A delicious morning treat, I love the addition of coffee into any baking, it helps to counteract the sweetness. Maple and coffee are such a great pairing as well! These need a bit of time to rise, I usually prepare my dough the night before, so it only has to do a 30 minute rise in the morning before I have fresh buns!
This dough makes enough for 12 buns, I often split the dough in half, make 6 and then make 6 dinner rolls (just roll the dough into balls) that I smother in garlic butter.
Dough
1/4 cup milk
10g instant yeast
50g sugar
3/4 cup milk
170g butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
560g flour
Filling
75g butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
Icing
250g cream cheese
Coffee - I recommend instant coffee as it is more concentrated in flavour, 1-2 teaspoons can be dissolved in a tiny bit of hot water then added to the icing, otherwise 1 shot of espresso
1 cup icing sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
Before you start, take 1/4 cup of the milk and mix it with the sugar and yeast. I always do this first to make sure my yeast is active. No one wants to go through the ordeal of making dough to find out it wont rise! Stir them together and set aside for 10 minutes, after that you should see some bubbly yeast at the surface of the milk. If there are no bubbles, I'm afraid your yeast is dead and you will need to get some more.
While your yeast activates, you can melt you butter.
If you have bubbles, yay! Lets move on. Add the remaining milk, melted butter and eggs to your yeast and give it a mix.
Transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer, then add the salt and flour. Use the dough hook attachment to beat for about 5 minutes, until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky to the touch.
Cover the dough with clingfilm, it will need about 2 hours to double in size at room temperature, alternatively you can put in the fridge overnight.
After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface (if you want to halve the dough, do so now). And roll out into a rectangle, about 1cm thick, the longest edge facing you.
Mix together room temperature butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, then spread over the dough. Roll up the dough as tight as possible, then cut in half repeatedly until you have 12 pieces.
Transfer buns to a baking dish, leaving a little space between each. Cover them with a towel and leave them to rise for 30-60min until puffy. Preheat the oven to 160°C. (If you split your dough, dinner rolls will take the same amount of time to bake, as long as you have portioned evenly).
Bake buns for 30-40 minutes, until puffed an golden. Let them cool for 10 minutes before icing.
Meanwhile, prepare the icing. Mix together cream cheese, icing sugar, coffee and maple syrup - taste it and check it is to your liking, add more coffee or maple if you think it needs it! Spread over warm buns.
Enjoy fresh or if you have leftovers, heat them in the microwave with a mug of hot water next to them which will keep the moist!
Bon appétit!
