Pumpkin spice conchas

Warm half a cup of milk in the microwave 35 seconds, mix in a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of instant yeast and let it sit six minutes to activate.

Sift four cups of all-purpose flour and half a cup of sugar onto a clean countertop with two and a half teaspoons of pumpkin spice and a quarter teaspoon of salt, mix, and make a hole in the centre.

Into the hole add three quarters of a cup of pumpkin puree, a tablespoon of Mexican vanilla blend and three room temperature eggs, and begin mixing by hand.

Add the yeast mixture and combine to a dough.

Work in six tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter. Add no flour at any point or the conchas come out stiff and hard.

Knead 20 minutes. The dough stays sticky but should not stick much to the counter.

Grease a bowl with butter, put the dough in, grease the top, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.

For the topping, sift and mix one and a half cups of powdered sugar with one and a half cups of all-purpose flour, one cup of shortening, two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and two teaspoons of vanilla to a dough.

Reserve a small piece for green stems and colour the rest orange with yellow and red food coloring; wrap both in plastic wrap and set aside.

Punch the risen dough down and knock all the air out.

Halve the dough, keep one half covered, and divide the working half into six even pieces of 106 grams each.

Butter the tops of the balls, set them on a baking sheet, press them down and cover with plastic wrap; repeat with the second half.

Divide the topping into 12 even pieces, roll each into a ball and press flat with a tortilla press between Ziploc bags.

Lay a topping disc on each ball, press it down, mark it with a concha cutter, and stick a green stem on with butter.

Let the conchas sit 30 to 45 minutes until doubled in size.

Preheat to 325F and bake 18 to 22 minutes; hers were done at 20.