Mocha Almond Fudge Milk Bread Buns

I was trying to come up with a really innovative and unusual milk bread recipe when I walked by an ice cream shop. They were advertising mocha almond fudge ice cream and I had just been thinking about milk bread, so I put two and two together and invented: Mocha Almond Fudge Milk Bread Buns!

These babies have 4 different delicious layers with lots of textures to keep things interesting. There's the coffee milk bread on the outside, then a layer of chopped salted almonds, a layer of almond milk bread, and finally a layer of ooey gooey fudge. It's kind of like a whole sundae in bread form.

They do take a while to make, so choose a day where you don't have much going on, but are very simple. Prepare to wow all of your friends and family members!

Coffee Dough:

• 375g bread flour (3 cups), might need more
• 50g brown sugar (1/4 cup)
• 2.5g salt (1/2 teaspoon)
• 1 egg
• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 12g instant coffee (2.5 Tablespoons)
• 3g instant yeast (1 teaspoon)
• 30g unsalted butter, softened (1/8 cup or 1/4 stick)

Almond Dough:

• 300g bread flour (2 1/8 cups)
• 50g caster sugar, or just regular sugar (bit less than 1/4 cup)
• 2.5g salt (1/2 teaspoon)
• 1 egg
• 150 ml lukewarm milk
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3g instant yeast (1 teaspoon)
• 30g unsalted butter (1/8 cup or 1/4 stick)
• 130g salted almonds (1 cup)

Fudge:

• 21g butter (1.5 Tablespoons)
• 30g cocoa powder (1/4 cup)
• 250g sugar (1 1/4 cups)
• 60g milk (1/4 cup)
• 5g salt (1/4 teaspoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

We'll start with the outer layer first, the coffee bun.

Put your flour, brown sugar, an salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until well combined.

Then stir the instant coffee into your lukewarm milk and dissolve it as best you can. Feel free to add more than 2 1/2 Tablespoons if you want it to be stronger, but I kept it less so that I could eat the buns later in the day too and still be able to sleep :)

Pour the coffee onto your flour mixture and crack an egg into it. Finally, sprinkle over your instant yeast.

Knead the mixture with your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment on medium/low. If after 5-10 minutes it still isn't coming together, add flour in a Tablespoon at a time until the dough is still slightly tacky, but doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. You can scrape it down a few times in between to help it along.

Once the dough looks like mine in picture 2, add in your softened butter while the mixer is still running. At first it will seem like the butter won't incorporate, but after a few minutes you should have a nice soft dough.

Scrape it down and turn it out onto a board so you can shape it into a ball. Put the dough ball in a bowl and cover it with a tea towel.

This is really similar to the coffee dough, but we'll be making a little less since it will go on the inside.

Whisk your flour, caster sugar, and salt until well combined. You can do this while the coffee dough is still kneading.

Put the almond extract into the lukewarm milk and pour the mixture over the flour. Crack in your egg and sprinkle over the yeast.

When you transfer it to the stand mixer bowl, just scrape the coffee dough as best you can off. You don't need to clean it since the flavors will be together anyways in the bun.

Just like with the coffee dough, knead the mixture on medium/low until it cleans the side of the bowl, add in your butter, and knead again until it's soft, elastic, and all the butter is incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a board and shape it into a ball. Then put it into the stand mixer bowl, cover, and bring both doughs to someplace warm.

Let them rise for 1-2 hours or until they've doubled in size and when you poke them gently with a finger, they spring back partially and slowly. If you find that the surface of the dough is drying out, you can spray it with some water. It's important that they stay moist because if they dry out they can't expand to their full potential.

Combine all of the fudge ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until it comes to a boil. Then take it off the heat and let it cool down.

Once your doughs are done proofing, turn them back out onto a board, flatten them, and divide them each into 12 even pieces. My original slices weren't too even, but I fixed that later.

Shape them into little balls and leave them on the board covered with a tea towel to rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, roughly chop your salted almonds and put them somewhere near your board.

This is my favorite part. It's kind of like filling dumplings, if you've ever made them before.

Flatten a ball of coffee dough until it's around 1 cm thick and pretty circular. Sprinkle on some chopped almonds. Then flatten one of your almond dough balls to be slightly smaller than the coffee one. Scoop around a 1 1/2 teaspoons of fudge and place it in the center of the dough. (If your is still super runny, let it cool for a bit longer).

Fold everything up like a little purse and pinch the dough shut. Flip it back over so the seam is on the bottom and make it nice and round.

Place your buns into two parchment lined baking dishes. If you want them to stay separate, choose a bigger dish, but if you want them to fuse together like dinner rolls, put them closer together.

Cover and let proof for 1-2 hours until doubled and puffy. This time I actually let them rise for 1 hour, put them in the fridge for 3 hours, and then let them rise at room temperature for another 1/2 hour. This was just because I had to run an errand, but you can also do this intentionally if you'd like. The fridge makes the yeast sleepy so it won't rise as much in there. You can also let it rise in the fridge overnight and it might have risen enough to skip the second rising in the morning.

Preheat your oven to 355 F or 180 C.

Spray the surface of the buns with water, and top with blanched almond halves if you'd like. A dusting of cocoa powder or an espresso bean would also look nice.

Bake for 15 or until the buns feel dry (the bottom might be covered in fudge, just heads up) and spring back if you poke them. Let them cool in the pan for a few minutes, then enjoy!

Eat over a plate ;)