COOKING BREADS & PASTRIES

Burgers always go great with a homemade Classic-Bun! With a food processor and the appropriate bread baking pan, preparation is quick and easy.

For 6 servings

Ingredients for 6 large Burger buns (10 cm)
3 eggs
25 g of sugar
80 ml of milk
5 g dry yeast
280 g of flour
65 g of butter
10 g of salt
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Ingredients for 6 small burger buns (8,5 cm)
2 eggs
15 g of sugar
50 ml of milk
3 g dry yeast
170 g of flour
40 g of butter
6 g salt
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Whisk eggs, add 140g with sugar, 65ml milk and dried yeast in a mixing bowl and mix for a short time. Set aside remaining eggs for egg excrement.
Add flour gradually. Add butter and salt and knead for about half an hour. Let the dough cool for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight, until it is thoroughly cooled.
Knead the dough briefly by hand and then cut off small balls (55g / 95g). Lay them lightly pressed into the shapes of Lurch and cover with foil. Then let it rest for about 2 hours until the dough has risen well.
Mix the egg with a sip of milk and brush off the raw dough pieces and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated oven at 195°C for about 10-12min.

Dough
60g unsalted butter
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
2 1/2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast

Filling
69g unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Icing
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
60g unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

In a 4-cup measuring cup, combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt. Microwave on high 1 minute or until warm; whisk in the eggs. Place flour and yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the liquid ingredients. Mix on low, stopping to scrape down the sides of bowl from time to time, until the dough forms a soft mass and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the paddle attachment and switch to the dough hook. With the mixer on low, knead dough, sprinkling with a tablespoon of flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to sides of bowl. When dough is smooth, not sticky, and springs back when you press it with your finger, you’ve kneaded enough (4 to 6 minutes). Place dough in a large, oiled mixing bowl and cover with a towel and let rise in warm place 45 to 60 minutes, or until almost doubled. (Note: if you do not have a dough hook, knead by hand on a floured cloth.)

Transfer dough to a floured surface and roll to a 16×20-inch rectangle. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread dough with the 60 grams butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Starting with shorter side, roll up dough to make a tight 16-inch cylinder. Cut into 12 rolls and place in a 13×9-inch buttered pan, spiral up. Cover with a towel and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, 45 to 60 minutes. Bake at 180 degrees 15 to 17 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

For frosting, blend cream cheese, butter, sugar, vanilla and salt in a food processor bowl or mixing bowl; spread over warm rolls.

Cinnamon rolls, simplified
Everyone loves the sweet breakfast pastry, but not everyone is willing to put in the time it takes to whip up a batch from scratch. These tips save time and headaches.

• Skip the proofing step by using instant (or bread machine) yeast instead of active dry yeast.

• Wiz up a hot roll mix, which contains flour, salt and instant yeast, then follow the recipe for Cinnamon Roll Dough to have rolls ready in about two hours.

• Invest in a Danish dough whisk. The stickiest dough won’t get stuck in this tool, which has two stiff metal loops.

• Use a serrated knife, or dental floss (wrapped around and crossed over and quickly pulled out) to cut cylinders of dough into rolls without smashing their round shape.

• Mix dough the night before, let it rise, then store it in the fridge until morning. The cold makes yeast go into hibernation.

• Bake and cool a batch of Classic Cinnamon Rolls, then stash them in the freezer. Next time you want cinnamon rolls, warm them in the oven and apply your favorite icing.

3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
1 large egg
3 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (use 1-2 cups white whole wheat flour, if desired)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
3 tablespoons butter, plus more for the baking sheet

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients except for the melted butter by hand, mixer, or bread machine until a soft, smooth dough forms. Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until it’s nearly doubled in bulk.
2. Gently deflate the dough and divide it into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball, then flatten it to a squat round blob about 2 1/2 inches across. (Another easy way to shape buns, besides rolling them into balls and flattening, is to gently deflate the dough and form it into a smooth 8-inch log. Using a serrated knife, slice the log into 12 pieces. Gently tug the edges of each piece underneath the ball of dough to form a squat ball.) Place the buns on a lightly buttered or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy.
3. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
4. Brush the buns with about half the melted butter (will give your burger buns a soft, light golden crust) and bake until golden, 12 to 18 minutes. As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, brush them with the remaining melted butter, which will lend the buns a satiny, buttery crust. Place the buns on a wire rack to cool completely.

VARIATIONS
Seeded Burger Buns Variation
If you’d like sesame or poppy seeds sprinkled atop your buns, brush the buns with the egg wash rather than the melted butter prior to baking as it’ll make the seeds adhere. Sprinkle the buns with the seeds and bake as instructed. (When you separate the egg, feel free to add the extra egg yolk to the dough for slightly richer results.)

Bread Loaf Variation
Follow the recipe through the first rise. Shape the whole batch of dough into 1 loaf and bake it in a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan for about 30 minutes at 350°F, or until it is browned, sounds hollow when tapped, and tests 190°F to 200°F in the middle. You may need to tent the top with foil if it starts to get too brown. If you don’t like sweet bread, you can reduce the sugar to 2 tablespoons or even 1 tablespoon with no other changes to the recipe.

Buns Size Variation
For slightly larger buns, divide the dough into 8 pieces instead of 12 and bake the buns for 15 to 18 minutes. And for those wee slider buns—about 3 inches in diameter–divvy the dough into 24 pieces and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Darker, Shinier Buns
Brushing the buns with an egg white wash made of 1 large egg white beaten with 1/4 cup cold water before baking. There is no need to also brush the buns after baking as you do with the butter

500g plain flour
1 tsp salt
300ml whole milk, luke warm
75g caster sugar
3 ½ tsp dry yeast
½ tsp vanilla
50g butter, melted
a little beaten egg and milk for brushing

cream, whipped and sweetened
jam

Measure the flour into a bowl, add salt. Place in a warm area.
In a warm jug place 250ml milk, add sugar and mix. Add yeast and set aside in a warm area until the yeast is foamy.
Add to the flour the yeast mix, vanilla and the butter and knead well, adding more milk if required.
Cover the bowl and let it rest for 1-2 hours until the dough has doubled in size. Alternatively, pop it in the fridge and let it sit overnight.

Pull the dough out of the bowl, divide it into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a tight ball, resisting the temptation to add more flour. Place the balls, about 2 cm apart, on a baking tray that is lined with baking parchment. Cover and let rise for an hour if they are warm or 2 hours if they are cool from the fridge. They will double in size. Brush with egg mix if desired.

Bake 200C for 15-20 minutes

Let them cool completely on a wire rack and then cut a slit across the top of bun. Fill with whipped cream and add a dollop of jam.

(Makes 16 rolls):
500g/1 lb plain white flour
2 teaspoons salt
275ml/10 oz warm water
2 teaspoons dried yeast
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Preparation Method:

Dissolve the yeast and sugar into about half the quantity of warm water in a jug and leave in a warm place with a cloth over the top. The yeast will begin to froth in about ten minutes. The flour should be in a large bowl with the salt added and mixed. The flour should preferably be slightly warm too.
Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and knead, either by hand or with a mixer with a dough hook. Add more water to make the texture so that it does not stick to your hands but is moist. Once it is well kneaded, form it into a ball, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave in a warm place. When the mixture has risen to about double its original size, knead it again until it has returned to its original volume.

The dough can then be divided into 16 and formed into individual balls. Pull the dough from the top to the bottom so that the top looks smooth. Place on lightly oiled oven trays, leaving space between each one, and cover with a cloth. Leave the rolls to rise again in a warm place, for about 30 minutes. Finally, bake in a hot oven, 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 for about 20 minutes, until brown on top – some people prefer their rolls “lightly fired” while others prefer to bake them for longer and have a more burnt surface.

50 g butter
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp yeast
pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups of flour

Melt butter. Add 1 and 1/4 cups of milk. Then add sugar, and yeast. Stir the yeast and the sugar in. Leave it for a few minutes, until it starts to get frothy.
Then add salt, and the flour, mix then knead well.
Cover the bowl, and put it in a warm place until the dough has risen to about twice its original size.
Punch the dough down. Let it rest for a moment, and then tip it out onto a floury board, and shape it into one big roll. Then cut it into twelve more-or-less even pieces, shape them into rolls and place them in a greased muffin pan.
Cover the rolls up, and leave them to rise again for about half an hour. Turn the oven on, and heat it to about 210C (about 425 fahrenheit). Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until they are golden brown.

The first key to a light bun is to make a pre dough so that the yeast has the best possibility of making the buns rise. The second key is to use plain flour, not bread flour. Buns are kind of like cake and a light, soft bun requires a slightly weaker flour than a nice, sturdy loaf. The third and most important key is to not kill the yeast. You can use cold milk from the fridge and the yeast will still work – it’s only heat that will kill yeast. To that end, heat the milk to near boiling point and then leave it for at least 30 minutes until it is room temperature/hand hot/ or maximum 40 degrees. If you are not sure, leave it to cool until it is cold.

Ingredients:

500 g plain white wheat flour
50 g sugar
2.5 g instant/5 g dry/10 g fresh yeast
250 g milk that you have heated up and let cool again
2 eggs
10 g salt
50 g butter
150 g sultanas
50 g mixed peel
rock sugar

Method:

Make a pre dough:

Measure the flour in a bowl. Make a well and put in the yeast and the sugar. Pour over the milk. Flick some flour over to close the well. Cover and leave for an hour until the foam has burst through the top of the well.

Make the dough:

Add the salt, eggs and butter to the flour and mix the ingredients together. Pull out on to the counter and knead well for 10 minutes. There is not a huge amount of butter in this recipe so you don’t have to worry about kneading it in separately.

Pop the dough back in the bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes. Fold in the fruit and the peel and then cover the dough and let it rest for 2 hours.

Shaping the bath buns:

Line a deep roasting tin with parchment and blob about 12 blobs of dough on the parchment with a couple of spoons. Sprinkle them liberally with rock sugar and then cover them with a tea towel. The logic of using a roasting tin is that the deep sides hold the tea towel over the tops of the buns so it does not stick. If you don’t have a baking tin with deep sides, lightly flour a tea towel before placing it over the buns.

Let these rest for 1 hour or so until they have doubled in size.

Pre heat the oven to 180 and bake the buns for 20 minutes until they are golden and sound hollow when they are tapped. Cool completely if you can (ha) and then eat, ideally with a cup of tea and more butter.

2½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda, level
½ tsp baking powder, rounded
½ tsp salt
pinch ground cinnamon
1 c buttermilk, shaken well (milk, sour cream or yoghurt)
1 egg
½ c sugar
¼ tsp vanilla essence
¼ c butter, melted and slightly cooled
canola oil, for frying

Cinnamon Sugar
2/3 c sugar mixed with 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Use a whisk to mix them together and make a well in the centre.
In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, sugar and vanilla essence. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients. Add the melted butter and mix together until you have a soft but not sticky dough (add a little more flour if necessary). Knead the dough gently until it comes together into a ball.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured bench to about 5mm in thickness. Use a 5.5cm floured cutter to cut rounds from the dough and the floured end of a wooden spoon to make the hole in the centre. Reroll any leftover dough to make more.
Pour enough oil into a frying pan to reach 2cm up the sides and set on a medium-high heat. Use a scrap of dough to test if the oil is hot enough. (The dough should brown in 40-50 seconds on one side. Lower the heat if it is browning too fast.)
Fry the doughnuts in small batches, turning so that they are golden brown on each side. Drain on paper towels and then toss them in the cinnamon sugar while still warm.

Makes 30.

These doughnuts freeze really well.