since i still had most of last week of, i had plenty of time to ease in again after my short new york trip. i also had time to work on my every growing pile of cooking magazines and cook books. that’s when i kind of tripped over the recipe for a Nutella bun. if it’s about chocolate and more so nutella, it is really hard for me to say no. since i wanted to bake bread the next day anyways, i decided to make use of the heat of the oven besides in austria we had a public holiday – all souls. traditionally an all souls bun is baked then. as i heard on the ready this custom stems from ages ago when widows have been burnt with the dead bodies of their husbands. at some point, thankfully!, they changed that to only burning the cut off pleated bun of the women. which then later was substituted by a baked bun out of a yeast dough. an since all souls is all about thinking of the departed, we bake this bun in austria. it alone is already pretty good, but filled with nutella (or any other chocolate nut spread) it is simply irresistible. you can also fill it with cinnamon sugar, a cream of cream cheese mixed with pureed raspberries or whatever else you feel like.

i’ve tried quite a few different recipes for sweet yeast dough so far, since i find that it toughens up a bit the next day. also this one does firm up a bit, but due to the nutella it stays nicely moist, especially if you reheat it a bit. the dough rose perfectly and i was very pleased with the result!

ingredients (1 bun)

• 125 g lukewarm milk
• 1 egg + 1 egg for brushing
• 3 g salt
• 50 g sugar
• 320 g flour
• 1 package dry yeast
• 50 g butter at room temperature
• 150 g nutella (or any other chocolate nut spread)

mix milk with 1 egg, salt and sugar. add flour, top with yeast and butter. either with your hands or the kitchen machine knead into a smooth dough. cover (i usually use cling wrap as it stops the surface from drying out) and let rests for 1 hour in a warm place (i put it in the cold oven, since there won’t be any air circulation).

preheat oven to 170°.

thinly roll out the dough (40 x 30 cm). spread the slightly warmed nutella on it (it’s easier to work with when it is a littler thinner)

tradtional pleating method: cut the dough lengthwise into 3 equally broad pieces and fold from the long side. pleat a bun out of the 3 pieces – be careful not to pull too much, otherwise the dough will get too thin and the bun stretches quite a bit.

easier method: do just like i describe with the raspberry mascarpone knots, but withouth making a knot.

place bun on a baking tray lined with baking paper and let rest covered for another 30 min.

brush with whisked egg. bake in hot oven for 20-30 min. if the bun gets the desired color before that, cover with aluminum foil. that way it won’t get any darker but still bakes through.

Filed under: cakes, chocolate, sweets Tagged: bun, cakes, chocolate, nutella, sweets