Happy Monday! I hope everyone is doing well. I think life is going back to normal little by little (around where I live). This virus has changed how we live and we should be careful until they can find a vaccine which hopefully is soon because I won’t be able to travel to Peru without one, I don’t want to put my parents in risk. I cross fingers that I can spend the holidays with them. I’m so lucky that their 2 caregivers have been doing the quarantine with them for more than 2 months now and they have their groceries and medicine delivered to them.
Changing subjects, a couple of weeks ago I went to a Hispanic grocery store to get my papaya (I love papaya because it’s really good for your stomach) and guess what! I found yeast! A big big pack of yeast. My husband got really excited and started to make bread. I haven’t bought bread at the store since then, I love his bread so much.
And because I found yeast, I decided to make some buns but not with cinnamon. This time I made chocolate buns. They are so so good!
Because I’m using rapid rise yeast, I am not proofing it, but if you want to proof it, that’s ok too.
Let’s start with the recipe.
Yield 12 medium size buns
Ingredients
For the dough:
½ cup milk, 105-110˚ F
¼ cup white granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant (rapid rise) yeast
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour or you can use bread flour if you have it
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
For the filling:
8 oz. chocolate, coarsely chopped . You can use any kind of chocolate you want, I used a mix of dark and bittersweet chocolate.
¼ cup white granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
To finish:
1 large egg beaten with 1 tbsp. milk or cream (This is called Egg Wash)
Directions
For the dough
1.- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the milk, sugar, and yeast. Mix for 30 seconds. Add the egg, flour, and salt, and mix on low speed until a sticky dough begins to form. Mix in the butter until incorporated. Using the dough hook, knead on low speed for 10 minutes.
2.- Transfer the dough to a bowl greased with butter and cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 and 1/2 hours.
For the filling
1.- Combine the chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor. Process in pulses until the chocolate is finely chopped with some parts almost powdery. Add the butter and pulse again until incorporated.
2.- Grease the bottoms and side of a muffin pan. I tried regular and jumbo size, they both came out ok. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a well floured work surface and gently deflate. Let rest for 5 minutes. Roll into a very large rectangle, about 12 x 20 inches, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking.
3.-Sprinkle the filling over the surface of the dough. Tightly roll the dough up into a log.
4.- Use a sharp serrated knife to slice the log into 12 equal pieces. Place each slice into the prepared muffin tin, with the cut side facing up. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 40 minutes.
5.- Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Lightly brush the tops of the buns with egg wash (mix egg and cream or milk). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool briefly. Gently unmold the buns and let cool until just warm. Serve warm and enjoy!
*These buns are the best when eaten the same day BUT you can warm them up in the microwave if you want to soften them up the next day**
Enjoy!