Pumpkin Buns [From Pumpkin Soup to Golden Buns]

We went back to my mom's place during Hari Raya holiday which was a month ago. Mom harvested lots of pumpkins from her veges patch, my sis took two and mom insisted that I should bring back all her stock since there were few more maturing in no times. We came back with one large and three medium size pumpkin, total weight was about 10 kgs!

It was a pumpkin month for us with lots of pumpkin dishes such as pumpkin salad, mom's style pumpkin, pumpkin cake, and tempura. I made the last pumpkin into huge pot of pumpkin soup and keeping some in the freezer for future use. For these buns, I used pre-prepared pumpkin soup instead of mashed pumpkin. They were golden in colour, soft and with a hint of pumpkin.

The main differences between mashed pumpkin and pumpkin soup are extra ingredients and spices used in the soup such as onion, garlic and pepper. When cooking soup onion and pumpkin were sauteed, caramelised onion and pumpkin enhanced the aroma of soup.

This one is with cheese.

Ingredients (8-10 buns):
250g all purpose flour
170g thick pumpkin soup
10g butter/shortening
10g sugar
10g milk powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp instant dry yeast

10 pcs pumpkin sticks
1-2 tbsp full cream milk

Methods:

1. Place all ingredients except pumpkin sticks and milk, in bread maker and select Dough mode.
2. Once the dough is ready, turn it out on a lightly floured surface, punch out air and divide into eight to nine equal portions. Rest dough for 10 minutes.
3. Shape each portion into a small ball, make an impression in the center and use a pair of scissors or a sharp knife to make slits around the ball.
4. Cover shaped dough with a kitchen towel and let them rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until they are doubled in size.
5. Brush doughs with milk and stick a pumpkin stick in the center/impression of each dough.
6. Bake in preheated oven, 170ºC for 15-18 minutes. Cool on rack.