Coffee Bun (Mocha Bread)

  When you push the skin gently, it's cracked, and reveal the soft brownish skin with the scent of coffee. There is another joy that you just take off the crispy skins itself as if you are eating coffee biscuits. It's Coffee bun.
  There are different versions of coffee buns which are from Mexico or somewhere South Asia (Think it's Malaysia?) though, firstly I want to introduce my version of Mocha Bread which is slightly different from them in terms of the way of putting skin. It results in cracked top rather than smooth top like their coffee buns, which I found the pleasure to eat the piece of cracks first before discovering the soft fleshy.
   I made 2 versions of topping, one was Mexican style(Conchas), another was my coffee style. Mexican one was more beautiful, but as far as a lasting time concerned, my style lasted longer as Mexican one became very soggy.
  A filling is not necessarily required, but you can add butter or almond cream as a filling. Otherwise, just toast them, and spread butter on it or as you prefer. Also, next time, I will make a thicker topping for coffee one when I roll out them since mine was too thin to make the wild cracks during baking, and became a bit soggy after while though taste was still good. One more thing is cover the topping only on top of the dough for Mexican one rather than tucking in like coffee topping as it tend to spread up more during baking,  so roll out the topping smaller than coffee topping.




 You will need :

(for 8 buns)

For dough
Strong flour 340g
Dry yeast 5g
Sugar 50g
Salt 4g
Butter 40g
Egg 1ea
Instant coffee 4g
Water 140g

For my coffee topping - for 8 buns
Plain flour 170g
Baking powder 3g
Sugar 70g
Butter 35g
Egg 30g
Instant coffee 2g
Hot water 10g (to dissolve coffee)

For Mexican style topping(Conchas) - for 8 buns
Icing sugar 60g
Plain flour 60g
Butter, softened 47g
Raspberry powder 4ts

(1) Ready to prove

 (1) Mix all ingredients for dough except butter for 7 mins, then add butter. Knead for 5 mins more. Transfer to a clean bowl, and prove for an hour.

(2) My coffee topping

  (2) In the meanwhile, make the topping. Cream butter and sugar, add egg, and sieved flour, baking powder in. Dissolve instant coffee in the hot water, add into batter, and mix well till no discrimination of colour. Wrap and flat it up, and rest in the fridge.

   For Mexican style topping, mix flour, icing sugar together, and rub in butter pieces. Wrap and flat it up, rest in the fridge.

(3) Rest for 15 mins

(4) Roll out the topping

  (3) Once the dough becomes double, divide in 80g, and rest for 15 mins. Then flat it up to remove gas inside, and roll up again.

(4) Cover completely

(4) Tuck in the excess

  (4) Divide the topping in 40g, roll out between cling film. Cover the rolled dough, and tuck the excess in the bottom by using a scraper.

   Mexican topping is more fragile, and spread up after baking. So cover the topping only on top of dough rather than making excess.

(5) Ready for 2nd proving

(5) Make patterns

  (5) For the mexican topping, make pattern with a knife as you like. Then 2nd proving for an hour.

(6) After 2nd proving

(6) Too thin..

   (6) When it become 1.5-2 times in volume, bake at 180'C for 20 mins for 20 mins. (Turn around the tray in the middle of baking for even baking.)

   Enjoy the scent of coffee from the oven!

Brownish soft fleshy