I’d like to share my basic sweet dough recipe which I’ve found really reliable and versatile. I bake a lot of buns and tea breads as that’s the preferred breakfast fodder in my house... And before you say they are best from the oven – of course, but I freeze them as soon as they cool down and – though not warm – they are as good as defrosted. Show them the oven if necessary.
There is an excellent basic sweet dough recipe by Andrew Whitley, from his book ‘Bread Matters’. It has, interestingly, high content of wholemeal flour so you actually feel quite virtuous hovering up the buns, thinking it’s not cake! That recipe serves me to make hot cross buns for Easter, and ‘not cross buns’ as we call them throughout the year. I’ve upped the white flour content though for my HCBs, for festivity.
The second best, below, is my own concoction.
Basic sweet bun dough:
350g flour
60g sugar
2 tsp fast action or 13g fresh yeast (and I’ll always recommend using fresh)
80ml (1/3 cup) milk
60ml (1/4 cup) water
½ tsp salt
55g butter
2 large eggs
And then – easy. Heat up the butter with milk and water, throw all the dry ingredients together including yeast, including fresh, mix roughly, add eggs one at a time and beat in – hard to do without a mixer with a paddle as the dough is sticky central. It gets better of course after a while and eventually it starts bouncing off the sides of the bowl. Prove in bulk, then divide and shape as you like.
The flavourings are your choice: I’ve used cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, citrus zest or rose water.
The filling, should you go that way, is your fancy: here are my apricot buns and cherry buns, and classic cinnamon and raisin swirls. I’ve made it also into a ‘tear and share’ loaf, brushed with lots of butter and lemon zest.
And I’d be guilty of the sin of omission if I didn’t mention the Christmas Stollen, made from equally versatile and lovely sweet dough.
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Your dough is similar to mine -- except I add a small amout of potato flour. For you batch size it would be about 24 grams. Sometimes I use honey in stead of sugar. Also for some of these doughs I like buttermilk if I have it on hand. Both the potato flour and the buttermilk make a richer tasting douth
That's interesting - I've known about potato flour or corn starch making dough richer tasting but keep forgetting about it... Would you replace some of the plain flour with potato or add extra?
It is a small amout so I just add -- remember it has no gluten so it reduces the protein level just a little. The final bread or rolls are a bit softer and less chewy. I do add a little more milk to keep the hydration about the same. You can use left over mashed potato for this too. Again just a small amount. For your batch size about 24 grams.
I'll definitely try.
I liked the idea of these so I decided to 'have a bash'........
Cuisine Fiend was right, they are a right royal sticky mess to make! I really did not manage to roll them properly and nearly gave up ................. however............. they taste fantastic!
Thank you Cuisine Fiend for the recipe :)
I love the funky curls on them and they look rolled fine! It's Sticky Central indeed but worth it...
Sliced and toasted then slathered in butter ............... really yummy!
Deffo one of our faves :)