Chocolate chip buns

Chocolate chip buns will always bring me back to my childood memories.

Commonly know in Italy as "pangoccioli", these soft buns are everyone's favourite breakfast or afternoon treat.

The store-bought ones usually come packed with eggs, butter, milk, lots of sugar and preservatives, not ideal right? But this homemade and vegan version is - overall - healthy.

I won’t spend any further words to introduce these chocolate buns, but let me give you some advice on how to eat them: hot certainly, and dipped into a foamy cappuccino!

INGREDIENTS for the tangzhong:

37g strong flour

180g unsweetened plant-based milk

INGREDIENTS for the dough:

463g strong flour

120g unsweetened plant-based milk

120g sugar

70g vegetable oil

5g dry yeast

½ tsp salt

130g chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS:

Let’s start by making the tangzhong: in a pot bring to a boil the milk with the flour, stir well and when it gets thick turn off the heat and leave it to cool for about 1 hour.

In a bowl mix the yeast with the flour, add a bit of milk and start kneading. Add the cooled tangzhong, then more milk and the rest of the ingredients in the following order: salt, sugar, oil and the chocolate chips at the very end.

Keep kneading until your dough is smooth, place it in a bowl, cover and let it ‘rise and shine’ until it doubles in size (6 hours +/-).

Once ready, split the dough into 12 to 15 parts and give each a ball shape. Place these on an oiled tray, well distanced, cover and leave to rise for two more hours.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven at 180°C, brush the buns surface with maple syrup and milk, and bake these for 15 minutes.

These buns can be frozen after baking and enjoyed any time by simply defrosting them at 150°C for 10 minutes.