My 34th experiment: buns with 1/2 whole wheat flour

I'm moving the dinner buns towards a higher composition of whole wheat flour. Here is one that uses 1/2 whole wheat flour.

Recipe: Dinner bun dough with 1/2 whole wheat flour

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup King Arthur unbleached bread flour
- 3/4 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
- 2 tp active dry yeast
- 1 large egg
- 1 TB white sugar
- 1 TB olive oil
- 3/4 tp salt
- 3 TB warm water
water roux:
- 1-2 TB bread flour
- 1/4 cup water

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: allow the dough balls to proof on non-stick surface until the volume has doubled. Then apply melted butter on top of the dough balls and then sprinkle sesame on top. Then 

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:

2:48pm, water roux:

2:48pm, proofed active dry yeast:

2:48pm, mixed dry ingredients to form the dough:

3:08pm, initial dough:

3:15pm, dough added with 1 TB olive oil:

3:16pm, dough preparing to rest:

3:58pm, dough rested 50 minutes:

3:58pm, texture of dough after rest:

4:05pm, dough punched down and shaped into a rope (this helps removing large bubbles):

4:05pm, dough cut into pieces; observe the small bubbles):

4:15pm, dough shaped into small balls:

5:12pm, dough balls frozen for 1 hour, dusted with flour and saved in plastic bags for future baking:

I keep the dough balls in the freezer, and use them when needed. These are the buns made with several dough balls, reshaped and warmed for about 15 minutes just before baking. They taste great.

They are really handy. I keep them in the freezer. It takes about 10 minutes to defrost them in a warmed oven of 150F. Once warmed, they can bake really well in a toaster oven at 400F until the top is browned. Then, brush the top with butter and sprinkle sesame seeds. They are really good!