How tasty are these milk buns? They are soft little bites, perfect for setting up a buffet and beautiful to bring to the table when you have guests for birthdays, anniversaries, and various holidays. I’ve always loved them, maybe because they’re synonymous with celebration or, more likely, because they’re just too good. They can be filled with both savory fillings (cold cuts, cheeses) and sweet ones (jams, marmalades, chocolate creams). Try them! Don’t miss out on this recipe because it would be a real shame. You won’t be disappointed!
Other bread recipes for special occasions:
- Rest time: 5 Hours
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 25 buns
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for milk buns
With these quantities, I made 25 milk buns.
The amount of yeast can be adjusted according to your needs. If you increase it, the rising times will reduce; if you decrease it, you will need longer rising times. In this recipe, I used 6 g of dry yeast, but fresh yeast is also fine. In this case, you could use 15/20 g. If you are interested in knowing the correspondence between these two different products, read the article I wrote about it. You can find it by clicking HERE.
- 4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp dry yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- milk (1 to 1 1/4 cups + extra for brushing)
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 1/2 tbsp butter
Tools
I prepared the dough for these milk buns with a stand mixer, but you can make it with any other mixer or even by hand by working the ingredients first in a bowl and then on a pastry board.
- Stand mixer
- Hand whisk
- 1 Bowl small
- 1 Bowl
- 2 Baking sheets
- Brush
Preparation of milk buns
Put the flour in the stand mixer bowl with the yeast and mix with a small hand whisk. If kneading by hand, sift the flour through a fine-mesh strainer.
Slightly heat the milk, add the sugar, salt, and previously melted butter in the microwave or a bain-marie and mix well. I recommend starting with 1 cup of milk and adding more only if the dough turns out hard. Absorption depends a lot on the quality of the flour used.
Add this mixture to the flour and knead for a long time until you get a homogeneous and elastic dough.
Transfer it to a lightly floured pastry board and work it for a few moments with your hands until it is smooth. Shape a ball.
Place it inside a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise until doubled in volume in a warm place away from drafts. The times can vary from 2 to 4 hours depending on the room temperature.
After the rising time, transfer the dough to the pastry board, form a loaf, and cut it into pieces weighing about 1 oz each.
Work each piece by shaping it into a ball: try to smooth the top by bringing the various folds towards the base.
Place the balls on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper, keeping them a little apart because they will increase in volume during rising and baking. Cover them with a cloth and let them rise again for another 2/3 hours.
At the end of this second rise, brush them with some warmed milk.
Bake the milk buns in a preheated static oven at 392°F for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool slightly before serving. Enjoy! Paola
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