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Cooking
Fluffy Sweet Buns with Chaudeau (Egg Custard) Sauce
· 4 servings
Warm the milk for the yeast
Warm the milk until it's lukewarm, not hot (ideally around 40 °C). This matters so the dried yeast wakes up properly and the dough rises beautifully.
Mix the dough ingredients
Put the plain flour, granulated sugar, lukewarm milk with the yeast, and a whole egg into the bowl of a stand mixer. Start kneading a soft dough.
Work in the butter
Gradually add the softened butter in small pieces, kneading continuously until it's fully incorporated and the dough is beautifully smooth (about 10-15 minutes).
Let the dough rise
The dough will be a little sticky at first – use a dough scraper to shape it into a neat ball. Lightly oil the bowl, place the dough inside, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled in size.
Divide the risen dough
Carefully tip the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal portions for easier shaping. Roll each portion into a long rope, then cut off small pieces. If any look too long, cut them in half again.
Brush with butter before baking
Generously butter a baking dish and arrange the pieces of dough in it with small gaps between them. Brush the buns with melted butter – this keeps them lovely and soft once baked and makes them easy to pull apart.
Second rise
Leave the buns in the baking dish to rise for another 1 hour so they become even fluffier. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Bake the buns
Put the dish of risen buns into the oven and bake for the first 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 190 °C and continue baking until golden (about 15-25 minutes, keep an eye on the colour). Meanwhile...
Warm the milk with spices
In a saucepan, warm whole milk with vanilla sugar, nutmeg, lime and orange zest, sugar and a whole cinnamon stick. The milk should just barely simmer, not boil, so the spices release their flavour.
Prepare the cornflour slurry
Remove the cinnamon stick. Take out half of the warmed milk and let it cool slightly. Then pour off a little into a cup, stir in the cornflour until smooth, and mix it back into the cooled portion of milk.
Brush with butter after baking
Take the hot baked buns out of the oven (but leave it on) and brush them again lightly with melted butter for extra shine and softness. Carefully turn the buns out of the dish and let them cool.
Toast the pecans
Spread a handful of pecans on a baking tray and put them into the hot oven. Toast for about 3-5 minutes, until fragrant and lightly golden. Watch closely so they don't burn!
Combine eggs with the cornflour slurry
Add beaten eggs to the remaining lukewarm milk-and-cornflour mixture and stir well.
Thicken the sauce
Pour the egg and cornflour mixture back into the pan with the rest of the hot milk. Heat gently while stirring constantly, taking care not to exceed 75 °C, or the eggs may curdle. The sauce should gradually start to thicken.
Finish and serve
Chop the pecans into smaller pieces with a knife. Spoon the sauce onto a plate. Sit a few buns on top and scatter the pecans around.