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Baking is a love language, evoking memories of my mother’s care. As Mother’s Day nears, honor the extraordinary women in your life with a homemade treat. Skip the usual flowers and cards; instead, surprise the moms in your life with something special: homemade Pan de Leche.
Pan de leche, or milk bread, is a soft enriched bread. I’m transforming that bread into fluffy buns and filling them with pastry cream. Pastry cream is a rich, thick custard often used to fill pastries or tarts.
For this Pan de Leche recipe, I wanted something lighter to match the fluffiness of the buns. Combining the chilled pastry cream with stiffly whipped heavy cream makes crème légère, or “lightened cream.” The base of pastry cream starts with whole milk because it should be rich, full bodied but also creamy and smooth. Adding whipped cream keeps all the richness and lifts it into the clouds.
¡Feliz día de la madre!
Pan de Leche with Strawberry Pastry Cream
Yield:
12
Prep Time:
35 minutes
Bake Time:
20 minutes
Additional Time:
3 hours
Total Time:
3 hours 55 minutes
Ingredients
Pan de Leche
- 1 cup (8 oz) Alta Dena whole milk, warmed, plus more to brush bread
- 1 packet dry active yeast (2 ¼ tsp)
- 1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 pinch
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 large eggs
- 3 cups (16 oz) all-purpose flour
- 4 oz unsalted butter, diced, room temperature
- Powdered sugar, to serve
Strawberry Pastry Cream
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar, divided
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup (12 oz) diced strawberries
- 1 cup (8 oz) Alta Dena whole milk
- 1 pinch salt
- pink food coloring, as desired
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 oz unsalted butter, diced, room temperature
- 1 cup Alta Dena Heavy Whipping Cream
Instructions
Pan de Leche
- To bloom the yeast, add warm milk, yeast and 1 pinch sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, or until it looks a little foamy.
- Add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, salt, eggs and flour to the mixing bowl. Attach the whisk attachment and mix on medium-low speed, until fully combined, about 1 minute. Switch the attachment to the dough hook and knead
until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (Make sure to stop the mixing every few minutes to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula.) - With the stand mixer on medium speed, slowly add the butter one piece at a time until fully incorporated, about 5-8 minutes. Remove the dough hook, cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in size, about 1-2 hours.
- Meanwhile prepare the strawberry pastry cream recipe (see recipe below).
- Once doubled in size, gently punch down the dough and place onto a clean surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces (For perfect symmetry, use a scale to first weigh out all the dough, then divide it into 12 portions. For me this is almost exactly 3 oz for each bun.). Roll each piece into a tight ball and place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise until nearly doubled in
size, about 30-60 minutes. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350F. - Brush each ball of dough with milk and bake 18-20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
- Cut a channel into the top or each pan de leche and pipe n lightened pastry cream. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
Strawberry Pastry Cream
- Add egg yolks, ¼ c sugar and ¼ cup cornstarch to a bowl and whisk until there are no lumps and set aside.
- Add 1 cup (12 oz) strawberries, 1 cup whole milk, ¼ c sugar and 1 pinch of salt into a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into a sauce pot and heat over medium heat and whisk constantly, just until it comes to a
boil. Watch carefully so that it doesn’t boil over. Turn off the heat. - Temper eggs by drizzling in hot milk very slowly into the egg yolks while whisking constantly, so you don’t shock the eggs and accidentally scramble them. (Place your bowl on a kitchen towel to add stability.) Once it is fully incorporated return everything to the sauce pot.
- Add food coloring and over low-medium heat, stir constantly until it thickens. Take the pastry cream off the heat and mix in the vanilla and butter one piece at a time. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the pastry cream. Refrigerate until completely chilled.
- Once chilled, vigorously whisk the thickened pastry cream to loosen it up.
- Add heavy whipping cream to a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment and whisk to stiff peaks. (You can also do this by hand in a regular mixing bowl with a whisk.)
- Briskly whisk in 1/3 of the whip cream to loosen it up. Then with a spatula, fold in 1/3 of the whipped cream until almost fully combined, taking care not to deflate the whipped cream too much by over mixing. Finally, fold in the remaining 1/3 of the whipped cream until fully combined. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Keep refrigerated until needed.
Notes
- What happens if my yeast doesn’t bloom? Start over. Sometimes yeast is just old and sometimes you kill it if you’re overzealous with heating the milk. Ideally, the warm milk should be warmed from 100F-110F.
- Why is my dough taking so long to double in size? Consider moving your dough to a warmer space in your kitchen or use the proof mode on your oven. Don’t have proof mode? Place your covered bowl into your oven and turn on the light. That’s it. No heat, just the light.
- Can I serve these warm? Yes, but allow to cool slightly before serving. The warm bread might affect the structure of the pastry cream.
- Can I use something besides plastic wrap? Yes. A clean kitchen towel will work the same if you cover the dough to prevent air from hitting the surface.
- What to serve with your Pan de Leche? Besides a glass of cold Alta Dena Milk? Champagne of course! (Coffee with do in a pinch.)
- Tip on cutting the pan de leche: for a traditional look, use clean kitchen shears to cut into the bread at a 45-degree angle. Or use a serrated knife to cut the rolls in half, but only about 60% through.
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