Milk buns (or pan de leche) are a staple of Spanish breakfast and "merienda" (afternoon snack), There are many varieties of this bread in supermarkets in Spain, but there's nothing like a freshly baked batch with a glass of milk.
It's hard to believe these yummy buns are so easy to make, but take my word for it! They are a no-brainer. Just make sure to use good yeast (if it doesn't froth up after 15 min, it's not active anymore!) and allow the dough to rest the appropriate times.
I've seen so many recipes that require 20 to 30 min kneading (what??), I mean it is doable if you have a stand mixer; but like many, I don't. And I don't want to spend half hour just prepping a bread, I can do with an hour of baking, or an hour of resting, but that much handwork? I think I'll pass.
But don't worry, this recipe needs no knead! (sorry, I'm having way too much fun) You just have to mix with a rubber spatula, like you would mix a cake batter. This dough is soooo sticky, it'd be quite hard to work it by hand, you'd probably need to add more flour if you want to hand-knead it, but I really recommend mixing with a spatula! Much easier and quicker!
To shape the buns I just used an ice-cream scoop, it makes things so so so much simpler, you won't have to measure each portion because each scoop is going to be the same. Lightly grease your hands, get a scoop of dough and roll it in your hands briefly (just a few second will do!) and drop it onto your baking tray.
Ingredients:
- 15 g fresh yeast (or 5 g active dry yeast)
- 60 g sugar
- 150 ml lukewarm milk
- 1 egg
- 250 g all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 60 g butter (room temperature)
- Chocolate chips
Procedure:
0. Let your chocolate chips rest in the freezer before starting, as this will prevent them from becoming gooey in the oven (unless, of course, you like them to be gooey). I like firmer chocolate chips, so freezing them is the trick, and they won't lose their round shape.
1. In a large bowl, mix together yeast, sugar and lukewarm milk. Make sure the milk isn't hot, body temperature is ideal. Cover the bowl and let it froth up in a warm place for 15 min.
2. In a small bowl, beat the egg and add half of it into the frothy yeast mixture. Save the rest of the beaten egg for glazing.
3. Sift in the mixture all purpose flour and salt, start mixing everything with a spatula.
4. Mix until everything is well-incorporated and you don't see any pockets of flour.
5. Add in the softened butter, and mix again until you get a less sticky dough (this dough is quite sticky, it will stick to your hands even after mixing in the butter, so that's why it's best to use a rubber spatula)
6. Cover the dough and let it rest about 1 hour, or until it has risen nicely and doubled in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
8. Punch out the excess air (with the spatula). Fold in the chocolate chips.
9. Grease your hands with oil, and with an ice-cream scoop get equal pieces of the dough and form into balls, arranging them in a baking tray with parchment paper.
10. Cover the buns and let them rest 30 min (or until they're double in size).
11. Add a dash of milk to the beaten egg, and brush this onto the buns.
12. Bake the buns for about 15-20 min, without fan, and both top and bottom heat. They're done once they're golden and shiny.
Looks like a lot of steps, but I assure you it isn't that much work! Watch my video recipe to get a better idea of how the dough should look. I also made some plain buns and then filled them with Nutella. They were heavenly!
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