My 28th experiment: burger bun

It's my husband's taste for fineness that pushes me towards a higher ground of rolls baking. My quest for good buns brought me into the King Arthur's flour website, which has loads of good recipes. Since I've stocked up on King Arthur's flour when it was on sale at 5 pounds for $2.50, now I am going to take full advantage of their recipes.

Recipe: Burger buns (make 6-7)

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 sugar
- 1 TB melted butter
- 1/2+1/4 tp kosher salt
- a little less than 1/2 cup warm water
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. Add active dry yeast to water roux. Mix well to form a paste.
3. Mix flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
4. Add the water roux and 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, 1-2 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. Gently press dough down into a roll. Do not punch down heavily. Cut dough into 6-7 pieces. (Each piece will continue about 1/4 cup of flour and 1 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.

Next day baking:

1. Tightly wrap any pieces reserved for future baking. Freeze them right away. 

2. To bake, take a piece out of the freezer and allow it to defrost wrapped in plastic in the fridge until it's soft (this step may be skipped if in a rush). 

3. Then, take off the tight plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for 1-2 hours on counter top or warm stove top. Loosely cover the dough with plastic while it is rising. 

4. When its volume has doubled, brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle sesame seeds. Then place in a toaster oven at 400F for 10 minutes. If the top is too browned, cover with foil and adjust oven setting to 300-350F.

5. Serve hot.

Results:
4:06pm, texture of initial dough just after all the ingredients are mixed; it's lumpy and a little dry:

4:13pm, texture of dough after first kneading:

4:16pm, texture of dough after second kneading and preparing to rest; because of the oil content in the dough, no additional oil is needed on the surface:

5:02pm, dough after the first round of resting, about 50 minutes:

5:05pm, because the dough has been left on the heat of the stove top while the oven is baking, the bottom of the dough is cooked:

5:06pm, dough pressed down to form a roll:

5:07pm, dough being cut up:

5:10pm, dough cut into 6 roughly even pieces:

5:14pm, part of the dough prepared to freeze, remaining part to be baked on the same day:

5:18pm, dough applied with egg wash and toppings, preparing to rise the second time, covered with plastic wrap:

6:06pm, dough's height after 2nd rising:

6:20pm, dough just before baking; more egg wash applied to moisten:

6:31pm, buns baked 11 minutes:

6:35pm, a bun's top:

6:38pm, the interior of a bun:

Next day baking:
A small bun just done baking in a toaster oven, initially at 400F to brown, then at 300F to cook:

A closer look at the browning that results from applying melted butter:

Observations:

1. In this experiment, I attempt to add a water roux, so that any leftover buns may last a little longer. What I find out is that the water roux seems to do very little to hydrate the dough. So, on top of the water roux, I still have to add about 1/2 cup of warm water to hydrate the dough. 
2. I add the active dry yeast into the water roux while it's warm. It may not have been the most efficient way to proof the yeast. I may proof it with 1 TB warm water instead.
3. I add the butter while the dough is still on the dry side, because butter has water in it. I am not sure how much the butter could affect the hydration of the dough. Instead of adding flour to fix the dough, I keep the dough dry until all the ingredients are added. Then adjust the hydration accordingly.
4. This dough needs plenty of rigorous kneading because water roux, egg and butter all contribute to forming small lumps. 
5. At the first kneading, the dough is lumpy. It gets smoother after resting a few minutes. At the second kneading, it has become much softer and smoother. But the third kneading, it is certainly ready to rise.
6. I leave the dough on the stove top while baking something else at 300F. The stove top becomes so hot that the bottom of the dough gets cooked! However, it does rise substantially to about 3 times its volume. 
7. The abundance of yeast helps the dough to rise to almost three times its volume. The good thing, however, is that after baking, the buns do not collapse when they are out of the oven.

Oh wow! This is so very yummy, fit for the King's table. There is no leftover! My husband, who normally do not eat a large quantity of starch, can't wait to start eating, and finishes two large buns.