Coffee Buns or Mexican Buns

INGREDIENTS

Filling:

• 50g salted butter, cut into 8 small cubes. Keep them in the fridge until ready to use.

Coffee Topping:

1. 1 large egg, beaten
2. 40g icing sugar, sifted
3. 65g unsalted butter, softened
4. 65g AP flour, sifted
5. 15ml coffee (about 5g instant coffee and 1 TBSP hot water)

PROCEDURE

1. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
2. Add egg and beat until combined.
3. Add flour gradually and beat until well combined.
4. Add coffee and beat well. You’ll get a paste.
5. Spoon it into a pastry bag and refrigerate until ready to use.
6. My friend said you could make the topping ahead and it can be kept in the fridge for 3 days.
   Note: I did this all with a wire whisk, though my friend recommended using a hand mixer.

Dough: (yields about 8 medium buns)

INGREDIENTS

• 250g bread flour
• 40g caster sugar
• 3g salt
• 5g instant dry yeast
• 30g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg, beaten
• 120ml milk

PROCEDURE

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Add butter and combine with your hands.
2. Add egg and milk, knead so everything is well combined. Lightly flour a surface and put your dough on that surface to knead (with light floured hands) until not sticky, smooth and elastic. It took me 30 minutes to knead by hands and resulted in two hurtful arms :(. Put the dough in a large bowl, cover with a damp towel and let it rise for 1-2 hours, until double in size.
3. Lightly knead the dough. Divide it into 8 pieces, roll them round like balls. Cover and let them rest for 15 minutes. Flatten each piece, put a salted butter cube in the center, seal and roll them really well again to make sure the butter wouldn’t be leaked during baking. I didn’t seal them well enough so the butter leaked and the buns looked really weird in the oven. Take the topping out of the fridge so it will be softened a little.
4. Preheat oven at 170-180 C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Arrange the buns on the tray and spirally pipe the topping on the buns, starting from the center. The topping should cover about half of the bun. Bake for 15-20 minutes until light brown. I baked them at 180 C for 22 minutes, turned the tray, then baked for another 5 minutes.
5. Cool on a wire rack. Better serve warm from oven. The buns can be reheated in a preheated oven at 120-150 C for 5 minutes.

Credits to: twocherriesontop.blogspot.com