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Mexican Coffee Bun (Rotiboy)

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Mexican coffee bun/rotiboy is a sweet bun with coffee topping and butter filling. It's popular in Malaysia and Asia. Easy Mexican coffee bun recipe. | rasamalaysia.com

Mexican coffee bun/rotiboy is a sweet bun with coffee topping and butter filling. It's popular in Malaysia and Asia. Easy Mexican coffee bun recipe. | rasamalaysia.com

Mexican Coffee Bun (Rotiboy)

Mexican Coffee Bun (Rotiboy) – Sweet bun with coffee topping and butter filling. It’s popular in Malaysia and Asia. Easy Mexican coffee bun recipe.

I have long heard about the legendary Mexican coffee bun or Rotiboy, a made-in-Malaysia bun with a crusty coffee topping and butter filling.

The word “Mexican” might be misleading but this bun originated from a bakery in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, and now Mexican coffee bun is famous all over Asia, with many bakeries and copycat bakeries selling this popular Mexican coffee bun.

I finally had a chance to taste this aromatic and wonderful bun when I was home in Penang earlier this year.

For the Mexican coffee bun recipe, I turned to my contributor Siew Loon. Check it out and hope you get to try this bun soon. 

Mexican coffee bun/rotiboy is a sweet bun with coffee topping and butter filling. It's popular in Malaysia and Asia. Easy Mexican coffee bun recipe. | rasamalaysia.com

Contributor: Ho Siew Loon

Recently an old friend of mine who has migrated to Australia started a small Malaysian bakery called Papparoti selling coffee-flavoured buns which happens to be one of my daughter’s favorite.

This has inspired me to revisit this Mexican coffee bun recipe and get to work.

The aroma of this Mexican coffee bun bun is really tantalizing and makes you just want to eat it piping hot.

Mexican coffee bun/rotiboy is a sweet bun with coffee topping and butter filling. It's popular in Malaysia and Asia. Easy Mexican coffee bun recipe. | rasamalaysia.com

Mexican Coffee Bun is a bun stuffed with butter and has a very crispy coffee pastry topping.

It is made popular by this Malaysian bakery called Rotiboy and now this bun is commonly known as “Rotiboy” in Malaysia and throughout Asia.

This coffee bun is also a very popular snack in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and even Korea.

Mexican coffee bun is best eaten when it’s just off the oven and fresh.

The joy of baking this Mexican coffee bun or rotiboy is as fun as the joy of eating it hot and fresh.

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Mexican Coffee Bun Recipe

Mexican coffee bun/rotiboy is a sweet bun with coffee topping and butter filling. It's popular in Malaysia and Asia. Easy Mexican coffee bun recipe.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • For the Bun:
  • 500 g Bread Flour
  • 80 g Castor Sugar
  • 9 g Salt
  • 20 g Milk Powder optional
  • 10 g Dry Yeast
  • 60 g Butter
  • 280 ml Water + 1 large Egg

Topping:

  • 200 g Butter
  • 150 g Powdered Sugar Sieved
  • 3 Large Eggs Lightly beaten
  • 200 g Cake Flour
  • 1 TBSP Instant Coffee + 2TBSP Hot Water or 3 TBSP Espresso
  • 1 TBSP Coffee Liquor or 1 TBSP Coffee Essence optional

Filling:

  • 100 g of Real Butter

Instructions

For the Bun:

  1. Add all the dry ingredients. Mix it thoroughly.
  2. Gradually add in water and egg mixture and knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes. (Use the DOUGH HOOK)
  3. Slowly add in butter and continue kneading till you get a shining and elastic dough. (Note: Dough should be able to stretch without breaking)
  4. Cover dough with a cloth. Leave to proof for about 40 minutes or till dough has doubled in size.
  5. When dough is proofing, prepare topping.

Topping:

  1. Beat butter and sugar till pale in color.
  2. Gradually add in egg.
  3. Fold in flour on low speed.
  4. Add in coffee mixture and liquor. Mix till combined. Set aside.

To Make Bun:

  1. Remove the dough and on a lightly floured surface, punch dough down to release the air.
  2. Divide dough in 25 grams each. Roll it out in to a small circle and insert 1 tsp butter into each bun. Wrap it up.
  3. Leave the ready bun to proof for about 45 minutes or double in size.
  4. Put the cream topping into a pipping bag and pump out the cream in circles around the bun.
  5. Bake at 215 Celsius for 18 minutes.

Recipe Notes

Use the Conversion tool to convert the measurement.

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78 COMMENTS... read them below or add one

  2. I’ve tried coffee bun that looks like your pictures at Korean bakeries. Didn’t know that it came from Malaysia…

    Reply

    • i also thought it was from Korea coz when i was in Seoul recently & tried it (since i saw it from a Korean drama) i just fell for their roti bun or roti boy! i’ve been craving for these yummies once in a while! just addictive i must say!

      Reply

  8. Omg!! I’m in Johor now and had this yesterday. Was wondering whether I could bake it myself when we go back to the states next week!! Thks!!

    Reply

    • This reminds me a Mexican sweet bun named “concha” (shell) and the receipe is very similar, but in Mexico the popular conchas are vanilla or chocolate, I think somebody tried to make a Concha and the result was this “Rotiboy”, now very different but still similar to the original product, If anybody interested I can send the Conchas recipe, I’m sure you will love them.

      Reply

  9. The description of the bun is as tempting as the pics. I can almost feel its softness in my mouth, and smell the aroma. Would love to try this one out.

    Reply

  10. whata coincidence! I am planning ot make these too. My son loves roti boy and I was s pleased to find a recipe for it several days back. And now you have one too :)) Looks beautiful :)

    Reply

  16. Rottttiiiiibbboyyyyy!!!

    The whole family loves this, but it’s not available in Perth. I want to hug both of you :)

    Thanks, Bee Yinn & Siew Loon.

    Reply

  18. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I am tempted to make this but unsure about a couple of ingredients. Would appreciate if you could provide a little bit more info.

    1) What is powdered sugar? Normally, I use caster sugar in my baking. Could I substitute it with icing sugar?
    2) What is cake flour? Is this the same as self raising flour?

    Thank you.

    Reply

    • 1. Yes powdered sugar is icing sugar.
      2. Cake flour is superfine flour or you can just use all purpose flour.

      Reply

  20. Being pinched for time, any chance of a translation from metric to U.S. measuremnts? (I’m referring to the Mexican Coffee Bun recipe.) …and all others.

    Reply

    • Just Google ” recipe conversion metric to US ” anytime you want to calculate measurements for recipes.You should bookmark the site to ease future requirements to convert.

      Reply

  21. This bread and the ingredients looks very similar to the Mexican pastry referred to as a concha. Instead of a coffee topping, however, they have sugar coating and are enjoyed with a cup of coffee or dunked into coffee. They are not an overly sweet pastry, consistent with Mexican pastries.

    Reply

  28. I just half make the rotibun up to the point you have to let it rest for the second 45 mins. I was planning to have this for breakfast tomorrow but not sure if I pack the cream away in a Tupperware it will still be good tomorrow? Also not 100% sure what do you mean by “wrap” it up? Just making it back to the original round shape? This is what I did anyway… Will see how it turn out! Thanks for sharing the recipe! Always love rotti boy that’s why I had to make it tonight!

    Reply

  31. My husband made your Mexican Roti Bun today, and it turned out pretty good. Wasn’t the first time we made this, and your recipe was the very best. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

    Reply

  32. Hi, I tried this recipe and my buns don’t inflate. I proofed it the right time and was accurate with everything else, oven time and temperature, also. What could have gone wrong?

    Reply

  33. Hi Rasa Malaysia,

    When you wrote “Put the cream topping into a pipping bag and pump out the cream in circles around the bun,” does this mean that the cream is NOT piped onto the bun like how you would pipe frosting on a cupcake? The word ‘around’ is throwing me off. Please clarify.

    Reply

  35. I would also like to know the answer written by Gimmmeeemorrre on December 27, 2011. You direction raised a good question that if the cream is piped around the dough, how does the final product get encased with the cream?

    Reply

  36. I weighed everything correctly and the dough came out sticky in the end before proofing..is it suppose to be that way or should the dough come together into one clean big lump?

    Reply

  38. When I was in Malaysia, I fell in loved with Roti boy. ilove the smell that you can smell from a few meters away… mmmm

    Then when i left and moved to china, i craved for it. and i was just sooo overjoyed to find one here, but its called “roti bun”.. I will write an entry about it.

    Thanks for posting this. ;-)

    Reply

  39. Hi, I love Roti Buns, but i’ve become somewhat vegan/vegetarian…is there anything I can do to make these eggless? If anyone has an idea, please let me know. Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hello, I’m not sure if this will work too well- but if you search for egg substitutes usually people use ground flaxseed (which will give it a flaxseed flavour maybe though! :o) or chia seeds.
      I think it’s best to search the web for the most suitable substitutes but I don’t think you can do this without the eggs. :)

      Reply

    • @Srishti I use a product called Ener-G Egg Replacer. It works well in the place of eggs in baked goods. I got it at Whole Foods.

      Reply

  40. Hello, I tried the recipe and those buns tasted amazing. However, my buns did not have the “signature” crust on top of them. It seems that “all” of the topping ran down to the bottom of the buns during baking. Any ideas why? I followed the recipe to the T. Do I have to chill the topping before piping it on top of the buns, maybe? Thanks!!

    Reply

  42. I enjoyed these at Papparoti in Strathfield, Sydney. Might be the same old friend’s bakery that you are referring to!! Stuff of dreams!

    Reply

  45. Fantastic recipe! Exactly like Rotiboy! I don’t have travel back to KL for it :). One commentcomment though … topping portion seems to be too much …. I only used half of it.

    Reply

  46. Rotiboy is the Mexican Conchas with a different topping, they write this in their web page… “the one and only “rotiboybun”, which has since become the generic name of the Mexican bun recipe it was based on”. I try Rotiboy in Jakarta and love it! I’m glad I found your page by accident as I was looking for the recipe for a very long time. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  52. Is there any substitution for eggs… as I’m vegetarian, I do not consume eggs… is there anything else that I can instead of eggs

    Reply

  53. Hi RM,
    Do I need to melt the butter for the dough? Or just softened in room temp?
    And I can use salted butter or must be unsalted butter? Thanks!

    Reply

  55. I tried the recipe twice, both times my dough turned out rather sticky so I added about 15% more dough. Not sure if my measurements were off to begin with, but the end product was still delicious!
    Thank you for this!

    Reply

  56. Made these today after falling in lust with them at a small coffee shop in Los Angeles (where they called them “mocha buns”). I followed the recipe as written, except added a dash of cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla to the topping. Made each roll 75 gm size, which gave me 13 nicely sized buns. Fragrant, buttery, fluffy and delicious!

    Reply

  57. Hi! My husband and I love coffee bun. he was the one who introduced it to me . He grew up eating it when he’s still leaving in Brunei and Singapore. We tried the Papparoti coffee bun and like it too. I’ve been baking coffee bun and I I’m following your recipe. got the taste of the coffee topping however it doesn’t stay and keeps falling off the bun. Any advice you can give?

    Reply

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