When I was a little kid, I remember one of my favorites was “bánh sừng trâu”, i.e buffalo horn bread. To me, having this bread for breakfast like in seventh heaven! The bread is a bit sweet, very good smell of butter, soft, tasty…People call it “bánh sừng trâu” as it reminds the shape of buffalo horn, but nowadays by somehow they still call “crab bread”! But to me, it looks like horns than a crab!
The buffalo horn bread is very popular in Saigon, we can find it at many bakery shop, these days they still create new recipes by adding the filling like – cheese or trendy “salted egg-yolk”. I don’t have the proper recipe from local bakers but as my guess, I should try some recipes for brioches from my study at LCB in Paris.
LCB doesn’t have any recipe, of course, for Buffalo horn bread but instead we have a long list of different brioches, so I just choose one which I found good to create, for the first time, my childhood’s buffalo horn bread. That recipe should require a lot of butter same as croissant.
The preparation for buffalo horn bread (10-12 pcs)
- Bread flour 500 gr.
- Butter 250 gr. ( I used a “douce beurre”, i.e “slightly salted butter”
- Egg 6 pcs
- Salt 10 gr.
- Sugar 60 gr.
- Dry yeast 4 gr. or 15 gr. of compressed yeast
- Vanilla 5 ml.
- Egg wash 1 egg yolk + 1 egg
The kneading takes around 15 minutes, until the dough stops sticking to the mixing bowl. I left in the kitchen for 30 minutes, made few folds by hands, then keep it in the fridge for overnight. The next day I take out the dough from the fridge, as my first attempt to create the buffalo horn, so I decided to do only three pieces, the rest I just put into the mould for my friend.
How to create the horn, it’s exactly the same procedure as we do the croissant, except these two tails – make them bit longer and fold towards the main body. To be honest I prefer this “horn” shape than the ones we did in Paris – with a little head on the top of the brioche!
The texture is same as French traditional brioche, but as I used a salted butter so it tastes a little bit nicely salty, buttery and super soft. Next time I may come up with some filling like cheese or ham.This “buffalo bread” is good for breakfast together with hot milk coffee or some cheese or jam spreads!
Le petit renard 
Hi,
I know this post is way too long ago and I’m not ceretain if this comment will be noticed. However, I just accendentally came through your blog while curiously search for the origin of the soft, buttery Bánh Sừng Trâu. It appears that your blog is the only source that discusses this bread without equating it to the crunchy Croissant.
As a Hoa ethnic living in Saigon, I have fond childhood memories of eating this bread, which we referred to as 牛角包 in Cantonese, a term that translates directly to Bánh Sừng Trâu. I remembered we could only buy these from Chinese bakeries such as Đức Phát, ABC, or Đô Thành. They still making these but too bad they make it nowadays plain and tasteless as a normal soft bread.
I really miss rich buttery taste with a bit of oily touch from the bottom side of the bread (and a small touch of salty I think).
Now I just suddenly curious and I can’t find anywhere with any information about the origin of this bread or where this bread got the inspiration from. All I can find with Bánh Sừng Trâu or 牛角包 are the modern Croissant which is not my cup of tea really.
I’ve never left a single comment on the internet but this, I can’t resist. If this ever gets to you, please share me with more stories of the bread if you know any.
It’s heartening to know that there are still people who appreciate the Bánh Sừng Trâu of our childhood. I hope you will continue to love and make this bread.
Thank you and stay awsome.
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