My 4 years-old is missing tonight... he's got invited for a sleep over at his friend's place. I should be having a party but instead I feel a little bit lonely. I am so not used to the silence in my home. But that's not the topic of this post.
This morning, first thing after he woke up, he got his backpack and started getting ready for this very first time event: he chose his favourite pj - no need to say his dinosaur pj -, some spare clothes for tomorrow and all the first necessity things. It was 8am and he was already ready to leave maman and papa for a new adventure. So to keep him busy before the separation - around 4 pm, we decided to make soft sweet milk buns with chocolate filling for a shared breakfast with his little mate.
These soft sweet milk buns - called pains au lait in French - are half way through in between bread and brioche. They are fluffy, soft and moist, and only slightly sweet. They are a quite a healthy treaty snack for little ones, including my 11 months old bubba. For the older ones, they can be filled with chocolate or jam. In general, they are perfect for breakfast or school snack. For breakfast, you can spread chocolate, jam or butter over it. You can even half them and toast them slightly. Yum!
As a child, I used to love those milky buns, with or without filling they are a hit with kids! As a grown-up I still love them and made several attempts before I finally found the best recipe, the one that reminds me of the bakery of my childhood in my hometown in the countryside of France. That's the recipe I'm sharing with you today. This recipe makes 12 buns - I made 8 chocolate-filled buns and 4 nature for my No.2.
No. 1 and I had lots of fun together making those buns, although as you can imagine that wasn't necessarily easy to manage the impatience of a 4 years-old: 'Wash your hands first.' 'No I said wash your hands first, yes with soap... AND water!!!' 'Now dry out your hands honey.' 'No! don't touch the eggs, not yet... be careful you may break them...' 'so now we need to measure the flour, when you see a 5 and two zeros here (I write on the white board to help him - he's only 4!), it means we have enough flour, alright?... that's good (25 g)... you're doing well (80g)... yep, yep, keep going... (90 g)... (115 g)... we need more honey... well I mean flour... (150 g)... (200 g)... ... ... (300 g)... (400 g)... a bit more... (650 g)... Ooopsie that was just too much (target was 500 g)...' Anyway, that's how it goes when baking with little ones. Just don't expect too much from your kids and you'll make it. As say a French blogger I like very much: "Our kids are all perfect! We (mums) are so imperfect... so what?" But with a dose of humour and lots of patience we can make it.
Really to be honnest I sounded more like: 'NOoooooo!! not YET! Wait, WAit, WA-IT!' 'That's good, yep, yep... nah, no, gentle... gen-tle... don't leek your fingers! GENTLE!!!... Don't touch... no don't touch... do not touch!... AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!'
But we did it! I am very proud of my little baker. Don't they look gorgeous? - by the way my boy looked gorgeous, too, in his apron and with his chef's hat, but I don't feel ready to commit my kids' privacy, so sorry no pics.
Now the recipe...
