Cat in the Box Buns
Further to the designed dough pastries series, I made these cute, cat in the box buns. Their greatest appeal is the cardboard pans they are baked in (you can easily find them on AliExpress).
However, even if you don’t own these pans, you can easily make these buns shaped like round balls and add the rest of the face details. These buns are filled with frozen Nutella, so clearly Nutella fans out there will be very happy to have them
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Cat in the Box Buns:
Equipment: 5 mini cardboard baking pans
Recipe: 5 buns
Nutella Filling:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Frozen Nutella | 150g- Freeze 10 mounds of Nutella (each mound is about 1 tbsp = 15g). |
Yeasted Dough for Shaping (about 450g in total):
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Bread Flour | 200g |
| Cake Flour | 50g |
| Dry Yeasts | 1/2 tsp |
| White Granulated Sugar | 20g |
| Salt | 1/4 + 1/8 tsps |
| Milk | 75g |
| Water | 75g |
| Softened Unsalted Butter | 25g |
Preparation instructions:
Dough:
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flours, yeast, sugar and salt. Whisk them well to combine.
- Add in the milk and water, and knead until a dough ball is formed.
- Add in the butter and knead it into the dough. Keep kneading until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, and pass the window pane test (manual kneading of about 15-20 minutes).
- Proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours before use (the dough should double its size), or overnight in the refrigerator.
Assembly:
- Deflate the dough lightly, and divide it into 45g x 10 pieces. Round each piece into a smooth ball.
- Flatten each dough ball with your hands to a rough disc shape, about 8cm in diameter, and fill it with one mound of frozen Nutella. Close the dough on the filling and round the dough ball between your hands.
- Insert two balls into each baking pan and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Proof for 1 hour at room temperature- the dough should rise about 1cm above the top of the baking pan.
- Bake in preheated oven set to 180C (fan mode off), with a baking rack placed at the lowest level inside the oven, for 15 mins.
- Allow the buns to cool down completely, before decorating. Using a sharp paring knife, cut slits into the heads and insert almonds as ears. Use some melted dark chocolate to draw the eyes, nose and paws.
