If you're like me, the name of these cinnamon rolls is what lured you in. I am totally in love with Vietnamese Iced Coffee as you can clearly see by this humble blog's recipe selection (
Vietnamese Iced Coffee Cupcakes,
Vietnamese Coffee Eclairs, and
Vietnamese Coffee Sundaes). It's a drink that I can relate to - the anger of the coffee paired with the sweetness of the condensed milk. One part sugar, one part spice.
I waited until my foodie sensational friend from New York came to visit because I really wanted to wow her. She's been reading my recipes for years now and I was excited to bake something special. Would these coffee buns be the ticket?
Meh.
While I loved the concept and flavors, I was a little bummed by the texture of the actual buns. They were more dense than I had anticipated. The method used is called, "
tangzhong." I've only made one other roll with this methodology with the same results. It's supposed to yield a softer yeast bread but with my very limited experience with this method, I found the bread to be more chewy - very bread like and not fluffy. Also, I reduced the amount of condensed milk in the frosting to make it a little less sweet - that's just me - do you.
Truthfully - I suspect it's baker error so I need to give this method another try. Until I get it down, I will leverage the filling and the frosting of these rolls but with a dough that I have mastered like my husband's favorite rolls from
Joy Food Sunshine. I also love the
Quick and Dirty Espresso Rolls from Joy the baker because the
chocolate really complements the espresso (
bonus: they only make 6 buns and can be made in a pinch).
Bread. Coffee. Sugar. Win-win! The recipe for these Vietnamese Coffee Buns can be found on the blog Persona Kitchen.
