Cheese Buns with Surprise for BBD # 47

la ricetta in italiano qui

As soon as I received the newsletter from Cucina Italiana, one of the best Italian food magazine, I realized that would have been my Easter recipe for this year and  ran out to buy it immediately :-). Surprisingly then I re-descovered (well, actually I had forgotten) that Astrid , our lovely hostess for Bread Baking Day # 48 chose exactly bread with eggs as theme of the month.

And so ... I baked the buns the other day (not much time left to blog in time for the event, I am always hurrying up the very last days :-) but alas, it took me the while day and was almost dark and we were already having dinner when I put them in the oven: the smell was very inviting, but ... I was terrible and did not allow any taste to anybody (with obvious complaints) and firmly lock the oven because I then had to take pictures for the post the day after with natural light :-)

It's a nice idea for Easter table but also Easter Monday pic-nic. I made only 4 egg buns, shaping the remanining dough into doves, sprinkled with sesame seeds (but may be aromatic herbs), a flower (might be a nice placeholder) and a braided garland sprinkled with poppy seeds. The dough is very soft and mangeable.

  

Just a funny inconvenient occurred to me: my gg buns dramatically bent to the side, I probably should have used disposable pudding molds in aluminum, with a larger capacity (but I liked so much these colorful by Ikea :-), and put less decoration because it weighs and makes the bun collapse in baking. 

 For 8 or 9 buns you need:

• 300 g all purpose flour  
• 100 g water, room temperature 
• 40 g grated parmesan 
• 20 g sugar 
• 15 g fresh yeast
• 8 or 9 eggs
• 3 egg yolks 
• 1 beaten egg for brushing 
• 30 g butter, softened 
• extra butter for the molds 
• salt/pepper

- Mix 100 g of flour, water and 10 g of crumbled yeast n a large bowl or in your stand mixer. It will be a pretty liquid and sticky dough, cover with a wet towel and let rise at least 6 hours.
- Combine then 100 g more of flour, 5 g of crumbled yeast, 3 egg yolks (one at a time, the following after the previous has been absorbed), sugar and soft butter. Knead well, add half teaspoon of salt, give a mix and then let rise for about an hour covered (the dough is still sticky).
If you do it by hand (as I did but don't ask me why :-) use a large bowl and mix using a cupped hand, taking the mixture well from the edge toward the center, raising it and striking it against the bowl to develop the gluten and make it elastic. It's a little tiresome and laborious, but it's a matter of a few minutes (and Mrs. Rising will thank you then :-).
- Finally combine the remaining 100 g of flour, parmesan and a sprinkle of ground fresh pepper, and knead until the dough is smooth and homogeneous and that no longer sticky to the hands or to the bowl (knead by hand a couple of minutes on the pastry board anyway).
- Divide the dough into 8/9 balls, cover and let rest on a lightly floured tray for 20/30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook hard-boiled eggs, 5/6 minutes from boiling water, then cool and peel.
- Roll out each ball of dough (leaving aside a small portion of dough to shape into decorations) obtaining small disks. Place an egg in each disk with the tip down, wrap the dough around the bottom and seal, place in buttered mold with the tip up.

- For the doves: roll out the dough to the desired thickness and cut out the shape with a cookie cutter.
- For the flower: with the scissors make cuttings from the outside towards the center to form the petals.
- For the garland: take three long, narrow rolls and make a braid, then join the ends to form a circle.
 

- Brush each pastry with beaten egg and with the remaining dough make the decorations (flowers, braided garlands , etc..) and place on the top or to the side.
- Let rise covered 30 minutes more, then bake at 170° for about 20 minutes.
- If made ​​the day before they can be stored in a plastic bag for food and regenerate a few minutes in hot oven or a few seconds in the microwave. All shaped buns like garlands, doves and floers can be frozen, then thawed at room temperature and reheat in the oven a few minutes before serving.  I can not assure for buns with egg inside as did not have time to try, they vanished at once!  

This recipe is also my entry to this week Susan's YeastSpotting.

      

BBD # 47 Round up