These Korean-style cream cheese garlic breads are definitely making another wave on social media so i thought it’s about time i’d give it a try. Popularised by bakeries in South Korea, these cream cheese garlic breads are a play on sweet and salty, rich and indulgent, definitely not for the faint hearted. Personally, I find these breads great tasting but i could never finish one whole bun by myself, the creaminess from the cheese cream makes it very indulgent and subsequently heavy. Nonetheless, would definitely make this again to share with friends and family 🙂

There are 3 main components to this dish: The bread, the cream cheese and the garlic butter.

1. The bread: I used milk buns for this recipe which i thought was best paired with the cream cheese and garlic butter. I’ve also seen it done with bagels and croissants. In my opinion, bagels is too dense and bready, while croissants would make it too rich and heavy.
2. Cream cheese: it’s going to be a sweet cream cheese filling. Again, we’re playing with sweet and salty here but you could definitely adjust the sweetness level in this recipe. Just remember to leave your block of cream cheese out to soften.
3. Garlic butter: yes, it will be sweet and yes, you can adjust.

Ingredients

4 milk buns
Parmesan cheese

Cream cheese:
250g cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp heavy cream

Garlic Butter:
100g butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup parsley, minced
1-2 tbsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp sugar
1/3 tbsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
2. Cream cheese: In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the cream cheese filling and mix well. Transfer filling into a piping bag.
3. With a serrated knife, make 3 slices into your milk buns WITHOUT cutting all the way through. You want the bottom of the buns to still be intact. Then pipe the cream cheese filling into the slits you have made in your milk buns. [NOTE: The more cream cheese you pipe into these slits, the heavier and indulgent the breads will be, just keep that in mind!] And if your buns break, that’s okay! Just use the cream cheese to glue the pieces together, they will stay intact while you bake. Set them aside
4. Garlic butter: combine all the ingredients for your garlic butter into a bowl and mix well. Take 1 filled bun at a time and dunk it into the garlic butter mixture, get it coated evenly on all surfaces and place on a lined baking tray. Repeat for all your buns.
5. Grate parmesan over the buns and bake for 10-12 minutes. Best enjoyed slightly warm.