Bun of the Month: Orange and Oolong Morning Buns
when just the recipe title alone sounds so lovely you have to bake it!
Hi!! Over the past few days I’ve been oscillating between excitedly responding to messages and comments about the release of Chinese Enough and hiding my phone behind the cushions of the sofa so I don’t get completely overwhelmed. I can confirm that it never gets less nerve wracking announcing another cookbook. If anything, I was more anxious this go around than with Mooncakes and Milk Bread. But thanks to all your support and kind words for Chinese Enough I’m a little less nervous! It’s really such a privilege to write books and share my food and stories with you. I’m so proud of this cookbook and love the recipes! I hope you will love them as much this Fall!
Self-promoting is very unnatural and uncomfortable for me, so I apologize for the link thrown in every so often to pre-order my book. But if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, here’s the link if you’re interested!
As a thank you, I wanted to share my first Bun of the Month! I’ve been wanting to start this offshoot of the main newsletter called Bun of Month for a while. After submitting the manuscript for Mooncakes and Milk Bread I felt like my body composition was 75% milk bread and I had to take a step away from kneading and baking the fluffy loaves and buns (until the pub date!). Over the last 3 years I’ve continue to make The Mother of All Milk Bread but far less frequently. I make a batch of buns or a loaf for sandwiches about once a month and every time I take a bite I realize I had forgotten just how good this bread tastes! It’s also nice to flex some creative muscles and tap into a part of my brain that I used a lot while writing my first book. How can this simple dough be shaped and twisted or have a new flavor incorporated? The possibilities with Milk Bread never end!
If you’re not interested in the Bun of the Month you can simply unsubscribe while still be a subscriber to Have You Eaten Yet! No Hard Feelings!
Behold these sparkly Orange and Oolong Morning Buns! There’s something about the words “orange and oolong” that sound so beautiful together (and they taste great together too!). If I were to start another blog or open up a cafe in the early 2010s I probably would have named it after these buns.
I remember eating my first morning bun at Tartine when I first moved to San Francisco 10 years ago. I feel like it is a rite of passage for many SF transplants. So tender but crunchy! Covered in sugar but yet not too sweet!
Morning Buns typically use a laminated enriched dough, but these morning buns use the Mother of All Milk Bread (not laminated) as the base of the bun, but with a few tweaks. I swapped the butter for equal weight in olive oil, which gives the bun a slightly crispier texture and the flavor is lovely with the orange. The dough also takes on a warmer color from the oil and the zest of the orange. The zest looks like confetti to me, which I love!
Oolong tea sugar is simply ground up loose leaf tea leaves with coarse sugar. I’ve made this before for one of my favorite cookies. It’s so fragrant, with a delicate floral flavor. I used a particularly delicious Osmanthus Oolong which has a fruitier flavor. If you don’t have Oolong, Earl Grey would be a great swap, especially with the bergamot. You sprinkle the sugar all over a sheet of dough, roll it up and cut it up like cinnamon rolls, dip in more sugar, and then proof the swirls in a muffin tin. Bake until your kitchen smells like heaven and the buns are tall and bursting out of the tins. I like to roll the buns in sugar one last time while they are still warm for an extra sparkly finish.
I wish I could wake up to these buns every morning, but I did savor the few mornings I did with a warm cup of tea, of course!
Hope you’ve had a great week and have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Orange & Oolong Morning Buns
makes 12 buns
Tangzhong :
100g (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) milk
20g (2 tablespoons) bread flour
Milk Bread:
125g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) warm (110°F) milk
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar, plus a pinch
335g (2 1/4 cups) bread flour, plus more for work surface
55g (1/4 cup) olive oil, plus more for boil and muffin tin
zest of an orange (about 2 tbsp)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 large egg
Oolong sugar:
13g (2 tbsp) loose leaf oolong tea
100g (1/2 cup) coarse sugar
Steps:
Make the tangzhong: In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the flour and milk and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened to a paste, 2-3 minutes. Immediately transfer the paste into a small bowl, scraping the sides of the saucepan with a flexible spatula; let cool until warm, 5 to 10 minutes. Texture should resemble mashed potatoes.
Make the milk bread: In a small saucepan, over medium heat, scald the milk by bringing the milk to a gentle simmer, 1 minute (watch carefully as milk tends to boil over). Pour milk into the bowl of the standmixer or a large bowl and cool until warm to the touch (about 110°F). Stir in yeast and a pinch of sugar, and set aside until the surface of the mixture is foamy, 5-10 minutes.
To the bowl of milk and yeast, add the flour, sugar, olive oil, orange zest, salt, egg and tangzhong. Mix with the dough hook on low for 2 minutes. The dough will be shaggy. Increase the speed to medium and continue to mix until a smooth and tacky dough forms, 8 to 9 minutes. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Wet your hands to prevent the dough from sticking, pinch and pull the ends of the dough to form a smooth ball.
Coat a large mixing bowl with the 1 tsp olive oil. Add the dough to the bowl, gently turning it to cover with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot proof until doubled in size, about 2 hours (or place in the refrigerator to proof for at least 8 hours or overnight).
To make the oolong sugar, grind the tea in a mortar and pestle until fine (or pulse in a small blender or food processor). In medium bowl, mix to combine the tea and sugar.
Punch down the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle (about 12x18-inches). Sprinkle about half of the sugar all over the surface of the dough. Roll up the dough along the length into a log. Place the log seam side down and cut into 12 equal pieces. Dip the portions of dough in oolong sugar (top, bottom, and sides).
Brush the cups of a muffin tin with oil or nonstick baking spray. Place a portion of dough in each tin and then cover with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to proof in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Once doubled, bake the buns until golden brown and puffy, 17 to 19 minutes. Allow the buns to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. While they are still slightly warm, remove them from the tin (if they stick, just run a butter knife or offset spatula around the edges) and roll/sprinkle remaining oolong sugar over the buns.
Enjoy warm or store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Did I miss the part about adding orange in the recipe though? :( just zest of one orange with everything else in the dough?
Trying this out but tweaking a bit to make it vegan 🌱😊