"Baking is a wonderful aspect of cooking" I realized this when I started baking breads. Baking any kind of a bread gives so much of pleasure and satisfaction that can't be explained in few words. Baking bread fills your kitchen with a lovely aroma. I felt that I am standing on my favorite bakery in Bangalore :))))
Never ever thought that baking buns at home will be so easy. Yes, you read right :). Beside being easy they are healthy and full of Nutrients. They are supersoft and light. They can be well served in your breakfast with butter/Jam or as your meal rolls even. You can use them for making burgers even. I love to have them when they are little warm and believe me you won't need even butter :). Many people think that baking bread with whole wheat flour will result in a dense bread, but after baking these buns I think its not true. I would say obviously they can't be compared with plain flour buns but yes they are no where less than them even. The other best part of them - that they are eggless. Few bakers add eggs to the whole wheat breads to make them soft. You can make them small or large it depends on you. So without wasting much of the time, lets quickly see the ingredients followed by the method.
Ingredients :
- Strong whole wheat flour : 1 1/4 cups (Strong means that it should have a high protein content approx 13-15 gms)
- Plain flour/All purpose flour/Maida : 3/4 cup
- Seeds : 1/4 cup (I used sunflower seeds, you can use any of your own choice)
- Yeast : 2 tsps
- Sugar : 1 tsp
- Salt : 3/4 tsp
- Olive/veg oil : 2 tbsps
- Milk : 3/4 cup (has to be luke warm) + 2 tbsps for milk wash
- Water : 1/2 cup (Its quantity will depend on the dough. We need to keep it a bit sticky)
Method :
- Combine together yeast, luke warm milk and sugar in a bowl, stir slighly and keep aside for 10-15 minutes or until it starts to froth.
- In another mixing bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, seeds and salt.
- Pour in the yeast mixture and try to combine, add little by little warm water and make your dough a sticky dough. This is how the dough should look like as in the picture.
- Apply a little oil over the palms and take out the entire dough over the working surface.
Knead knead and just knead for 7-10 minutes. You can use oil rather than using dry flour. After sometime you will see that it has formed up with gluten which results into a soft dough (it will be sticky at this stage well, but that's absolutely fine) - Place the dough in a large greased bowl and brush the top with oil,cover with a kitchen towel and leave aside to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. The best place I find is my oven keeping its light on (for about 1-1 1/2 hours).
- Once risen punch down the dough and divide this into 6 equal parts and shape them into smooth balls.
- Place them onto a lightly greased baking tray dusted with corn meal or semolina. Again leave in a warm place until doubled in volume.
- Once done brush them with milk wash.
- Preheat oven to 200 ° C and bake the buns for about 25-30 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned. If you feel that the buns are becoming over brown then cover them with aluminum foil and let them bake.
- Once 90% done, once again apply some more milk wash.
- Take out from the oven, keep them onto the cooling rack and they are done.
Note : Adding seeds is not a compulsion, it depends on you.
Keep the dough sticky and knead well.
Have patience while they are kept for rising :)))
Thanks n Happy Baking
Priyanka :)
