Mexican Buns

As it's the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, I have a few days off to experiment with some new bread recipes.

I attempted the Mexican Buns for the first time. I guess they are similar to the Hong Kong 'Pineapple Bun' or the Japanese 'Melon-pan', a soft bun with a crispy, cookie topping. Out of the three I still prefer the Pineapple Bun, especially when they have the Cocktail Bun (Gai Mei Bau) filling...mmm. Not very traditional but very delicious. I'll try and make some myself in the near future but for now you will have to make do with Mexican Buns.

This recipe makes 12 muffin-sized buns. If like me you choose to line the muffin tins please please please use non-stick muffin cases. I made the rookie mistake of using the standard cases and as a result I lost part of my bread to the stupid case when I came to eat them. Don't make the same mistake!!

In this recipe I've used some cocoa powder as it's a nice contrast to the white topping but you can skip this and add 10g more bread flour instead.

Ingredients
For the bread:
250g bread flour
10g cocoa powder
4g dried yeast
130ml warm water
2g salt
30g sugar
1/2 egg
20g butter

For the topping:
50g butter
70g sugar
120g plain flour
1 egg
pinch of salt

Method:

1. For the bread: mix all the dried ingredients and rub in the butter.
2. Pour in the egg and the water a mix until a dough is formed.
3. Knead the dough on the work surface until it is elastic and smooth.
4. Leave to rise covered until double in size.
5. In the meantime, to make the Mexican topping: cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add the flour, egg and salt to the sugar and butter mixture and combine.
7. Transfer the topping mixture into a piping bag afor use later.
8. Once the dough has doubled in size, divide the dough into 12 balls. Cover and leave to rise again until doubled in size.
9. Pipe a swirl of Mexican topping onto each bun starting from the inside out.
10. Optional: now you can add some decoration onto the Mexican topping. Here, I've used some flake almonds.
11. Bake in a pre-heated oven 180C/160C fan for 20 mins.

Unfortunately, you can't eat these straight out of the oven as the topping needs to cool and harden. The crispy topping is what makes the Mexican Bun after all. Enjoy!

-Aubergine