The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

BreadBuns (aka fluffy dinner rolls), just for kicks

cranbo's picture
cranbo

BreadBuns (aka fluffy dinner rolls), just for kicks

So in a recent thread I posted a recipe that I based on a bread someone had seen on TV. I just did my best guess, based on provided ingredients and my own experience. 

I figured I should post the results, because it was mostly theoretical, but I believed it would work. The goal was yeasty, soft, fluffy bread, and use of a preferment. 

Here's the recipe, makes eight (8) 92g rolls/buns, or one good-sized loaf of bread...hence BreadBuns!

  • 100% hydration starter (sourdough or not) 100g (26.50%)
  • All purpose flour 375g (100%)
  • Water 218g (58%)
  • Brown sugar 38g (10%)
  • Salt 10g (2.65%)
  • Yeast (instant) 12g (3.30%)
  • Melted butter 26g (7%)
  • FINAL DOUGH WEIGHT (g) 778g

First, make a 100% hydration starter with 50g flour, 50g water and a pinch of yeast, mix, cover and leave at room temp for at least 6 hrs (or use some existing sourdough starter). In this case, I used some starter that I had around. 

Combine starter with remaining ingredients. This is after 1 minute of mixing at low speed. 

Mix with dough hook for 6 minutes total at KitchenAid speed #2 (low speed); this is the end result: soft, supple, quite smooth and satiny. 

Flatten, then roll into log and/or shape into ball and let rise for 1 hr in warm place, covered. 

Shaped and ready for rising...

In the bucket, ready to rise

After a 1 hour rise, it's doubled.

I decided to shape into 92g rolls, placed in a greased 9x13 pyrex dish:

Cover and let them rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, til doubled. Preheat oven to 400F

Bake for 23 minutes at 350F on middle oven rack.

Here's how they look after 10 minutes, just starting to get a hint of browning.

After the full 23 minutes, they're looking nice and brown. 

Remove from oven, carefully remove from pan and let cool on rack about 10 minutes before devouring. 

Crust and crumb are soft, light, tender and fluffy as expected. I think they could use a bit more brown sugar though, a touch more sweetness for this kind of bread. 

I like to store these in a Ziploc plastic bag to maintain that fluffy softness. Enjoy!

Comments

wayne on FLUKE's picture
wayne on FLUKE

Nice job cranbo, I hope they come out as good for markd.

I like the idea of using the 13x9 baking dish. That let the buns almost merge which keeps the sides really soft.

Do you think these would make good burger buns?

wayne

cranbo's picture
cranbo

Thanks wayne. Yeah, the pyrex is great, soft bun sides are key to keeping them fluffy and light!

Burgers? Yes! I use a slightly modified recipe for burger buns, using milk or buttermilk in place of some of the water, possibly some eggs, usually lower hydration. 

These are VERY soft and fluffy, which might not appeal to all burger aficionados. To me, a good burger has to be a little less fluffy, a little heavier, so that it partially compresses when you bite into it (but not all the way), and can stand up to a good grilling, so that it doesn't fall apart completely when absorbing the burger juices. 

The inner texture of these buns is close to "bread cotton candy", extremely light and fluffy. 

Amori's picture
Amori

How lovely! They look quite tender.....thanks for posting it.

 

cranbo's picture
cranbo

Thanks amori. Yes, very tender. When I originally developed the base recipe, it was to mimic store-bought dinner rolls. These are much much better!

Why I like this recipe:

  • it is remarkably fast
  • it is very adjustable; you can tweak them how ever you want, and don't have to deal with extra dough conditioners and other stuff you find in commercial break. 
  • and of course, delicious :)