Sourdough buns or rolls – the easy way
When do you know you have taken too many photos?
I know I have taken too many pictures of bread and buns when The Assistant in Google Photos makes a film of SOME of my buns/rolls.
I had to put this animation in – it is not very good – but I think it is funny – and a bit strange.
I have experimented A LOT with buns and rolls – lately, sourdough bread and buns/rolls.
And I haven’t been satisfied with the result in the past – but now I think I’ve got it.
A great bun/roll is crusty, seeded, fresh from the oven, still warm and slathered with butter.
I got some sourdough from a friend, and that restarted the spark.
There are a lot of good videos on youtube on how to make bread in an enamel cast iron dutch oven.
Chad Robertson has written a good book about it.
I have tried his methods with some success and a lot of failures.
But we don’t eat that much bread – we eat buns/rolls.
They are great for sandwiches, and if you want to reheat the buns/rolls, you drip some water on them before you put them in the oven, and they are almost as good as freshly baked.
Sourdough is a tricky thing, so I use yeast as well.
I guess that you can skip the sourdough and use more yeast and some yoghurt if you haven’t got sourdough.
But I like the taste of the sourdough and the larger air bubbles you get in the buns, so for now, I use both.
What is your experience with sourdough? Do you have any tips? Please leave a comment.
Buns or Rolls with Sourdough
Sourdough buns - the easy way
Ingredients
- ca. 500 g water just under 30 c
- 10-12 g yeast
- 130 g sourdough
- 500 g Bred flour - mixed flour (25 g wheat bran, 50 g of whole wheat flour, 135 g whole white wheat flour and normal wheat flour 290g)
- 20 g salt
- 30 g sugar
- 50 g Poppy seeds, chia seeds, grains ... Use your favorite seeds and grains
- 100 g Oatmeal
- Boiling water for the roasting tray in the oven Is used for generating steam
Instructions
- Weigh the flour in a bowl, mix it with salt, sugar, seeds and grains.
- In another bowl weigh the water. Mix the water with the yeast before you mix in the sourdough. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed and without lumps.
- Mix the dry ingredients with the moist. Mix until there are no dry parts left in the bowl - it's a very moist dough.
- Let the dough rest 30 minutes before kneading. This phase is called autolysis and this is where most of the gluten network form.
- After 30 minutes knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. Take the dough from the bottom of the bowl and fold it over the rest turn the bowl and repeat - make sure to stretch it all well. Each time you pull the dough, you stretch the gluten in the flour and develop a strong and elastic gluten network. Each time you fold the dough you make a pocket of air.
- Let the dough rise 2-4 hours in a covered bowl.
- Use a wet spoon to place the buns on a baking sheet with baking paper. The paper makes it easier to get the buns in the oven - if you have a pizza spade, use it. While the oven heats up leave the buns to rise under a floured tea towel.
- Heat the pizza stone in the oven at 250 C fan oven - known as a Convection Oven in the US. Put a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven. Let it all preheat 20 minutes. Boil the water to make water vapour.
- Brush the rolls with water or milk and sprinkle with seeds, grains or a little flour. Put the buns in the oven and pour boiling water into the roasting tray to form water vapour. Close the oven and turn down the temperature to 225 C fan oven bake for 10 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 200 C fan oven and bake for another 10-12 minutes. Knock on the bottom of a bun if it sounds hollow it is done.
- If you have any dough left repeat the procedure from step 8 - this time heat the oven for 10-15 min.
- Make the dough in the evening and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight - then you can have freshly baked buns for breakfast. If you do that use less yeast.
Notes
Sourdough:
Start making a large portion of the 50/50 mixture (300 g of wheat flour and 300 g of whole wheat flour). Mix 200 g of water with 200 g of the 50/50 mixture in a jar. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 24 hours, and cover it with a coffee filter. It should form small bubbles. Next day pour out two-thirds of the dough or use it as a liquid in another bread. Mixing the rest with 200 g of water and 200 g of the 50/50 mixture. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 24 hours. Repeat the procedure pour out two-thirds of the dough or use it as a liquid into another bread. Add 200 g of water and 200 g of the 50/50 mixture. After this, the sourdough is ready for use and can be stored for a week in the refrigerator, or you can freshen it up by repeating the procedure. A good sourdough smell a bit fruity if it has a strong smell, take a part of the sourdough and mix it up with 200 g of water and 200 g of the 50/50 mixture. Let the dough rest for 12-24 hours until the bubbles return. If the sourdough is dead, start over.If you use US Customary, remember that the recipe is made using Metric and converted via a plugin.
Private notes
I made these almost exactly as called for in the recipe- subbing rye for whole wheat flour. I added poppy, chia and sesame seeds. The dough is indeed wet and messy to knead. Fear not, they rose for three hours and baked up crusty on the outside and moist and dense on the inside. Delicious! I did not have a pizza stone, or a convection oven and they still baked perfectly.
Thank you, Lisbeth, for your tips and thoughts.
I am so glad that the wet dough worked for you as well.
Hope you’ll try some of my other recipes.
Best, Christel