400g all-purpose flour
265g warm milk (~40-60 degC)
40g white sugar
5g salt
8g instant dry yeast
35g of softened unsalted butter (room temperature)

Flavorings
Anything you can get your hands on!
For each teddy bear, mix in 1/4 teaspoon of:

Cocoa powder
Black (oreo) cocoa powder
Houjicha powder
Cinnamon
Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie spice
Matcha green tea powder
Purple sweet potato
Ube flavoring extract
Pumpkin powder
Beetroot powder
Blackcurrant (freeze dried)
Espresso powder
Coconut extract
Vanilla extract
Strawberry extract
Earl grey tea powder

To prepare the yeast mixture: Place dry yeast in warm milk (around 40-60 deg C). Think of the temperature of warm milk you might feed a baby. Stir well and let it stand for 5 minutes.

To make bread dough: Set up stand mixer with a bread hook attachment, and Place AP flour in the bowl. Make 2 dents to place sugar and salt in. Pour yeast mixture into mixing bowl and start mixing on low speed until it comes together. Place the softened butter one cube at a tune and then increase the kneading speed. Knead (around 10 min at least) until well incorporated and the surface of dough is smooth. To know that it is done, it should have passed the “windowpane test” (watch the 2:13 min mark).

To flavor dough balls: Divide dough in 16 portions (use a bench scraper to cut unto the dough, so that the gluten strands are not mixed up). Weigh each dough ball (35-40g) to make 16 portions. Spread the powders and mix into each dough ball until well incorporated. (Random tip: somehow I ended up with 17 dough balls after weighing, which turned out to be a good thing because I baked the 17th separate, and it became a taste test for the bake time!)

Let dough rise (first rise): Let the 16 dough balls sit to rise for around 1 hour, until doubled in size

To make teddy bear dough balls (and allow second rise): Divide each dough into 2g for first ear, 2g for the second ear, and 30-35g for the large bread dough. Place each dough ball into the square pan, in a 4 x 4 configuration. To stick ears on, place a bit of water, and hold onto each dough ball for around 5-10 seconds to allow it to stick. Allow to rise for 1 hour in the pan. The bears should be touching each other before entering the oven!

To bake: Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Place aluminum foil on top of the bear buns in the pan. This prevents the bread from being burnt (and mess up the colors you created!). Bake at 190 degrees C for 20 minutes, then 170 degrees C for 30 minutes. Leave the foil on after baking for around 20 minutes, while allowing it to cool.

To decorate: draw on eyes and the bear with buttercream and white chocolate – have fun with it! I definitely did 🙂 Watch the video for techniques! Enjoy and have fun trying all the different flavors!