Sourdough Challah Buns

Dear Bakers, 
Hello from Toronto. 

I am new to this Forum, so I hope I am not inventing a bicycle here. But even so, it's really fun. And it's a great and useful site. 

I want to share my "recipe" of sourdough sweet (challah-type) buns. They do not look/taste much like sourdough, but they in fact are. Very soft, delicate crust and great taste/flavour. 

Some history: I started practicing baking regularly 4 years ago. It took 2 years to master 1 recipe,  Everyday Vermont Sourdough by Jeffrey Hamelman - tailored to my family needs, as the author suggests. In our case it is substituting rye (one member of family is intolerant) and whole wheat (we just don't like it) by all purpose flour. My family is really small, so I bake one pound loaf a time (half of the original recipe), 3 times a week. In 2 years and with flour substitutions (and it's Canadian unbleached flour, no matter what you do with it - it puffs) I ended up with the following proportions: 

Levain: 2.6 ounce flour/3 ounce water/0.5 ounce started (moderately liquid)
Dough: All levain minus starter put aside for next bake, 8 ounce water/14 ounce four (1:1 Robin Hood Best for Bread and Walmart Organic All Purpose Unbleached), 0.3 salt. Sometimes I use soaked flax-seed and/or sunflower seeds, no more than half an ounce per loaf. I give it really long time to proof, sometimes up to 4-5 hours, due to schedule. That is why I make the dough a bit on the 'drier' side, to avoid over-proofing.  

Once my family became comfortable with the Everyday Vermont Sourdough, both eating and baking, I was looking for a sourdough recipe for sweet buns. I tried to use the sourdough Chalhah recipes, including the one from this site, nothing worked. In fact I found that no online recipes work for me, that is why I am very grateful to Mr. Hamelman for his book, which helped me to achieve good results. 

So, nothing worked for sweet Challah or buns. Then I went back to Everyday Vermont Sourdough and simply substituted the water in my 'tailored' dough mix with sugar and eggs. Dough fermenting time and proofing time increased a lot, baking temperature and time decreased.  

Proportions:
Levain: 2.6 ounce flour/3 ounce water/0.5 ounce started (moderately liquid)
Dough: levain/13 ounces of flour (mostly all purpose organic)/8.5 ounces of "liquid"/0.3 ounce salt. Sometimes adding 'craisins'. 

8.5 ounces "Liquid" include: 2.5 ounce of sugar, 2 large eggs - weighted, plus water to add up to 8.5 ounces, which is often less than 2 ounces of water. Sometimes I beat the eggs in stand mixer for about 5 min with sugar. Sometimes everyone is asleep at home, so I just give the eggs and sugar a vigorous mix with a hand beater... - this does not affect results in any way. 

The process - I follow Mr. Hamelman's "Vermont Sourdough" - but increase time for dough and proofing (sometimes just proof overnight on the counter).

Dough pieces are about 180 grams each (1 pound of dough yields 4 buns), I usually double my recipe and get 8 buns, freeze 4)

This is how they look shaped

And this is after 5-7 hours of proofing - I don't really know if it's doubled or almost doubled in size. I just start pre-heating oven once the buns touch each other. 

Preheat oven to maximum (525 for about 30 min), brush buns with egg white, score and put into oven. Turn the heat down to 400 degrees, bake 10 min, then check (rotate in the oven if needed),

bake another 5-10 min. If needed, bake 5 more minutes at 300 degrees, or just leave for 10 min in the off oven.

You can eat them as soon as they are completely cooled. We have them with butter and/or cheese and/or jam. The buns freeze and unfreeze very well and remain soft. Output weight between 150 and 160 grams, so they are NOT small. I tried to make 5 buns from a pound, and they didn't come out well - too 'stretchy', not as delicate proportion crumb/crust. So went back to bigger size. 

I hope some of you may enjoy this simple recipe, or rather recipe substitution idea, for a breakfast or snack. 

Again, many thanks to Mr. Hamelman for his excellent book.