Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Mexican Coffee Buns

6 April 2008

It's breadmaking again! I made the Mexican Coffee Buns (Rotiboy), which is one of my favourite breads (even though the rotiboy craze has seemed to be over).


Got both the Mexican coffee buns and Sweet dough recipes from the same book called 我会烘焙 (I can bake) by Agnes Chang. I have halved the recipe and used the "DOUGH" function of my bread machine to knead the bread instead of making by hand. The dough is extremely difficult to work with. After kneading by the machine for 30 minutes, when I take it out to shape, the dough is still very very sticky. I keep adding more flour to prevent it from sticking to my hands and hope it will not change the texture of the bread.

After the first rising, when I have to shape them into small portions, they stick to my hands again everytime I divide the dough. It really slows things down. Finally, this is how they look just before sending into the oven. This is my first time trying to pipe the topping. Haha! Quite fun actually. And I do a last minute sprinkle on the cream topping with more chocolate rice (not shown in picture).


Here's the nice-smelling coffee buns. It doesn't have much coffee taste. Probably because I added too little coffee powder and omitted the coffee paste. The topping is not sweet as I have reduced the amount of sugar. The bread is really soft. I forget to mention that I have added some bread improver to this recipe. I have returned the bread machine to my mother's friend. She borrowed us the bread improver too and I thought might as well tried it once before returning so that I can see if the bread improver really make a difference. I think it does!


I must say that I still need more practices, especially in shaping the buns. They all have different shapes and sizes. The taste can also be improved further. They are far from the rotiboy sold outside. I have found several other Rotiboy recipes, with fillings. Share the links here with u and I might try them in the future.
http://aizai.kopi-o.net/2005/08/17/rotiboy-recipe/
http://belachan2.blogspot.com/2006/08/my-version-of-rotiboy.html
http://playkeen.blogspot.com/2007/11/roti-boy-recipe.html
http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/09/rotiboy.html

Mexican Coffee Buns (I make 12 mini buns)
(Recipe from 我会烘焙 I can bake by Agnes Chang)

Basic Sweet Bun Dough (I halved the recipe)
Ingredients
110ml water
30g egg (maybe have to reduce to 25g since my dough is sticky)
50g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5g milk powder
200g bread flour
50g cake flour
1/2 tsp bread improver (optional)
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
35g butter

Method
1. Put all the ingredients (except butter) into the bread machine in the order listed above. Make a slight dip in the centre of the flour and sprinkle in the yeast.
2. Set to "DOUGH" and let it knead for 10 minutes. Re-start the machine and add in cold butter. After kneading for 20 minutes, stop the machine and take the dough out. Knead a bit more until the dough is smooth and does not stick.
3. Cover with a piece of damp cloth and leave to rise until it doubles in bulk (about 1 hour).
4. Punch down and knead again until smooth. Cover with damp cloth and rest for another 10-15 minutes.

Mexican Coffee Buns (I halved the recipe)
Ingredients
Topping:
60g butter
60g castor sugar (I reduce to 40g)
1.5 eggs (I use 75g)
60g plain flour
1/2 tbsp instant coffee, mixed with
1/2 tbsp hot water, cooled
1/2 tsp coffee paste

Method
1. Divide into 60g portions (I divide into 30g) and shape them into rounds. Place onto a baking tray, leaving enough space for the dough to rise. Leave the buns to rise till they double in size (about 45 minutes).
2. Topping: Cream butter and sugar till light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in flour and coffee till well-combined.
3. Put mixture into a piping bag and spirally pipe all over the surface of the buns. You can sprinkle some chocolate rice or chips or nuts according to your own preference.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 210C (I use 200C) till golden brown for about 12-15 minutes.