Sicilian milk buns, milk buns for sweet and savory fillings, incredibly soft and a typical recipe of Sicilian cuisine and grandmother’s recipes.
We people from Catania grew up with milk buns, which here have a very special meaning: they are suitable for any time of day and we love them plain or filled with every possible filling, from Nutella to salami, ham, cheese and much more.
Whoever tastes a Sicilian milk bun falls in love at the first bite and I assure you that one is never enough, because they are addictive just like milk little pizzas (Pizzette al latte) or the simpler soft milk flatbreads (Focaccine morbide al latte)! A filled milk bun is the perfect school snack, an ideal breakfast, a special dinner — in short a milk bun is always good and now we’ll make them together! Ready to get your hands on the dough to prepare these soft Sicilian buns? Let’s go, but first I remind you that if you want to stay updated on my recipes, you can follow my page Facebook and my profile Instagram and I also suggest you take a look at these recipes:
–Chocolate chip buns;
–Stuffed milk buns;
–Baozi Chinese stuffed buns;
–Chinese steamed buns (mantou)
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 2 Hours
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 20 buns
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients to make Sicilian soft milk buns
- 4 cups Flour (type 0) (or half type 0 and half re-milled durum wheat semolina)
- 1 1/3 cups Milk (If you can handle more hydrated doughs use 2 3/4 cups (about 650 ml))
- 6 tbsp Lard (or butter)
- 5 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tsp Salt
- Half packet Active dry yeast (or 1/2 fresh yeast cake)
- as needed Milk (For brushing / finishing)
Tools
- Bowl
- Oven
- Baking sheet
- Brush
- Parchment paper
How to make Sicilian milk buns
Prepare all the ingredients, put the flour in a bowl, add the milk and dissolve the yeast in it, mix roughly, let rest for ten minutes, then add the milk and the lard.
Knead in the bowl for a few minutes, then move to the work surface and work until you obtain a smooth, elastic and homogeneous dough; it will take about 10 minutes. If you have a stand mixer use it to save some effort. Form a ball and place it in a bowl, put it to rise in the oven with the light on (the oven temperature will reach about 79°F, helping the fermentation) for about 2 hours 30 minutes or until doubled.
After this time, when the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a work surface, and without deflating it too much divide it into pieces of about 60 g (about 2.1 oz) each.
With the help of a bench scraper shape many small dough balls and set them to rise until doubled; this will take about 40 minutes. After that time, preheat the oven to 356°F (static mode), brush the buns with milk and bake.
If properly risen, our buns should not crack during baking and will rise nicely.
Remove the buns from the oven when they are fully golden, it will take about 15/20 minutes.
The secret to super soft milk buns is not so much the ingredients as the technique. A dough with a well-developed gluten network that is smooth and homogeneous is a good starting point, but only a perfect rise will complete our work: the buns must be baked at their doubling — not before, otherwise they would be hard, nor after, otherwise they would rise poorly and unevenly.
Take a photo to compare the progress of the rise if you can’t judge it by eye.
Milk buns are delicious warm, you may find it hard to stop eating them.
They are also good at room temperature and keep for 24 hours if stored in a food-safe plastic bag.
I prefer to freeze them; then just leave them at room temperature for 20 minutes and they’ll be ready.
Notes
From here, you can return to the HOME and discover new recipes!
