This bacon scallion milk bread is reminiscent of the bacon scallion buns you can find at Chinese bakeries. We’ve made it in the style of a pull-apart bread, which makes it great for sharing and fun to make with kids!
A Variation On Our Famous Milk Bread
Our easy all-in-one milk bread recipe has become the base for many of our Chinese Bakery recipes. We describe it as an “all-in-one” recipe because all the dough ingredients (including yeast!) are added at the same time.
It’s a simple enriched dough that never fails to yield soft, pillowy bread. We made a couple minor modifications, like adding a little less salt to account for the saltiness of the bacon.
This bacon scallion variation is savory rather than sweet, and it’s a great option at breakfast time.
This recipe is the equivalent of half of our original milk bread recipe (to fill a small round pan). If you’d rather make individual buns, you could make 6-8 buns with this recipe, or double it to get 12-16.
Make-Ahead Tip:
If you’d like to prepare this bread in advance, you can make it all the way through Step 8 of this recipe (assembling the bread in the pan), and then cover and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, take it out of the refrigerator, and let it come up to room temperature, proof for 1 hour, and bake.
Bacon Scallion Milk Bread: Recipe Instructions
Take the heavy cream, milk, and egg out of the refrigerator. Allow them to come up to room temperature, 30-45 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment or a large mixing bowl, add the ingredients in the following order: heavy cream, milk, ½ of a beaten egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt.
Don’t have cake flour?
Make a quick substitute: Measure out 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, remove 1 1/2 teaspoons of it, and replace it with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Sift it all together, and voila! To make larger amounts of cake flour, replace 2 tablespoons of flour with cornstarch for every 1 cup of flour.
Turn the mixer on to the lowest setting (or stir with a wooden spoon), and mix until a dough forms. Knead the dough on the lowest setting for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl, but stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl. If kneading by hand, extend the kneading time by 5-10 minutes.
If you’re in a humid climate and the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it pulls away from the sides. Avoid adding too much additional flour, or the bread will be dense and less fluffy.
Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 60-90 minutes, or until doubled in size. I like proofing it in a closed microwave with a large mug of boiling water next to it.
While the dough is proofing, cook the bacon on both sides, until crisp but still pliable.
Cool and chop into ½ inch pieces. Prepare the scallions by washing them, wiping them thoroughly dry, and finely chopping them. Thoroughly grease an 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan with butter or oil.
After the dough has doubled in size, punch the air out of it and knead for 5 minutes.
Form it into a round ball, and roll it out into a ¼ inch (0.66 cm) thick rectangle or rough circle. Sprinkle the scallions and bacon evenly over the dough.
Cut it into small 1.5 inch (4 cm) squares.
Fold each square in half like a taco with the bacon scallion filling on the inside. Nestle them in the pan standing up on one end of the taco.
At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the dough overnight if making this recipe in advance. The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Let it come up to room temperature, and proceed with the next step.
Proof the dough for 1 hour. Towards the end of the proofing process, place a rack in the center of your oven and preheat it to 350°F/175°C.
Brush the top of the proofed dough with egg wash.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Take the hot bread out of the oven. Immediately brush with the sugar water mixture to give it a nice shine! Cool, and enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Bacon Scallion Milk Bread
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup heavy cream (at room temperature)
- 1/2 cup whole milk (at room temperature)
- 1/2 large egg (beaten, at room temperature)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup cake flour (tap measuring cup to avoid air pockets)
- 1 3/4 cups bread flour (tap measuring cup to avoid air pockets)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces bacon
- 1 cup scallions (chopped, about 8-9 scallions)
- egg wash (whisk the remaining 1/2 egg with 1 teaspoon water)
- quick simple syrup (2 teaspoons sugar, dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water)
Instructions
- Take the heavy cream, milk, and egg out of the refrigerator, and allow them to come up to room temperature, 30-45 minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment or a large mixing bowl, add the ingredients in the following order: heavy cream, milk, ½ of a beaten egg, sugar, cake flour, bread flour, yeast, and salt.
- Turn the mixer on to the lowest setting (or stir with a wooden spoon), and mix until a dough forms. Knead the dough on the lowest setting for 15 minutes, occasionally stopping the mixer to push the dough together. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl, but stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl. If kneading by hand, extend the kneading time by 5-10 minutes.
- If you’re in a humid climate and the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl, add a little more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until it pulls away from the sides. Avoid adding too much additional flour, or the bread will be dense and less fluffy.
- Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm spot for 60-90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
- While the dough is proofing, cook the bacon on both sides, until crisp but still pliable. Cool and chop into ½ inch pieces. Prepare the scallions by washing them, wiping them thoroughly dry, and finely chopping them. Thoroughly grease an 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan with butter or oil.
- After the dough has doubled in size, punch the air out of it and knead for 5 minutes. Form it into a round ball, and roll it out into a ¼ inch (0.66 cm) thick rectangle or rough circle. Sprinkle the scallions and bacon evenly over the dough, and cut it into small 1.5 inch (4 cm) squares.
- Fold each square in half like a taco with the bacon scallion filling on the inside. Nestle them in the pan standing up on one end of the taco. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the dough overnight, if making this recipe in advance. The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator, let it come up to room temperature, and proceed with the next step.
- Proof the dough for 1 hour. Towards the end of the proofing process, place a rack in the center of your oven and preheat it to 350°F/175°C.
- Brush the top of the proofed dough with egg wash. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Take the hot bread out of the oven, and immediately brush with the sugar water mixture to give it a nice shine! Cool, and enjoy warm or at room temperature.
I had great results with this recipe!! For some reason, my pan was too large or maybe I didn’t proof for long enough (approx 70-80 min). But I have a question: if saving leftovers, is it best to keep it outside at room temp? Or in the fridge?
Hi Christina, keep the bread covered (and protected from drying out) on the counter for a day. Any longer than that, and it should be stored in the refrigerator.
Thanks Judy!
I have another question: after taking it out of oven, the texture seemed a tad dryer than expected. Any recommendations for a more moist outcome?
Hi Christina, the bread softens once cooled down. Also, brush the bread with sugar water right out of the oven when it’s piping hot.
Your recipes for this and milk bread and char siu all look so scrumptious! Will you be making a no-knead version of milk bread recipe in future? (Epic fail with attempt to hand knead and have no stand mixer.) Thanks.
That’s a tall order, Tamie. Can’t make any promises :-)
Thanks for considering, Judy! I was so thrilled to recently discover that I could bake no-knead bread, no-knead pizza dough, and no-knead focaccia bread. Hope to one day add no-knead milk bread! Crossing fingers. Your recipes look amazing!
Thank you so much, Tamie.
I like this recipe and want to try it. Can it be made using whole wheat flour (sub for the bread flour) and almond flour (sub for cake flour).
I am sure you can, Paula, but the end result will not be as fluffy.
Made this recipe twice already, it’s wonderful!! I’m going to try and make it vegan however and wondered if you had any suggestions? I was planning on using soy milk as a substitution for the milk but wasn’t sure what to do about the heavy cream and egg.
Hi Antonia, here is our vegan dough for baking: .
Hi Judy, is it possible to mix the dough (for this recipe and the milk bread recipe) in breadmachine since I only have a very old hand mixer which works with a temperament?
Thank you for all your goody recipes :) Our default favorite/quick dinner is poached chicken with ginger scallion sauce !
Thank you so much for your love and support, Sara. You can mix and proof the dough in the bread machine.
thank you ! so excited to try it this week