Espresso Chocolate Cream Buns

What would you love for breakfast? Well, this espresso chocolate cream buns are the best! Espresso and chocolate in the bread, with chocolate cream cheese filling and espresso drizzle on top, this would be the perfect way to start your day! Pair it with your coffee and for sure, this will make you smile all though the day! These are good for snack too!

Coffee and chocolate marry well! Yes, a perfect pair! No disputes at all:-)! I have used espresso in this recipe in the bread dough as well in the glaze/drizzle. Chocolate is used in the bread as well as in the filling. This is double of both but never excess. It is SO good!

Espresso is a brewing method in which boiling water is passed through the powdered coffee under pressure resulting in strong coffe extract, usually referred as shots. I have used regular espresso, but any flavor as per preference can be used too.

This recipe uses Tangzhong. Tangzhong is a kind of a gel made with flour, milk, and water, cooked on stove to get the gel consistency. Tangzhong is a key to get soft breads with a better shelf-life. They tend to be softer longer. Tangzhong makes better rolls like in this Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls and Matcha and Strawberry Cream Melonpan! It gives amazing, light, and beautiful texture to the bread.

Matcha and Strawberry Cream Melonpan uses a cookie top. Similarly, cookie top can be added to this bun too! Or add coffee butter sugar mix like in papparoti. The filling could be vanilla or some chocolate chips can be added. There are many variations that can be done with this delicious bun!

I have used aquafaba to brush the buns and that gives a bequtiful shine similar to egg wash. A couple more points to note are - Dust generous amount of flour while shaping the dough. The second and foremost thing is that it may hard to tell whether the bread is done with color of the bun. It is better to check whether the bun sounds hollow at the bottom.

Active dry yeast is activated and added to the bread machine as I found that I ran out of instant yeast. If using instant yeast, just add without activation. The dough can be made by hand too.

This is our first edition of #ImprovCooking for this year! Juli is hosting this event and the two ingredients we have are coffee and chocolate. These two are divine pairs and is possible to make unlimited foods with these. The #ImprovCookingChallenge is a monthly blogging event where two ingredients are assigned to a month. Bloggers can make any recipe they like as long as it features the two ingredients. If you are a blogger and would like to join us, please visit our Facebook page. You can also read more about the event on our our home page

I am also linking this to Full Plate Thursday, Wonderful Wednesday, and Thursday Favorite Things.

Update: This was featured on Full Plate Thursday 572! Thanks, Miz Helen!

Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Ingredients

For the Tangzongh

Milk - 1/6 cup

Water - 1/6 cup

For the buns

All purpose flour - 2 cups plus 2 tbsp

Butter - 3 tbsp, room temperature

Milk - 1/2 cup

Aquafaba - 3 tbsp

Cocoa powder - 4 tbsp, unsweetened

Milk powder - 3 tbsp

Espresso - 3 tbsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Sugar - 4 tbsp

Active dry yeast - 1.5 tsp

For the filling

Cream cheese - 8-oz, room temperature

Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup

Vanilla - 1 tsp

Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp, unsweetened

For the drizzle

Espresso - 1 tbsp

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

For brushing

Aquafaba - 1 tbsp

Method

Add the ingredients listed under "tangzhong". Whisk to make lum free and cook to make rough stirring continuously. This could take 2-3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Add the tangzhong and all the ingredients listed under 'dough' into the bread machine and set it in dough cycle. Let it rise for an hour.

In the meantime, mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder to a silky smooth texture. Set in refrigerator.

Once the dough is ready, knead, punch, roll, and divide into nine portions.

Roll each dough smooth and then roll flat into 5-in diameter circle. Scoop about a tablespoon of the filling. gather the ends of the dough together from one direction, sealing it to shape into a ball. Roll and place it on a lined baking sheet.

repeat with rest of the dough. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Brush the top with qauafaba and bake for 16-17 minutes.

While the bun is baking, mix the ingredients for the drizzle. Transfer to apiping bag and snip at the end to pipe.

Once the bun has cooled completely, drizzle the espresso glaze on top of the buns.

Serve with coffee/milk, or as such.

Here are the links to our January 2022 edition of #ImprovCooking Challenge - Chocolate and Coffee. Thanks, Nicole and Juli!

Chocolate Tiramisu from Pandemonium Noshery

Chocolate Coffee Martini from A Day in the life on the Farm

Espresso Chocolate Cream Buns from Magical Ingredients

Eggless Mocha Cake from Sneha’s Recipe

Chocolate Coffee Bundt Cake from Cookaholic Wife