(Mira speaking in Japanese)
(Moe speaking in Japanese)
(Mira speaking in Japanese)
(Moe speaking in Japanese)
(Mira speaking in Japanese)
- [Alvin] Hello there!
Welcome back to another episode of "Anime with Alvin."
Today, I'll be making the underwear bread
from "Asteroid in Love."
Now, based on those two frames shown in the source material,
this seems like a dish born
out of pure imagination and raw artistic talent
but may actually be a slight variation
on a very popular bun found in Japan:
melonpan, a fluffy white milk bread bun
topped with a thin layer of cookie crumble,
kinda similar to a Mexican concha.
So to begin, I'm combining 500 grams of bread flour,
65 grams of sugar, two teaspoons of kosher salt,
and two teaspoons of dry instant yeast in a stand mixer
until everything is combined.
After the dried ingredients are friends,
I'm now adding in two large eggs
and 200 grams of whole milk around room temperature,
mixing this on low to medium speed with a dough hook
until a rough dough forms, a couple minutes.
Once the dough looks like it's having a good time,
I'm adding in about 60 grams of soft unsalted butter.
Adding the butter slowly allows the dough
to absorb each piece, or else it's just kinda slip
and slide everywhere without absorbing the butter.
Once the dough has eaten all the butter,
I'm turning this up to medium-high speed
for about four to six minutes
to get some nice gluten development in there.
While the dough hook gets to work,
you can pass this time by dancing,
scrolling your phone, or just hanging out
and keeping your stand mixer buddy company.
At this point, the dough should be pretty nice and elastic,
so I'm oiling up a bowl,
shaping this dough into a nice, smooth ball,
checking for a little poke, boing,
and wrapping this with Saran Wrap
and letting this proof for about an hour or so.
While our buns get bigger,
it's now time to tackle the cookie topping.
In the stand mixer once again,
I'm combining 120 grams of unsalted butter,
120 grams of sugar,
and beating it until it's a little fluffy.
This is my dough baby, Bob.
There he goes.
You think you can run away from me?
Sit right here and watch.
This is followed by one large egg,
about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract,
and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.
Now, adding in about 230 grams of cake flour
and 50 grams of almond flour
along with a teaspoon of baking powder.
I was supposed to sift these, uh, but I forgot.
At this point, this looks
like a pretty standard cookie-like dough.
One half gets about 25 grams of special dark cocoa powder,
which makes it ultra dark,
while the lighter half gets about 20 extra grams
of cake flour to match the dryness
of the cocoa powder added to the darker half.
Once both colors have been combined
and there's no streaks or anything,
I'm putting them in Saran Wrap,
wrapping them, and pressing them a little flat
so that they go chill in the fridge.
You know what they say: You can't make a good pair
of underwear with warm ingredients.
Our dough has now doubled in size,
so I'm gonna go ahead and shape these
and divide them into roughly four equally sized buns.
It's now time to fill each bun
with as many chocolate chips as I can for realism.
Each chocolate-stuffed bun now gets a nice shape
into a smooth, round ball,
in which form they will now do their final proof and expand.
Our cookie dough should be cool by now, and my strategy here
is to cut these blocks into long strips,
laying them across a piece of parchment paper
in alternating strips of light to dark cookie dough
until there's five total, three light,
two dark, just like the show.
I'm trying to keep these as tight and as level as possible
so that when I place a piece of parchment paper on top
and roll them, I get as even and smooth
of a stripe pattern as I can.
This is essentially the cloth
from which we shall cut our precious underwear.
But you know what they say:
You can't cut underwear while it's still hot.
So this is gonna have to go back in the fridge.
Once our cloth has chilled,
it's time to make some underwear.
You know what they say: Measure it twice, cut once.
I'm gonna cut four times
until we have roughly four trapezoids
the shape of a thong.
More on that later.
I'm making a quick egg wash with one egg yolk,
a splash of heavy cream, a pinch of salt,
and a pinch of sugar.
This will help give the buns a nice golden-brown exterior
when they hit the oven.
When brushing your buns, it's important
that you don't wanna miss any cracks.
Any uncovered surfaces may not be exposed to a nice tan.
Hmm, this underwear seems
to be a bit too large for these buns.
You know what they say: No one likes a saggy underwear.
So after a quick trip to the tailor, me,
making some alternations with a knife, I'm now able
to snugly fit this pair of underwear on these buns.
And don't forget, the source material clearly shows
a little black bow right on the front,
so I will do the same.
A little tuck, a little pat for reassurance,
and off to a 350 degree oven they go.
Our underwear has cracked quite nicely. Um...
So not the visual I was hoping for, but to be fair,
actual melonpan or conchas do have
a nice cracked cookie topping on top.
The flavor and texture of the cooked part
of the bun is actually quite nice.
But you know what they say:
Cracked underwear is no good.
I think the biggest reason for the cracking was due
to the cookie crumble recipe, so this time,
I'm doing the exact same thing I did
but completely removing the baking powder
and decreasing the sugar to prevent less spreading.
My arms are also getting pretty tired at this point
because I didn't realize I used a stand mixer
for the first half.
I forgot once again.
You know what they say: Too much underwear,
the brain goes nowhere.
And I'm repeating the process of cutting,
lining them up as stripes, alternating the colors,
and pressing down into a long piece of underwear cloth
from which we will cut another
for beautiful pairs of underwear.
You know what they say: The second time's the good one.
While I was laboring and tinkering away
at the taper of these undergarments,
I actually gave the buns a 15-minute head start,
but the idea is that putting the underwear on
later in the baking process
will prevent the underwear from cracking
and help them cling to the buns a little bit better.
I'm feeling really good about this batch.
The underwear is beautifully cut.
So, working quickly to make sure
that the heat doesn't melt the cookie,
I'm returning these back to the 350 degree oven
for about 10 to 12 minutes.
And hey, what do you know! It worked. (chuckles)
The underwear is cooked
and drapes beautifully over the sides.
I gotta say, my favorite thing about this
is that little black bow in the front.
I do love accessories.
But what I wanna know most of all is how does this taste?
So while the bun is still warm and soft,
I'm gonna dive in face first.
This is extremely good.
The warm, fluffy bun,
that slightly sweet and salty crumble cookie topping,
combined with that little bit
of that chocolate surprise in the middle,
I gotta say, I've had melonpan
once or twice before when I was in Japan,
and even though this isn't the same thing,
it does remind me slightly of what I had,
though I think they'd probably sell a lot more
if they looked like this.
I don't know if that's a good thing.
And because I had to know what was underneath,
give the underwear a slight tug with your fingertips.
And voila. Tan lines.
All right, everybody in the studio has to eat these
while they're still warming.
Even you, Steve.
(upbeat mellow music)