Soft and sweet these popular Puerto Rican buns are so tasty and perfect for snacking, or even filling.
My sister Margaret, who lives in Canada, suggested that I try Mallorca Bread, buns that are very popular in Puerto Rico. I read up a little on the buns and found that they are very similar to a Spanish bread, Ensaimada which I may also try at some time.
The buns are quite easy to make, since they can be done without any real kneading of the dough. I checked a few recipes and they all seemed fairly similar.
The dough is very soft and quite sticky to work with, but using flour on the work surface makes everything workable without too much difficulty.
The recipe does take some time since, as with all leavened bread, the dough needs to be allowed to proof before being baked. In fact these are proofed once to before the buns are shaped and then again for a further 50 minutes before baking.
The resultant buns are very soft and have just the right amount of sweetness, with a little extra added from sprinkled icing sugar. Mine turned out very well and I enjoyed eating them. I can quite see why they are so popular in Puerto Rico.
Mallorca Bread – Puerto Rican Buns
Ingredients
360g(2 1/4 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) bread flour, or plain flour
5g(1 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast
80ml(1/3 cup) lukewarm water
125ml(1/2 cup) lukewarm milk
113g(1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
40g(3 tbsp + 1 tsp) caster sugar
2 medium egg yolks(large in USA)
5ml(1 tsp) vanilla extract
pinch of salt
42g(3 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, for brushing later
Icing sugar to sprinkle
Directions
- Place the water and milk, and a teaspoon of sugar, into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top.
- Give the mixture a quick stir and leave for the yeast to activate for 10 minutes, it should become foamy on the top.
- Place the yeast mixture into a large bowl and add the remaining sugar, the eggs, salt and 113g of melted butter.
- Whisk the mixture until fully combined.
- Add the flour, in two additions, and stir with a hand, or a wooden spoon, or a Danish dough whisk until the mixture has formed a shaggy dough and all the flour is combined into the liquid.
- Scrape the bowl so the shaggy dough is in the centre then cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof in a warm place until it has at least doubled in size(mine took 75 minutes).
- Deflate the dough and tip it out onto a floured work surface.
- Sprinkle more flour over the top of the dough and roll it out into a rectangle 18 inches by about 10 inches(45cmx25cm).
- Brush the surface with melted butter.
- Carefully cut long, 25cm, strips which are about an inch wide.
- Roll each strip up into a round, tucking one end underneath.
- Place each rolled piece, on a parchment lined baking tray, so that the top shows the spiral of the roll. Leave a good space between each one.
- Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow to proof for a further 50 minutes.
- As the 50 minutes comes to an end preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Brush the rolls with melted butter and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, until they have risen and turned a light, golden, brown.
- Transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool completely and then sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.
My first world thank you you share your experience to us you are the best.It’s good 👍 and essayist to understand you
Thank you very much.