Ingredients
450g plain flour
8g yeast
80g sugar
1 tsp salt
200ml room temperature water
70g room temperature butter cut into 7 pieces
Sausage cut into pieces or cocktail sausages
1 egg plus 1 tbsp water mixed
Method
1 . Add the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and water into the mixing bowl with a dough hook and mix it for about 15 minutes, making sure you scrap the side. (Remember to add the yeast on the opposite side of the salt as direct contact might kill the yeast)
2 . Next, add in the butter one piece at a time, allowing it to be incorporating into the dough before adding the next piece.
3 . After all the butter has been added, carry on mixing for about 5-10 minutes.
4 . Set it aside and let to rise for 1-2 hours, doubling in size.
5 . Hand-knead the dough on a floured surface for about 1-2 minutes and portion out into 8 or 16 equal pieces, depending on how big you want your buns.
6 . Next, wrap your dough around the sausage pieces and allow to rise for 1 hour on a baking tray, evenly spaced out.
7 . Brush the top of the the buns with the egg wash and bake at 200 degrees celsius on the middle rack for about 13 minutes.
What’s on my mind…
Ever since I was young, I have loved these traditional soft buns and when I learnt how to make them, I realised the amount of time and effort that goes into them. My mum always says, its more worth it to buy from the bakeries, but well, I like the challenge.
For those who do not have a blender, you can actually hand mix in a bowl and use a clean greased surface to knead in the butter as well, but it will take you double or even triple the amount of time taken using a blender. Personally, I find it really therapeutic to knead by hand but it does get tiring.
Lastly, you can fill these buns up with pretty much anything, but do remember to make sure the you add in something that has a little moisture content of its own. For example, when I used dried cranberries, the buns were rock hard because the dried cranberries absorbed the moisture from the dough. So the solution would be to soak the cranberries in a little water (or champagne) and plump them up before putting them in the dough. Just make sure it is not dripping wet when you stuff the dough.
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