Mexican Coffee Buns

Mexican Coffee Bun is a Malaysian bread made with a very pillowy soft sweet bun with a butter coffee crunchy topping.

This recipe will make 6 large buns.

Ingredients:

For the bread dough:

• 90 mL lukewarm milk
• 1 large egg, room temp
• 2 tsp yeast
• 30g white sugar
• 200g bread flour (best, but all purpose is okay)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 30g milk powder
• 20g unsalted butter, soft
• Butter for the center:
• Prepare 6 pieces of good quality salted cold butter, 8 g each

Coffee Topping:

• 70g unsalted butter, soft
• 80g white sugar
• 1 large egg, room temp
• 3 tsp espresso coffee powder, more if you like stronger coffee flavor
• 7g boiling water to dissolve coffee
• 85g all purpose flour

Directions

1. Starting with the dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer, add warm milk, yeast, sugar, egg, mix and let sit for 5 mins for yeast to dissolve. Then add flour, salt, milk powder and knead for 10 mins, then add the soft buffer and knead for another 10 min or so until you are able to stretch the dough to pass the window plane test and is able to stretch to a really thin membrane (this is a very sticky dough, don’t add more flour, maybe a little dusting if you feel it need a little more since each brand of flour is a little different. Also kneading time will slightly vary due to differences in mixers, so judge by consistency). Shape the dough into a smooth ball and let proof cover for 1hr or so until slightly more than doubled (I stick mine in the oven with the light on).

2. Once the dough has proofed, divide the dough into 12 pieces. Take a piece of dough, stretch it and wrap the butter cube like you would wrap a dumpling and seal it tightly. Now take a second piece of dough and wrap the first piece in a similar way. This is to ensure that the butter doesn’t leak. Roll it tight to ensure it forms a ball and set aside. Repeat this process for the remaining dough pieces. Place the ball about 4-5 inches apart, as these will expand during baking. Cover and let proof for 1-1.5hrs or until more than double in size.

3. To prepare the coffee cookie topping, first dissolve the coffee in the 7g boiling water and set aside to cool down. In a bowl, beat the soft unsalted butter and sugar together and with a hand mixer until pale in color, then add the egg and coffee. Whisk the mixture until fluffy. Fold in the flour.Transfer the topping to a piping bag or zip-lock bag and set this aside (but do not refrigerate as this will firm up in the fridge).

4. When proofing is done, pipe the coffee cream in a swirling pattern from the center of the bun outward to cover about ⅔ of the bun, more heavily on the top because excess topping will eventually flow down to cover all the buns as it bakes.

5. Bake in a 350C preheated oven for 15 minutes. Turn heat off then leave it for another 10 minutes in the oven. Remove from oven, let it cool down then serve warm.