What to bake this weekend: Good Morning brioche buns

Good morning brioche buns
Makes 12

Ingredients

• 250ml whole milk
• 10g dried yeast
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 485g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 75g butter, cut into small pieces, softened

Method

1. Warm the milk in a small saucepan over low heat until it is lukewarm, then stir in the yeast, sugar and eggs.
2. Put the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the wet mixture to the flour and mix until a loose dough has formed. Increase the speed to medium-high and mix for 5 minutes. Add the softened butter and mix until it is incorporated and the dough becomes smooth and elastic, approximately 5 minutes.
3. Place the dough in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in volume, approximately 40 minutes. Your dough is now ready to use.
4. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line a 12-hole standard 250ml muffin tin with paper cases. Empty the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 25x48cm, and around 1cm thick. At this point, you can make the chocolate or cinnamon sugar variations.

Variations

Chocolate spread Cover the dough with 450g chocolate hazelnut spread, such as Nutella. Roll from the longest side to form a log. Slice into 12 x 4cm-thick slices, and place in the prepared tin. Loosely cover with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place to prove, until the dough has almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

Cinnamon sugar Thinly spread 150g of softened butter over the dough, then sprinkle liberally with 175g cinnamon sugar (2 tbsp ground cinnamon added to 350g rapadura or caster sugar). Roll from the longest side to form a log. Slice into 12 x 4cm-thick slices, and place in the prepared tin. Loosely cover with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place to prove, until the dough has almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

Extracted from The Cook + Baker by Cherie Bevan and Tass Tauroa (Murdoch Books). Photography by Chris Chen.