Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Buns are an easy-to-make, deliciously indulgent, treat. To make this delicacy, soft bread buns are filled with a cream cheese mixture. Then the buns are coated in garlic and parsley-infused butter and baked until golden and crispy.
Also known as Korean Garlic Cheese Bread, and Six-sided Cream Garlic Buns, this popular street food item has gained widespread popularity in South Korea in recent years.
Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Buns are nothing like the Western style Garlic Bread. These soft buns are divided into six (sometimes eight) equal segments or “leaves/ petals”. After the buns are baked, they are filled with a lightly sweetened cream cheese and then dunked into custardy, lightly sweet and savory garlic butter mixture. The buns are baked again till lightly crunchy on the outside.
Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen, chose these delightful Korean buns as the bake of the month for the Bread Baking Babes. When she described the buns, she mentioned that we might have difficulty wrapping our minds around a sweet, savory, buttery and garlicky bread. She was right.
In fact, when I explained the buns to my mom, her first response was, “yuck!” I said, “fine, I won’t waste them on you.” She missed out. These buns are delicious! You really do need to try one to understand how good they are.
You can bake the buns on one day and fill them with cream cheese, dunk them in garlic butter and bake them the next day. This makes quick work of making these buns and also serving them fresh out of the oven on demand. This is what I did.
Aparna’s recipe is adapted from Poke The Dough’s Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Bread
How I made my Light Wheat Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Buns
In the bread dough, I used about 35% home-milled Clark’s Cream white wheat flour along with 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour.
I reduced the dried yeast from ½ teaspoons to 1 teaspoon.
For the filling, I used cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and a little almond milk rather than incorporating heavy cream. I didn’t pipe the filling in the buns. I used a knife. It was a bit messy, but it worked fine.
I used an egg in the bread dough, but not in the garlic butter. I thought the mayonnaise thickened the garlic butter up plenty without the added egg.
Light Wheat Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Buns
- Yield: 6 Buns 1x
Description
Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Buns are an easy to make, deliciously indulgent, treat. To make this delicacy, soft bread buns are filled with a cream cheese mixture. Then the buns are coated in a garlic and parsley-infused butter and baked until golden and crispy.
Ingredients
For the Buns
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) milk (dairy or non-dairy), at room temperature (I used almond milk)
- 30 grams (2 1/2 tbsp) sugar (more or less to taste)
- 3 grams (1 tsp) instant dry yeast
- 100 grams (1 cup) white whole wheat flour (I used home-milled Clark’s Cream flour)
- 188 grams (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 15 grams (1/8 cup) milk powder
- 3 grams (1/2 tsp) salt
- 1 egg
- 20 grams (1 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, soft at room temperature
- Egg wash optional (I used almond milk)
For the Sweet Cream Cheese
- 225 grams (1 cup) cream cheese, softened, at room temperature
- 30 grams (2 1/2 tbsp) powdered/ icing sugar, or less as desired
- 28 grams (2 Tbsp. / 1/8 cup) butter, softened
- 18 grams (2 Tbsp.) milk, or as needed while mixing (I used almond milk)
For the Sweet-Savory Garlic Butter
- 114 grams (1 stick) butter (I used unsalted)
- 8 to 10 cloves garlic, minced or crushed into paste
- 29 grams (1/8 cup) mayonnaise
- 14 grams (2 tbsp) honey
- 1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped parsley (or 2 tsp. dried)
For Topping (optional)
- Panko style breadcrumbs
Instructions
For the Bread
- You can do this by hand or with a stand mixer. Your final dough should be soft, smooth and elastic enough to pass the “window-pane test” – where you stretch a small piece of dough and it doesn’t break easily allowing light to shine through it.
- Put all the ingredients for the buns except the butter, into the bowl of your mixer (or large mixing bowl if you’re kneading by hand). Mix till combined. Add the butter and knead. Add more milk, if required, and knead well.
- Check to see if it the dough passes the window-pane test. (If you use some whole wheat flour, like I did, the dough may not pull a window pane. Instead, give the dough a couple of stretch and folds during the 1 ½ hours proof in the bowl.)
- Shape the dough into a smooth ball. Place in a clean bowl and loosely cover it. Let it rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours in a warm place till almost double in volume.
- Gently deflate the dough to get rid of all the air. Knead with your hands for another 3-5 minutes. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Shape each into a smooth round ball. Place them on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking tray. Cover loosely and let them rise for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Brush the buns with milk or egg wash. Bake them at 180C or 350F for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Let them cool on a rack completely.
For the Sweetened Cream Cheese
- In a large bowl, whisk or blend the cream cheese and sugar together. Whisk in the cream till smooth. Refrigerate if not using immediately. Fill into a piping bag with plain nozzle. Keep aside till required.
For the Sweet-Savory Garlic Butter
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the crushed garlic, honey, and parsley. Let the mixture cool a bit, then whisk in the mayonnaise until smooth. Set aside until needed.
Make the Cream Cheese Garlic Buns
- Slice each bun bread roll into 6 equal sections, making sure not to cut all the way through the bottom. Think of the bun opening out into a flower with six “petals/ leaves”.
- Pipe a reasonable amount of the sweet cream cheese mixture in between the sections of the bun.
- Carefully hold the bun cut side down and dunk into the sweet-savory garlic butter without the cream cheese falling out. Turn bread roll upside down and make sure the bun is well coated. Drain excess back into your garlic butter bowl.
- Place the coated bun on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other buns. Sprinkle the tops with Panko bread crumbs. Pipe (or spoon) a largish blob on the middle of the buns where the ends of the slices of the buns meet.
- Bake the buns at 180C (350F) for about 15 minutes till the top feels crisp and the bread crumbs are a light golden brown. Serve warm.
- Category: Soft Bread Buns
- Cuisine: Korean
Who are the Bread Baking Babes?
We are a group of bread bakers who get together every month and bake bread! We have a Facebook group if you’d like to bake along. New recipes are posted every month on the 16th.
Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen, is the host kitchen this month. If you want to bake along with us as a Buddy, check out her blog for details on how to participate. She’ll send you a Buddy badge, and feature you in the round-up. Deadline to get your e-mail to her is May 29th.
Check out the different variations for this month’s bake:
My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna (host kitchen)
Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
Bread Experience – Cathy
A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
blog from OUR kitchen– Elizabeth
Feeding My Enthusiasms – Elle
Thyme for Cooking – Katie (roundup)
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Karen says
I thought these were delicious too! Your mom missed out!
Cathy says
For sure! These are really good!
Kelly says
They look beautiful, love the wheat variation.
Cathy says
Thanks! The whole grain flour worked really well in these buns.
Elizabeth says
I would have used whole grain too but I promised the can-we-please-have-white-bread-for-once lover in the house that I wouldn’t.
Cathy says
I think it’s okay to do white bread with yeast every now and then.
Elizabeth says
Hahaha! I think I must be related to your mom! I had exactly the same response. And of course, you are right. She missed out.
I love how really cream-cheesy your garlic buns are! Lovely.
Cathy says
Instead of piping the cream cheese on, I spread it with a knife. I think I got carried away, but boy was it good!
Elizabeth says
It makes much more sense to use a knife (even if you do get carried away). There’s much less likelihood of having cream cheese stuck irretrievably to the piping bag.
Cathy says
The cleanup part is exactly why I didn’t use a piping bag. 🙂
Katie Zeller says
Garlic Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting…. I could like that!
Cathy says
They are pretty awesome for sure! You ought to try these Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Buns sometime.