Sweet Bread & Buns

I've been trying to make sweet buns with sweet and savoury fillings lately.

I knead by hand.... and it takes me more than 30 sweating minutes to knead 500 gm flour.
I don't have the guts to use my hand held mixer to knead the bread... I'm scared it'll explode while I'm holding to it. It's tough work!
Anyone out there wanting to give me an early Christmas gift???

I adapted the recipe from Aunty Yochana's butter buns, and I added more sugar, yeast and slightly more butter to her dough recipe. These buns are made without softeners and improvers, therefore do not expect it to be super pillowy soft(retail bakery breads). But they are soft, even for 3 days. And on the funny side, they taste better the next day. Maybe it could be due to my fan oven, the surface sort of dries up a bit, and keeping it allows the moisture from within to seep up and moistens the bread.

And I found that egg white is my favourite glaze. Milk and whole eggs burns too easily, pure egg yolk is too golden for my taste. Egg white is the best!

500gm bread flour/high protein flour
100gm sugar
50gm milk powder

11gm yeast (1 sachet)
220ml water
1 big pinch of sugar
1 egg

85gm butter
1/2 tsp salt

1. Proof yeast with water and pinch of sugar until mixture turns frothy.
2. Mix bread flour, sugar and milk powder together. Make a well in the centre.
3. When (1) is ready, beat in 1 egg and pour into (2).
4. Knead dough for 10 minutes (15 by hand)Dough should be smooth by now.
5. Knead in butter and salt. It feels very oily..Continue to knead for another 10 minutes (15 by hand)or until dough is very stretchable.
6. Shape dough into a ball and cover with cling wrap, leaving a small hole by the side. Or u can place it in a pot and cover with a lid.
7. Leave to proof for 45 mins or until almost triple (I won't call it double, look at the pic), or until u can make a dent in the dough that doesn't spring back.
8. Punch down and knead for 1 minute. Divide into desired sizes and shape. Do not put toppings at this stage.
9. After shaping let proof for another hour or until more than double. Brush with egg white. Put on desired topppings.
10. Preheat oven. Bake buns at 160C for 12 minutes, or loaves at 150C for 20 minutes.(My oven)

**** Maybe ur oven needs to bake at higher temperatures. Most recipes I see call for breads to be baked at 200C or 180C. My oven burns my bread at this temperature. U have to experiment a bit here.









And here's a collection of my bread making. You can do whatever patterns or use whatever fillings u fancy.

Sweet Raisin Bun Ring
-just added moistened raisins to the dough, made into 6 80gm buns and put in a tube pan. Egg white glaze












Ham and Cheese Twist-just ham and cheese folded and twisted. egg white glaze.




Chilli Sausage Bun
-Mushroom jumbo sausages rolled into a piece of 60gm dough, cut into 4 pieces, laid out and garnished with chilli sauce and grated cheddar before baking. This was glazed with milk and whole egg. A bit too golden hoh???





Ham and Cheese Spiral Loaf-Ham and cheese laid out on a rectagular piece of dough, rolled up swiss roll style. Laid in a tube pan to proof and bake at 150C for 20 mins. Egg white glaze.






Double Cheese Buns
-Cheddar on top, cream cheese in the middle

Cheese Plaits
-Grated cheddar mixed with some egg and sugar. Spread on top of plaited 60gm buns.

Cheese Buns

-Filled with Cheddar cheese, it makes a cave inside as it bakes

Sweet Cheddar Cheese Bun
-Cheddar cave inside, cheddar and sugar topping.

Sausage roll
Roll 60gm dough into long strips and wind around thawed sausages.

I'm not going to bake anymore of these sweet buns in near future.. been baking too much of these lately, a bit sick of it oredi. Hahahahaha!