My 32nd experiment: dinner buns with whole wheat

Having succeeded to make a batch of gorgeous buns, I am now trying to introduce some whole grain into the buns too. This time I am using a combination of 1 cup of bread flour to 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour. The sugar level has been reduced.

Recipe: Improvised dinner buns

Ingredients:
- 1 cup King Arthur unbleached bread flour
- 1/2 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
- 2 tp active dry yeast
- 1 large egg
- 1 TB white sugar
- 1 TB melted butter (accidentally clarified)
- 3/4 tp salt
- about 1/4 to 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 TB bread flour for adjustment
- water roux made from 1 TB bread flour mixed with 1/4 cup water
Toppings:
- egg wash made with 1 tp egg white
- sesame seeds

Procedure:
1. Proof yeast with 2 TB of warm water.
2. Mix bread flour, whole wheat flour, white sugar and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Add cooled water roux, egg and proofed yeast to the medium bowl. Use a fork to stir all the ingredients together to form a dough. Knead the dough intermittently. When dough is in rather good shape, add in the melted butter and rub it into the dough. Knead the dough vigorously to homogenize the mixture. After that, the dough will appear smooth but not oily. At this point, if dough appears to be too moist, add flour and knead gently. The final dough should have strength to hold itself together and stand up in the bowl.
4. Allow the dough to rise until volume has doubled. Then punch the dough down.
5. Cut dough into small pieces of 1" length and roll the pieces into balls. If they are to be saved for future baking, dust with a little flour and roll gently to coat all surfaces. Then freeze them.
6. To prepare dough for baking: apply egg wash on top of the dough balls and then sprinkle sesame on top. Then allow the dough balls to proof on non-stick surface until the volume has doubled.
7. If a powerful toaster oven is used, bake for 5 minutes at 400F (without preheating) and then 10 minutes at 300F. If large oven is used: preheat oven to 400F and bake for 10 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Results:

3:06pm, initial mix of all the ingredients except butter:

3:12pm, initial dough:

3:16pm, dough kneaded twice:

3:25pm, dough kneaded the third time after adding melted butter (I accidentally boil the butter, so it is clarified and gives out a very nice smell):

3:28pm, 2 TB bread flour added to dough and dough is reworked so that it can hold its shape standing on the bowl. Then it is allowed to rest:

3:44pm, dough doubled its volume in just 15 minutes in the residual heat of the hot oven:

3:47pm, dough punched down (just by repeated folding, not too vigorously):

3:49pm, dough shaped into a log to be cut up:

3:50pm, dough being cut up; observe the large bubbles inside even after being punched down:

3:51pm, dough cut up into balls and dusted with flour:

4:08pm, dough balls to be frozen are vigorously rubbed between the palms to squeeze out all gas bubbles inside:

4:08pm, dough ball to rise and bake on the same day:

4:56pm, dough balls proofed 50 minutes; right: without vigorous rubbing since the 1st rising ; left: vigorously rubbed and chilled for a few minutes, then allowed to warm up again:

5:31pm, after another 30 minutes: the dough ball without vigorous rubbing has over-risen and collapsed; the dough ball with vigorous rubbing is rising slowly; the dough balls in freezer have semi-frozen:

5:33pm, semi-frozen dough balls are dusted with flour especially on the bottoms to prevent sticking. Then they can be placed in the same bag for storage.

If the dough balls keep expanding before it's time to bake, then keep folding them inward when they fall out of shape. Keep them moist. 

7:34pm, two buns baked in toaster oven (without pre-heating) first at 400F for 1-2 minutes, then for about 5-10 minutes at 300F until top is light brown.

7:35pm, two buns brushed with butter:

7:41pm, one bite of the bun shows a spongy interior, very soft and tasty:

Observations:

1. In this experiment, my two objectives are, first, to study the use of bread flour and wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, and second, to study how to control the rise of the rolls given such a large quantity of yeast.

2. In today's experiment, dinner is delayed. The large dough ball expands much faster than I desire it to. It falls out of shape after half an hour. So whenever it falls out of shape, I fold it back into a ball and allow it to continue rise. I do not punch it down because I am not sure when I am ready to bake them. The small dough ball has already been punched down before, so it rises less rapidly. Eventually it still expands out of shape, and I have to fold it back into a ball again. 

3. Despite the delayed dinner, the buns turn out to be in good shape when I am ready to cook. They bake very well and have a great oven spring. The large one is especially impressive in its oven spring.

4. I bake them in the toaster oven without preheat. So I let them heat at 400F for the first 1-2 minutes. The surface becomes very lightly golden. Then I turn the heat down to 300F and let them cook until the tops are nicely browned. 

5. Wow! When the buns come out of the oven, their tops are burning hot. Butter melts instantly, giving a nice gloss.

6. The taste of this loaf is very good. It's savory (with a light taste of salt) and a distinctive but mild taste of whole wheat. Very good!

This is certainly another of our very memorable evenings with these little warm and lovely buns.