Coffee buns, also known as rotiboys, originated from Malaysia but is found very widely in Singapore. Go into any bakery and you will be able to smell the coffee fragrance of the rotiboys. Love it!
The interesting thing about this bun is that it is baked with the coffee cream on top, which melts and gets soaked into the bun during the baking process. What results is a crisp, golden coloured bun that is really soft and fluffy on the inside, and crisp and fragrant at the top. It’s got to be one of my most favourite buns of all!
Imagine baking this bun with a different flavoured cream each time – chocolate, custard, matcha, strawberry. It would be amazing! Gotta try these other options when I have the time. But for now, let’s dig in and bite into the fluffy buns!
Ingredients:
- Milk: 150ml
- Caster sugar: 3 tbsp + 60g
- Salt: 3/4 tsp + a pinch
- Active dry yeast: 1.5 tsp
- Egg (room temperature): 1 + 1
- Unsalted butter: 42g + 50g + 60g
- Bread flour: 325g
- Instant coffee powder: 1/2 tsp (or 1 small dose Nespresso, any flavour)
- Plain flour: 70g
- Warm water: 10ml
Method:
- Combine milk, 3 tbsp caster sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, yeast, 1 egg, 42g butter & bread flour in mixing bowl. Knead using dough hook on medium speed till smooth, soft & elastic.
- Divide dough into 10 balls (approx 60g each). Flatten.
- Stuff each dough with frozen butter (10 x 5g). Wrap up with dough and roll back into balls. Cover with plastic film & rest 90min.
- Preheat oven at 170 degrees Celsius.
- Combine instant coffee powder, 60g butter, 60g caster sugar, plain flour, a pinch of salt, 1 egg & warm water in a bowl. Scoop into piping bag.
- Pipe coffee cream onto buns in a tight circular pattern up to 2/3 of surface.
- Bake 20min till golden brown.
Tricks:
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The recipe called for instant coffee cream for the coffee mixture. The hub suggested using just Nespresso the next time I bake this, and that really does sound like a wonderful idea!
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Don’t hesitate to use more coffee powder / Nespresso in the coffee cream so that the bun can have a nicer, stronger coffee fragrance when baked.
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It’s a really simple recipe to follow and complete – not as difficult as I’ve thought it would be. The dough does not rise as much, but the buns turned out really soft and fluffy – really nice to bite into!
Serving:
10 buns
