Ham and Mayonnaise Bread Rolls

Stepping into an Asian bakery, be it Chinese, Japanese, or Korean is like stepping into bread heaven. These bakeries share roughly the same kind of dough recipe that yields soft, pillowy, milky, buttery, and almost always filled with all sort of wonderful ingredients ranging from sweet filling such as bean paste, custard, and sweet cream to savory filling such as this ham and mayonnaise, sausage, meat floss, and pizza toppings. If you have ever stepped into an Asian bakery, you know what I am talking about. Today, let me share with you one of my Asian bakery favorite bread, ham and mayonnaise bread rolls.

Blackforest Ham and Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise

Personally, I prefer bread with sweet filling more than the ones with savory filling, but my husband is the other way round, so of course I have to compromise and alternate between making bread with sweet and savory filling at home. To make these ham and mayonnaise bread rolls, I always rely on these two main ingredients:

• Black Forest ham from Costco, I love these, but you can use any kind of sliced ham, or even other sliced deli meat of your choice.
• Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise, you can use regular mayonnaise but Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise actually tastes different and to me packs more punch than regular mayo.

If your grocery doesn’t have Kewpie mayonnaise and you want to make it yourself, here is a good approximate shortcut that should get pretty close to the real deal. Simply mix together 1 cup regular American mayonnaise, 2 tablespoon Japanese rice vinegar, and 1 tablespoon sugar.

How to Shape Ham and Mayonnaise Bread Rolls

I learn about the method to prepare this ham and mayonnaise bread rolls from a Japanese cooks community, don’t you think this is such a fun way to shape the bread? I took multiple photos showing the step-by-step on how to make this roll, and I hope the photos along with my instruction will provide enough guidance to shape the bread rolls.

1. Divide the proofed bread dough into 12 equal portions.
2. Flatten each portion into a circle the size of the ham slices you are using.
3. Place a slice of ham on top of the dough.
4. Roll into a log, then connect the two ends of the log to create a snail.
5. Stand the snail with the connected ends touching cutting board, cut into two discs about 80% through, so the two discs are not totally cut apart, then open up the discs to display the pretty layers.
6. Arrange on a half-sheet pan lined with a parchment paper.

Adding Mayonnaise After the Second Proofing

Once the bread rolls are all assembled and arranged on a half-sheet pan, you will need to rest the bread for a second proofing until they become puffy, and the volume is almost doubled. This is the right time to apply an egg wash and squeeze some mayonnaise on top of the proofed bread.

• If you use Japanese Kewpie mayo, you should be able to squeeze out the mayo directly from the bottle itself.
• If you prepare the approximate homemade version, you may want to transfer the mayo into a piping bag and pipe onto each bread roll.

Baking the Bread Rolls and Sprinkle with Nori Toppings

Once the oven is preheated to 200 Celsius (400 Fahrenheit), bake at middle rack for about 20-25 minutes until the bread is golden brown. Once the bread is out from the oven, you can sprinkle the bread with crushed toasted nori seaweed like what I do. If you don’t have nori at home, some chopped fresh parsley is a pretty good substitute, or just leave them plain.

How to Properly Store and Reheat the Bread Rolls

These ham and mayonnaise bread rolls are best eaten straight out from the oven and should keep fresh for up to 3 days when stored in an air-tight container in the fridge. Since these bread rolls contain meat and dairy, it is not advisable to store them outside of the fridge. When I want to eat the bread that has been stored in the fridge, I simply reheat the bread in a microwave for about 10-15 seconds to return them to their just out from the oven state.