MARBLE BUNS STUFFED WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE

We love indulging in Marble cakes, cupcakes, muffins, and bread and so I gather it’s time to try out marble buns stuffed with chocolate ganache! A delicate bread swirl of milk and chocolate baked dough. Soft, with a balance of milk and chocolate; stuffed with soft and fudgy easy-to-make chocolate ganache!

A few weeks back as I was moulding clay with my nephew, we discovered (okay it was mostly him) how to make intricately marbled round clay balls. A mix of two separate but loud colours, that we mixed and swirled with our palms to make stunning balls. It’s true what they say; to be creative you have to discover your inner child. And hastily I came up with a marble bun stuffed recipe.

The idea was simple; roll two distinct coloured bread doughs around my palms for similar, beautiful, intricate designs. But as we all know, clay and bread dough; are almost the same but also different. For one; there is a risk of over-kneading, the structure of dough is different and once baked, buns puffs and colour may change. For this reason, I had to test the recipe a couple of times before coming up with one that works and which was easier.

Steps for Making Marble Buns Stuffed With Chocolate Ganache

1. Make the chocolate Ganache. The chocolate ganache will be very light and syrupy once made and cold blasting in a freezer may make it turn completely solid. Therefore, the best thing to do is refrigerate it; preferably for at least one hour for the perfect consistency.
2. Make the vanilla and chocolate milk dough. I’ve simplified the different dough flavour recipes, such that you won’t need to make two different doughs; which makes work a lot easier.
3. Proofing. Proofing is essential in bread making to maximise flavour, texture and yeast outcome.
4. Roll and shape. This is when you will alternate the milk and chocolate dough for a beautiful marble effect.
5. Bake and fill with chocolate. The final straw before indulging; inserting silky ganache into the baked bans centres. The bans should be cool, and the ganache smooth; not so light but also not so heavy.

The chocolate Ganache.

The chocolate ganache is made from semi-sweet chocolate, a bit of butter and heavy cream, then set for a few hours to thicken.

Start by mixing heavy cream with chopped chocolate preferably in a glass bowl and place over a pot of simmering water.

Remove from heat when the chocolate is almost completely melted. Stir in room temperature butter with a pinch of salt and set aside to cool. Afterwards, cover with parchment paper and refrigerate until thick but soft and pipeable.

Making the Dough.

You do not need to make two different bun doughs from scratch. To make it easier; make the milk bread dough then take 1/4 of it and flavour it with chocolate.

Step 0ne; Start by mixing, all-purpose flour, yeast and sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment. Then add eggs and milk and mix until soft for 7-8 minutes.

Step two; Afterwards, add room temperature butter and continue mixing for another 7 minutes. Take 3/4 of the dough and set it in a separate bowl then, cover with cling film.

Step three; Mix cocoa powder, with room temperature unsalted batter to resemble a thick fudgy paste. Add to the remaining 1/4 dough and mix for another 5-7 minutes until soft and the chocolate is fully incorporated. ( Find the exact recipe measurements in the recipe card.) Set in an oil-greased bowl and cover with cling film to proof.

Proofing.

Prof both doughs at room temperature for at least one hour or until double the size. The milk dough should be considerably more prominent than the chocolate dough.

How to create Marble Effect with bread dough.

Firstly, you will need two different flavoured doughs; vanilla and chocolate. As in my Marble cake recipe, the vanilla part is dominant, so a ratio of 3;1 is preferable.

Start by dividing the vanilla dough into small-sized sections and do the same for the chocolate dough. The sections of vanilla dough should still be bigger than the chocolate sections.

Roll out each section with a rolling pin or you could simply flatten it with the palm of your hand.

Now, take each flattened-out milk dough section and alternate with the flattened-out chocolate dough until you reach four pieces.

Some I used a ratio of 3:1 vanilla to the chocolate dough; or 2:2 which was also okay since the chocolate parts were considerably smaller.

You should have a tower of vanilla dough alternating with chocolate dough. Fold, tucking in the middle and pinch where all the parts meet( in the middle) and roll into a ball setting each on parchment paper.

Bake and fill.

Dust the buns with powdered sugar and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for twenty minutes; remove and set aside to cool.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a long piping tip with the chilled chocolate ganache and from the underside of each bun; puncture and press in the ganache.

Recipe tips.

1. Adding the cocoa powder in paste form makes it easier to mix in the dough. Adding dry cocoa powder will make it hard to completely mix it into the dough which may lead to over-kneading.
2. The top part won’t have an intricate marble effect like the interior which is fine, the beauty of these marble buns is on the inside.
3. Don’t add too much cocoa paste. Too much cocoa powder dries out baked goods. It will also make the buns have a bitter taste when added too much.
4. Sweeten the bun dough. Due to the cocoa powder; which may make the buns taste a little bitter, I upped my sugar amount with sweetened condensed milk to counteract the bitter effect of the cocoa.
5. Make the chocolate ganache and the bun dough a day earlier. You can make both the bun dough and chocolate ganache a day earlier so when it comes to the next day you will only; knead, bake and fill.

Recommended Equipment

Long Piping Tip. To fill the marble buns to the centre with the chocolate ganache with ease.

A Stand mixer for kneading the Marble dough.

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