Milk buns

I'm baking buns and breads these days. Breads and buns are well served as breakfasts and suppers for my elder son. I owe my thanks to my bread maker, which helps me do the kneading and first rise job. Without my BM, I don't think I would make that many buns and breads, because:
- my arms would be really hurt from kneading and there would be no way I could still sit here typing this after all the kneading :).

- I wouldn't have enough time to do all the process as my daily schedule is pretty tight with 2 little kids always needing their mother's attention, and then my work requires time too.

Back to the milk buns. They were so very good. No, not just good. They were amazing. They were soft, fluffy and great-smelling. I don’t think anyone can resist that aroma of newly baked breads and buns. Even when the buns hadn’t been ready to get out of the oven, the wonderful aroma filled up the whole room.

My bread maker my great helper. It was bought at a discounted price

The below recipe is originally from here. It’s indeed a keeper.

Ingredients:

- 150ml milk

- ½ egg (beat an egg and use 1/2)

- 30g caster sugar

- 5g salt

- 250g bread flour

- 5g instant yeast

- 40g unsalted butter, room temperature

I always used butter to grease the pans/tins. But I've just bought this. It makes the greasing become much faster, and I think it helps save money too

Method:

1. In the BM’s pan, put the ingredients in this order: milk, egg, sugar, salt, flour, yeast (yeast should not touch the liquid). Choose “Dough” then let the cycle complete (my BM takes 90 minutes).

2. Punch down the dough to let out the air bubbles. Divide the dough into 7 equal pieces. Let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes.

3. Roll each piece of dough round. Arrange them in a well-greased 20cm round cake tin: one piece of dough in the center, and 6 around. Cover and let the dough proof for about 35-40 minutes.

After 2nd rise...

Some milk ready to be brush over the buns

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 190^oC for 30-35 minutes. My oven seemed to be too hot, so the surface of the buns got pretty brown after 15 minutes. I covered with a sheet of foil and let it be baked for another 15 minutes (30 minutes in total). Now the small buns stick together to make a big bun, which looks like a cute chubby flower. I just wanted to pinch it because it looked so lovely :). By the way, the bun was a bit over-brown, but my family like it that way, because the crust was crispy (thin though), but the inside was still really soft and fluffy, not dry at all.

Cute, cute...

So soft and fluffy and delicious

5. Take the bun out of the tin right away. Let cool on a wire rack.

Update: My younger son, who is quite “hard” on food (mind you, he’s still very little :)), seemed to like this bun too. He ate a couple of slices, which is really a compliment to me :).

Another update: Only one piece of the bun was left the next morning. I ate it and it was surprisingly good with obvious buttery flavor.

Will I bake this again? Definitely yes.