be garlic butter, sausage, Nutella, raisins, peanut butter, Lotus Biscoff spread, cheese, etc.
Savoury Wool Roll Bread (Tangzhong method)
Equipment
- 18 cm round cake form
Ingredients
Tangzhong/Water Roux
- 20 g Bread flour
- 120 mL Water
Yeast mix
- 2 g Sugar
- 75 mL Water
- 5 g Active dry yeast
Main dough
- 300 g Bread flour
- 50 g Egg Leave the rest of the egg as egg wash
- 14 g Sugar
- 6 g Salt
- 5 g Condensed milk
- 25 g Butter
- Egg wash
- Butter To grease the baking form
Fillings (optional)
- Green onion
- Salt
- White pepper
Instructions
Tangzhong/Water Roux
- Add the flour and water into a small pot.
- Put it on medium heat and keep mixing until it becomes a paste.
- Set aside to cool down before use.
Yeast mix
- Add sugar and water to a small bowl.
- Mix over a water bath until it is around 45-50°C.
- Add the yeast, stir it, and leave it aside to dissolve for 5 mins.
Main dough
- Add flour, sugar, salt, egg, condensed milk, tangzhong/water roux, and yeast mix to a large mixing bowl.
- Start kneading by hand or a mixer with a dough hook. We start with a hand mixer with the dough hook on the slowest mode for 3-4 mins and then increase the speed to 1 level up to mix for another 10 mins. Or knead until a smooth dough formed.
- Add the butter to the dough, and knead again until a smooth dough formed. It will take another 10 mins.
- Cover and leave it in a warm place to prove for 45 mins, or until it doubles its size.
- In the meantime, cut the green onion into small pieces. Set aside.
- In the cake form, brush a layer of butter.
- After the first proof, press out all the air and put it on a floured surface. Divide the dough into 5 pieces. Shape each of them into a small round ball. Cover with a cling film and leave them to rest for 10 mins.
- Take out one of the dough balls, flatten it with a rolling pin into an oval shape.
- Cut into stripes for half of the oval shape.
- On the other side, add the green onion, a pinch of salt, and white pepper.
- On the green onion side, fold the two outer edges of the dough towards the middle, and start rolling from the green onion side to the side with the stripes.
- Repeat for all 5 dough balls, and put the product in the cake form - on the edge like a ring.
- Cover the cake form and place it in a warm place for the second proof - around 30 mins.
- Preheat the oven to 175°C.
- Brush some egg wash on top. (Alternatively, you can use milk instead.)
- Bake in the oven for around 18 mins.
- Remove from the cake form to cool down.
