Pizza Flavoured Piggy Buns Bento

These cute piggies are so hard to resist. I made these buns on the weekend with the help of my youngest son. Even though it took some time to make, it was so much fun especially to see him showing some interest in baking. And the best part was that he ate two piggies straight away. It's all worth the effort, I supposed :)

PIZZA FLAVOURED PIGGY BUNS
Recipe adapted from Manu's Menu

Prep time
1 hour 30 mins
Cook time
15 mins
Total time
1 hour 45 mins

Serves: Makes about 20

Ingredients :
Yeast Dough
400 gms – 13.5 oz all purpose flour (you may need a little more)
1 package instant dry yeast (7 gms – ¼ oz.)
1 egg
200 ml – 7 oz. plain yogurt
100 ml – 3.5 oz warm milk
1 pinch of salt

Flaky dough
150 gms – 5.5 oz flour
100 gms – 3.5 oz butter
1 pinch of salt

Filling
Cheese 
ham
Tomato sauce
Oregano

Egg Wash
Egg white
Egg yolk and some milk to brush

Instructions :
1.   Start by making the yeast dough. 
2.   Put all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mix and knead well.
3.   Make it into a ball and keep aside to rise for at least 1 hour.
4.   In the meantime, make the flaky dough by kneading all the ingredients together.
5.   Once the yeast dough has risen, add the flaky dough to it and knead well.
6 .  Roll the mixed dough into a 3 mm – 1.2 inch thick sheet and cut out circles of 6 cm – 2.4 inches in diameter. 
7.   Also cut out smaller circles (3 cm – 1.2 inches in diameter) that you will use to make the noses and ears. 
8.   For the ears, simple quarter the smaller circles.
9.   To make the filling, fry the ham and mix with the tomato sauce and oregano.
10. To assemble your Piggy Buns, put half of the big circles onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. 
11. Add 1 tsp of tomato and oregano sauce and a little piece of cheese in the middle. 
12. Brush the edges with some egg white and place the other half of the big circles on the top. 
13. Press with your fingers to close well.
14. Attach the nose and ears with some egg white wash. 
15. Use black sesame seeds to make the eyes, and for nostrils, use some fennel seeds.
16. Let the piggy buns rise again for 30 minutes.
17. Then brush them with egg yolk wash mixed with a little bit of milk.
18. Bake them in a preheated oven at 190-200°C – 375-390°F for about 15 minutes. 

So, for my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Two pizza flavoured piggy buns
2. Corn on the cob
3. Dutch beef croquettes (recipe here) with sweet chili sauce
4. Rose carved carrot
5. Pink lady apple cuts for recess

And my youngest son had the same lunch as his brother, except he had banana yogurt for recess. The peppa pig picture on the yogurt pouch really matches with the theme :)

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