My 30th experiment: Gorgeous buns

I'm refining on my buns! Each occasion to cook for others is my opportunity to press on for better. I am now redoing the burger buns formula, this time with a different presentation. The ingredients and steps are almost the same.

Recipe: Sweet dinner buns (make 13)

Ingredients:

- 1+1/2 cups King Arthur's unbleached all-purpose flour

- 2 tp active dry yeast

- 1 large egg

- a little less than 2 TB (or 1/8 cup) white/brown sugar

- 1 TB melted butter

- 1/2+1/4 tp kosher salt

- a little less than 1/2 cup warm water

- additionally, about 1/4 cup high gluten flour to adjust the composition of the final dough

water roux

- 1 TB King Arthur's unbleached all-purpose flour

- 1/4 cup water

topping

- white sesame seeds

- egg wash made from 1 TB egg white

Procedure:

1. Prepare water roux using 1 TB flour and 1/4 cup of water. Once it's ready, allow to cool down until warm to touch.

2. Dissolve active dry yeast in 2 TB warm water. Mix well to ensure that all the yeast grains are dissolved.

3. Mix flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.

4. Add the water roux and the dissolved yeast into the bowl and mix.

4. Break an egg in a small dish. Save a little (about 1 TB) of egg white for brushing later. Then add the rest of the egg into the bowl and mix.

5. Gradually add in warm water, 2 TB at a time while mixing. Allow the dough some time (10-20 minutes) to hydrate. Keep the dough on the dry side.

6. Add melted butter and knead thoroughly.

7. While kneading the dough, work on it for 1-2 minutes, then allow it 2-3 minutes to rest. Then knead again. If the dough appears to be too dry at first, try to withhold adding water. If after the second round of kneading, it is still dry, then add just small amount of water and continue working on it.

8. After 2-3 times of kneading, dough will become smooth and soft.

9. Allow dough to rest in a warm place for about 1 hour, until its volume has doubled.

10. At this point, if the dough is too soft or too hard, adjust its composition by adding either small amount of flour (1 TB at a time) or small amount of water (1 tp at a time). Keep kneading while making the adjustment. It takes a while for the adjustment to be effective.

11. If no adjustment has been necessary, then gently press dough down into a roll and be careful not to punch down any holes. If the dough has been kneaded thoroughly, then all the holes are already punched down, so just expect to give the dough a bit more time to rise again. 

12. Cut dough into small pieces of 1" diameter. (Each piece will continue about slightly more than 1/8 cup of flour and 1/2 tp sugar.) To save some for future baking, wrap each piece in plastic and freeze immediately.

11. Prepare egg wash by mixing 1 TB egg white with 1 tp water.

12. Shape each piece of dough into a ball. Place them on a piece of parchment paper. Apply egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Then allow to rise again until volume doubles.

13. Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

14. Serve right off the oven.

Results:

8:41am, initial mixture:

8:56am, dough made and ready to rest:

10:55am, dough rested for 2 hours, volume more than doubled:

11:03am, dough punched down because it's too soft and needs to be adjusted:

11:03am, dough with 1/4 cup of gluten flour added:

11:05am, final dough ready:

11:10am, final dough made into 1" diameter balls:

11:27am, 11 balls fitting into one pan, generously greased with shortening; to prevent the buns from merging, each ball is very lightly dusted with flour:

11:28am, 2 balls on a small aluminum pan with parchment lining:

11:36am, dough balls in large pan brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame toppings; ready to proof under a plastic wrap cover:

11:36am, dough balls in small pan brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame toppings; ready to proof without cover:

12:42pm, dough balls rested for 1 hour; observe that the balls in the small pan are drier because they each stand alone and have not been covered, so they need additional egg wash:

1:11pm, dough balls rested 90 minutes:

1:25pm, small pan baked for 10 minutes at 350F, yielding round buns with nicely browned and a little hardened crust:

1:33pm, large pan baked for 10 minutes at 350F uncovered, then another 10 minutes at 300F covered with foil to prevent over-browning.

1:34pm, height of the buns baked in large pan:

1:35pm, bottom of the buns baked in large pan:

1:37pm, buns separated:

Observations:

1. In this experiment, I prepared the yeast separately from the water roux. This seems to yield much better result in the initial stage of the dough mixing. 
2. Though my ingredients are almost identical to the previous attempt on the same buns, the ambience makes today's dough moister than last time, so adjustment is necessary.
3. Even though the two pans of dough balls are made from exactly the same dough, the conditions under which they are proofed cause them to differ in their hydration level. Subsequently, the two buns on the small pan need much shorter time to bake.
4. Perhaps because of the size of the buns and the use of brown sugar, this time they brown much faster than last time. 

Excellent! Several days after I delivered these buns to a friend, she came back telling me that they were really good, even after a day or two. I really feel good that she enjoyed them.