Pretty soft buns
Home made fresh buns
Don’t you just totally love it when you walk into the house and you smell that best of smells; freshly baked bread? And then to take it out of the oven and the moment you hear that soft crack when you break of a piece of warm crust and pop it in your mouth, unable to resist? O how I wish that scenario actually happened here in this very house!
Instead I tend to end up with bread that is either too dry, too firm or just plain disappointing… In all of the before three cases, it still beats getting the bread of the supermarket. Not that they have bad bread perse, but it’s just not the same as homemade, now is it? So yes, I do struggle with breadbaking. I followed a breadcourse before as you know, but as with many such things, haven’t baked a bread since. It was an enormously interesting course and I learned a lot but it was also pretty daunting to do all that stuff yourself. So when I learned about Levine’s workshop I decided that’s where I wanted to go.
Dough rolled and ready to be baked sprinkled with poppyseed
She approaches the whole breadbaking from a homebaking perspective, so I felt right at ease and with her guidance I actually started to feel confident I could maybe do this myself at home without too much danger of messing up the bread. We made two types of bread; the soft buns you see above and some crusty pistolets that I haven’t eaten yet. Too much bread to all eat in one go so they went straight into the freezer. But if the lunch we had is anything to go by then I just know that it is going to be awesome too. O and Levine gave us some amazing baguette too, which basically means I will have to come back to learn how to make those too.
Fresh crusty bread
For now I will tempt you with this recipe for soft buns, which you can also make into the pretty ‘braided’ buns you see on top and below. And trust me when I say that it took me a while to make anything resembling a knot with that bread but it was fun and if you can’t do that you can always just keep them round!
Fresh soft buns with seeds
Soft buns
Yield: 16
Ingredients:
- 560g flour (Good quality)
- 9g yeast (dry yeast)
- 10g sugar
- 60g butter (unsalted, at roomtemperature)
- 100g egg (At roomtemperatue, whisked loosely)
- 250 g full fat milk (lukewarm)
- 10g salt
- baking tin of 24 cm, greased
Additional ingredients
- 1 egg
- baking trays lined with baking paper
Additional ingredients (Optional)
- poppyseed or sesameseed for the top
Directions:
Kneading the dough in the kitchenaid; put all ingredients, except the butter in a bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon. Using the doughhook, knead the dough for about 8 minutes and then add slowly add the butter and keep kneading until the dough feels pliable and is stretchy. It should feel as sticky as a post-it note. It is usually around 10-15 minutes.
If you're kneading by hand; put all ingredients into a large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until the flour gets moist. Turn out onto a worksurface and knead by hand for about 15-20 minutes til you have a pliable dough. Don't ad extra flour if it's not really necessary; the dough will get less sticky during the kneading. |
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| 1st rise; Grease a large bowl with some oil and put the dough in. Turn once so all sides are covered with oil. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to stand at roomtemperature for about 1 hour so it doubles in volume. | |
| Shaping: Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled workbench. Divide with a doughcutter into 16 equal parts and make them into little balls. Leave those covered for about 10 minutes and round them again firmly. | |
| For separate buns: put the balls of dough onto a baking tray a few centimeters apart. If they do not fit onto one tray take your other tray and divide them over the trays. Bake them one after the other. | |
Breadcrown: Divide 8 balls of dough into a baking tin and put the other 8 in the other one.
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Coat the dough balls with a little bit of eggwash and sprinkle with seeds if you want to.
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Second rise; leave them covered at roomtemperature for about 60 minutes until almost doubled in size. The dough has risen enough once you press a finger in and it slowly moved back.
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| During the second raise preheat the oven to 200 C. Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes brown. Remove from the baking tins or from the baking trays and leave to cool on a cooling rack. You can freeze these really well. You can use the same dough to also make little knots in your bread. See notes |
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Note
As mentioned you can use these same buns to make different shapes. You can rol them out after the first raise to very thin long strand and then tie a knot in them or use your imagination to make something pretty of them. Continue also here with the second raise
Recipe by Levine van Doorne
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
I think the emphasis here should be on PRETTY. Those are some seriously gorgeous buns.
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 21st, 2011 at 18:36
Thanks so much! Pretty and delicious!
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I go weak every time I pass by a bakery with the air filled with the wonderful delicious smell of bread in the oven… and I love baking them too
Gorgeous looking rolls, Simone… Love the knotted ones.
Merry Christmas n have a wonderful 2012
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 21st, 2011 at 18:37
I remember I used to work in a bakery in my former life, sort of, and every morning coming into the bakery was wonderful. That warm smell of homecoming almost.. The job itself was terrible ofcourse but loved the environment!
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Hi Simone. I love the look of these buns!
I follow Levine’s blog for quite some time now and she makes the most wonderful breads! It’s so nice that you got the chance to attend a workshop.
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:32
And I’m definitely planning on following a few more with Levine!
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So pretty and delicious looking! Soft buns are great when served for brunch on Sunday mornings.
Cheers,
Rosa
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Wow!! .. Mooie foto’s!!!!
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buns look fabulously delicious
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I made these for my holiday party and they were a huge hit with my guests everyone wanted to know how I made them
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I love soft knot bread, yours look beautiful and delicious. I have a recipe I tried and then turned into sweet raising bread. Even though I am gluten free, I should make some for our Christmas dinner, thanks for the inspiration.
I am also thinking of making the Donna Hay’s recipe for the 24th so I can then publish it.
Happy Holidays!
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:38
Great Laura, I think they will go perfect with any christmas dinner and I am actually thinking of doing the same too!
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You really have a way with bread, Simone! These are beautiful- The texture looks pillowy soft, just as promised, and the shaping is impeccable. I really wish I could make buns like this… They just look too perfect for me!
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:37
Thanks Hannah, they were indeed all that and more..
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So cute! They look perfect! And yes, that smell of freshly baked bread is the best! I love making bread, even if it’s almost never perfect. I have to freeze it too, because Laurent won’t help me eat it: he likes dry, crusty Italian white bread, while I usually make moist whole wheat bread…
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:36
I always say I’m a bread girl. I like it in all shapes and sizes; white, rbown, whole wheat, sourdough… you name it!
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OMG the bread looks wonderful.
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:34
Thanks Joy!
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Looks really soft and pretty! Love it!
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:33
Thanks!
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These soft buns look fantastic! Yes, the smell of baking bread is one of my favorites…I really enjoy making bread although I haven’t in a long while…must get back into it!
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 22nd, 2011 at 15:33
I always plan to bake much more then I end up doing.. Sad but true!
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Made to perfect, I say! They look like they can melt in ones mouth.
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Gorgeous! Now you are an expert bread baker, Simone! And I must try this recipe (although why are your photos of bread always prettier than mine?)!!
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Simone (junglefrog) — December 26th, 2011 at 15:54
O I would definitely not call myself an expert baker by any means Jamie!! But thanks… you’re just too sweet..
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