40grbuttersoftened, unsalted. You can use coconut oil too
Egg wash:
1egg yolk
1tspwater
For decorations:
12plump raisins
12Cadbury mini eggs
Instructions
Prepare the dough:
Combine bread flour, corn starch, yeast, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Add the milk, egg, and condensed milk. Start kneading at the lowest speed until a rough dough forms. Increase speed to 2 and knead for 5 minutes until a smoother dough forms. Add the softened butter and knead on the lowest speed again. It will turn into a slippery mess. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl and reposition the dough if necessary. You may need to do this several times.
Continue kneading at speed 2 until the butter starts to get absorbed and not as slippery anymore. Increase the speed to 4 and continue kneading for another 5-6 minutes or until you reach the windowpane. You can slowly stretch the dough into a thin membrane without breaking it. The dough is done kneading
Proof the dough:
Lightly oil the bowl and put the dough in, cover and let it proof at a warm place until it doubles in size. This may take 1-2 hours, depending on the temperature where you are. When you poke your finger into the dough, the indentation stays and the dough has really puffed up doubling its original size, it's done proofing
Shaping:
Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Transfer the dough onto a work surface and punch out all the gas to deflate the dough. Divide into 10 equal pieces and round them up into balls. Cover and let them rest for 15 minutes before shaping to relax the gluten
Work with one dough at a time and keep the rest covered. Divide the dough into one larger ball (for the body), medium size ball (for the head) and then the smaller size (for the tail)
Lightly dust your work surface with a bit of flour, not too much. You don't want to dry out the dough. Work with the largest ball and roll it into a long rope and then coil it to form the body and the little feet/hand (refer to photo above for visual) and place this directly on top of the baking sheet, allowing some room for the head. Now get the medium size dough and roll it into a long rope and then twist the rope to form the head and bunny ears and position it near the body. For the tail, simply roll it into a round ball and attach it near the body at the bottom side. Continue with the rest of the dough.
Second proofing:
Give each bunny some room, around 2 inches away from each other. Mist them with some water and then cover with a clean tea towel and let them proof until they double in size again, may take another hour or longer, depending on the temperature
When you gently push on the dough it bounces back slowly and the size has doubled too
Baking:
10 minutes towards the end of the proofing time, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for a conventional oven. Position the oven racks, 3rd from the top and 3rd from the bottom
Combine egg yolk with water to make the egg wash Brush each bunny with some egg wash. Attach one raisin to make the bunny's eye. Gently push it in a bit to attach. Put each tray on the positioned racks and bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the pan front to back, top to bottom halfway through baking so they bake evenly
Cooling:
Remove from the oven and if you choose to, brush with melted butter immediately when they are still warm. Let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. They can be served warm or at room temperature
Once the bread has cooled down completely, you can also attach one Cadbury mini egg to the center of the body. I dug a little hole to fit in the mini egg. This is totally optional, to resemble the Italian Easter bread baked with whole eggs. My kids kinda digging this idea