Hi everyone!
I recently made this recipe by Rosie Daykin from Butter Baked Goods. Have you guys been to her bakery in Vancouver? I personally haven’t but I can tell it’s gorgeous. Just looking into pictures of the décor makes me fall in love. I mean those rose themed walls, colour palettes and display of her baked goods, it’s all, beautiful! This recipe is from one of her cookbooks called “Butter Celebrates”, it makes a delicious sweet bun and what makes it stand out is that the dough is orange flavoured. I shaped the bunny buns quite differently than it is suggested on the book. However, I take no credit since I followed “Sophia’s kitchen” blog for it. I think they are adorable! Here it is, I want to share my experience making it and maybe you would like to give it a try, just in time for Easter!
Ingredients:
· 1 package instant yeast (8 g)
· 5 cups all-purpose flour
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 1 cup whole milk
· ¼ cup water
· ½ cup butter
· 1/3 cup granulated sugar
· 2 large eggs
· ¼ cup orange juice
· Zest of 1 orange
Egg wash:
· 1 egg
· 1 tablespoon water
Icing:
· Icing sugar to taste
· 2 tablespoons orange juice
Notes:
· You never want to bring a cold ingredient to the dough mixture because this can have a negative impact on the yeast and we don’t want to kill it. So if you forgot to bring the eggs out of the fridge, just put them in a warm/hot bath
Steps:
1. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine yeast, flour, salt and orange zest. Beat at low speed just to combine
2. In a small pot combine milk, water, butter and sugar. Over medium heat, warm the ingredients until they are combined and butter is melted. Make sure not to let it boil, let it come to warm temperature. If you have a thermometer, temperature should be between 40-45C. It’s important that its not too hot or cold because this can kill the yeast
3. With the mixer on low speed, add the warm liquid ingredients to the dry in a steady stream and continue until combined
4. Turn speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the orange juice and continue to mix until the dough is smooth. Add more flour to the mixer if it’s sticky, I added about a ¼ cup of flour more. Then mix between 8-10 minutes to develop some gluten, take a look to when the dough pulls from the sides of the mixer into a ball
5. Take the dough out of the mixer when it's ready and form a ball with it. Spray some PAM spray to a bowl and place the dough inside. Loosely cover the bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap and place the bowl in a warm, draft-free spot. I put mine inside the oven (of course when its off). Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size, about 90 minutes
6. Once the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and punch the dough down in the bowl to release the air produced by the yeast. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes
7. When I made this recipe I divided this dough into 6 equal pieces and it gave me huge bunny buns! So I would divide it into 8-10 equal pieces. From each piece we will get the head, body and tail. The body should be 2/3 of the piece of dough and the left should be for the head, except a tiny piece for the tail
8. For the body: roll out dough into a log and then roll it into a snail like shape, see picture for reference
9. For the tail: just roll the tiny piece into a nice and smooth ball
10. For the head: roll dough into a sort of rectangular/oval piece then cut 1/3 of the dough into two (these are the ears!). Add a raisin to add eyes to the bunnies
Stick the bunny parts together with egg wash
11. Place the assembled bunnies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush them with egg wash all over and cover with plastic wrap (don’t put them too close together as they will proof and increase in size). Set the bunnies in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. If you took a while to shape the bunnies I would take a look how they are doing after 25 minutes
12. Make sure your oven is pre-heated to 375F
13. When ready, remove the plastic wrap from the baking sheets and bake for about 20 minutes and then take a look at how the bunnies are doing. They should have a golden brown colour
15. In a small bowl place the orange juice and add some icing sugar to make the glaze. I find that orange juice is already very sweet so I didn’t add too much sugar. My glaze was on the runnier side, which I didn’t mind. You can add more icing sugar which will make a thicker icing but in my opinion it would be too sweet
16. Remove your bunny buns from the oven when ready and cool them slightly. Place them in a wire rack if you have and glaze them with a pastry brush!
Enjoy!