Assorted Buns

1. Contents
2. Dough
3. Plain Buns
4. Pizza Buns
5. Cinnamon Buns
6. Baking
7. More Variations
8. Notes

1. Mix white flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt togither in a large bowl.
2. Pour the water into a second bowl. If you have potato water, use that. The buns will be softer.
3. Warm the water in the microwave to about the temperature of your hand. It takes 1 minute on high power using my microwave.
4. Mix the oil and eggs into the water.
5. Combine the wet ingrediants with the dry ingrediants in the large bowl. Use a whisk to mix until smooth.
6. Add the whole wheat flour to the mixture 1 cup at a time. Mix it in thoroughly with the whisk or a wooden spoon before adding the next cup. When the flour is too hard to mix, or all 4 cups are in, go to step 7.
7. Sprinkle white flour on the counter and spread it out smoothly over a circle about 9 inches / 25 cm across.
8. Dump the bread dough onto the flour. You will probably have to scape it out of the bowl.
9. Sprinkle white flour on top of the dough and spread it around smoothly.
10. Kneed the dough as follows:
    1. Flatten the dough out enough to fold it over. If the dough sticks too your hads, sprinkle more flour on it.
    2. Fold the right half of the dough over onto the left half.
    3. Turn the dough 90° clockwise. The new fold should be facing you.
    4. If the dough is sticking to the counter, sprinkle more flour under it.
    5. Repeat until the dough is soft and stretchy. This is often about 15 minutes.
11. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover it with a clean tea towel (the non-fuzzy ones), and put it somewhere warm to rise. If your oven has a Bread Proof setting, use that.
12. Wait for the dough to rise above the top of the bowl. This normally takes at least an hour.
13. Take off the towel and punch the dough back down into the bowl. It will take a few punches to get all the dough down. If you aren't ready to make the buns yet, put it back in the oven and leave it until you are. (Punch it down again if it gets too high.) You want to start making the dough into buns about 1 1/2 hours before before you serve them.
14. Spinkle the counter with flour again.
15. Cut the dough in half with a knife. Each of the two halves can be made into plain buns, pizza buns, or cinnamon buns. Even if you only want one kind, you still have to cut the dough in half because it will be too large to work with otherwise.

16. Place the dough half on the floured counter.
17. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rough rectangle about 1/2 inch / 1 cm thick.
18. Cut the dough into 12 rough squares. It is OK if some or all of them are not very square.
19. Pinch the corners of the squares together on the bottom. Repeat with the new corners until you have something ball-like.
20. Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet.
21. Go to baking.

16. Place the dough half on the floured counter.
17. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rough rectangle about 1/2 inch / 1 cm thick.
18. Spread the dough with pizza sauce (or tomato sauce).
19. Sprinkle the dough with poppy seeds (optional).
20. Sprinkle the dough with grated mozarella and/or chettar cheese.
21. Roll up the dough away from you. If it is very wide, cut it in half first.
22. Slice the dough into slices about 1 inch / 2.5 cm thick. This comes out to about 24 buns.
23. Place the sliced rolls on a greased cookie sheet about 1 inch / 2.5 cm apart. They will spread somewhat. Make sure that the end of the roll for each pizza bun is facing another bun. Otherwise, the end of the roll may fall over when they are baked.
24. Sprinkle more cheese on top of the pizza buns.
25. Go to baking.

16. Place the dough half on the floured counter.
17. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rough rectangle about 1/2 inch / 1 cm thick.
18. Spread the dough with soft butter or margarine.
19. Sprinkle the dough with brown sugar to a depth of about 0.2 - 0.5 cms (1/8 - 1/4 inch). Sprinkled brown sugar contains a lot of air.
20. Sprinkle the dough with cinnamon.
21. Sprinkle the dough with raisons (optional).
    • Baked raisins often dry out and become hard. They might work if you you soak them (in how much water?) first (for how long?).
22. Roll up the dough away from you. If it is very wide, cut it in half first.
23. Slice the dough into slices about 1 inch / 2.5 cm thick. This comes out to about 24 buns.
24. Place the sliced rolls on a greased cookie sheet about 1 inch / 2.5 cm apart. They will spread somewhat. Make sure that the end of the roll for each pizza bun is facing another bun. Otherwise, the end of the roll may fall over when they are baked.
25. Sprinkle more brown sugar on top of the cinnamon buns.
26. Go to baking.

27. Allow the buns to rise for about half an hour. If your oven has a Bread Proof setting, use that. This is a good time to se the other half of the dough.
28. Bake the buns for 20 minutes at 325°F (160°C). They will continue to rise while baking.
29. Bake the second batch of buns for only 18 minutes, because the oven is already hot.
30. When the buns are done, remove them from the cookie sheet and place the on a rack to cool. Otherwise, they will become soggy.

Overnight Buns

• If your house is significantly warm (e.g. because it's summer), cut the yeast in half to 15 mL (3 tsp).
• Make sure the buns are entirely covered by a tea towel overnight, including the edges. Otherwise they will become dry. This happens even if you leave them inside the oven.
• If you are making overnight cinnamon buns, don't put the brown sugar on top until morning. I don't recommend overnight pizza buns because tomato sauce and towels don't go well together.
• Remember to take the towel off before baking the buns. If you leave them in the (cold) oven overnight, leave yourself a note on top so you remember.

Potato Buns

• For example, 2 cups (500 mL) water could be replaced by 3 cups (750 mL) mashed potatoes.
• You can also substitute in other things with similar consistancy, such as mashed sweet potatoes or vegetable soup.

Hot Cross Buns

• Optionally, add 10 mL (2 tsp) cinnamon and 2 mL (1/2 tsp) nutmeg to the flour mixture (in Step 1).
• If you don't have potato water, substitute milk for half the water. Heat both. If you do have potato water, just use that for all of it. If you are using potato water, you can add about 2/3 cup (150 mL) of milk powder to the flour mixture.
• Near the end, put some sort of cross on the top. The fancy way is with icing, after they are baked. The lazy way is to you a serrated knife to cut an "X" into the top of each bun after you put it on the cookie sheet.

• I used to have only 2 eggs.
• Don't put pizza spices like basil and oregano on pizza buns. They don't help.
• The first batch of buns rises the most, and is thus the softest. If you have time, you can wait for the oven to cool down again before baking the second batch. If so, bake it for the full 20 minutes.