Simple White Bread Buns
Preparation time: 20 minutes Servings: around 10 bread buns
Baking time: 12 minutes Total Time: etc. 3 hours
Difficulty: easy
Ingredients:
450 g/ 1 lb plain flour + some extra for kneading if necessary
55 g / 2 oz lard
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
260 – 280 ml / around 9 fl oz lukewarm water (depend on a flour)
For spreading (optional)
1 egg – medium size
2 tablespoons milk
For topping
salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc.
Instructions:
Sift the flour to a large bowl. Then add all dry ingredients to a bowl and mix together. Add lard, water and knead the mixture with your hands at least 15 minutes to make a soft & elastic, but not sticky dough (put more flour if need it). When you are done, leave it to rest for 1 or 2 hours letting the dough grow doubled size.
When the dough is ready to turn it into a long roll. Cut it to 10 small pieces and shape these to small buns and leave them for 60 minutes-ish to grow – covered with a clean kitchen towel.
Preheat the oven to 220 °C / 430 °F degrees for 30 minutes. Get a small bowl. Add one egg, 2 tables spoons of milk and beat them for 2 minutes to make a nice egg-milk mix. Then brush bread buns with this mixture and sprinkle with the salt or seed of your choice. It will make a nice crust when it bakes.
Bake the buns for around 12 minutes when they turn soft gold (or dark if you prefer it more crunchy… They are best to serve fresh with butter.
I hope you were successful with yours and that you are now enjoying their unique taste and also I hope that you love the smell of those freshly baked bread buns.
Good appetite…
Just that you should know
The dough you make should be soft – it grows easier when resting, lets the air in. Moreover, bread bun tastes better and stays fresh longer. If you make it too thick the dough is going to need more time to grow and the bread buns will be quite tough to eat.
The salt is hygroscopic (does absorb moisture) – so, if you use it for topping, the salt turns the surface of the bread buns into a soggy thing next day – so, it would be better to eat them on the same day when they were baked… However, it is still edible even if it’s not eaten on the same day. If you decide to keep them longer, you might want to use a different topping or no topping at all.