Possibly the best breakfast pastry I’ve ever made! Rich coffee custard on a fluffy brioche bun, finished off with a crumble topping and a dusting of cocoa powder. # 345: Coffee Cream Brioche Buns

Post number 345 isn’t a traditional milestone, but the consecutive numbers bring me joy! Anyone else love when you randomly glance at a clock at 12:34?

I made a mini batch of these lovelies last week, making just two complete buns. And a lil bowl of extra pastry cream for the baker, of course.

They’re baked in tartlet tins so they get cute fluted sides and a slight muffin poof on top. Think of how amazing these will be with fresh fruit fillings as we get more into summer!

Side note: we’re in Argentina and Chile this week and the hemisphere season switch is trippy. Crazy how it can be sunny strawberry season at home but crunchy fall leaves and hot chocolate season over here.

Brioche is a magic workhorse dough (as long as you have the patience to knead in all the butter – worth it!) It’s rich and soft, pairing well with rosemary and cheese, then turning around and snuggling perfectly with chocolate and coffee. Get you a dough that can do it all.

So smol. My stand mixer laughed at these proportions so I had to knead by hand.

But only after the Danish dough whisk made an appearance! Essentially if a spatula and a whisk had a very cool, super unnecessary baby.

The true star of the show, let’s be real.

Ten minutes of gentle kneading later, it’s dough nap time.

All tucked in.

I need a pastry cream theme song. Open to suggestions.

The crumble topping is softened salted butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder, and enough flour to bring it to that damp sand texture.

There was a legit chance they would balloon up and kick the pastry cream out but twas a risk I was willing to take.

Poof in all the right places.

Happy munching!

Inspiration (and coffee pastry cream recipe) from: https://www.theboywhobakes.co.uk/recipes/2023/11/17/winter-coffee-brioche-buns?format=amp

Brioche recipe from: Nadiya Hussain’s chili cranberry buns (minus the chili and the cranberry obvi!)