Buns Buns Buns
During these past few months, just before restaurants began opening back up, I struggled like everyone with the inability to just casually go out to lunch or grab a burger. I like to think that I can cook and bake well but I truly now understand the delight and joy of having food prepared by others. The one thing I’ve actually wanted more than anything is for someone else to make my coffee for me. Ridiculous? Maybe. The effort to make a delicious, steaming latte or the warm and strong scent of black coffee brewing that I haven't prepared myself has been a thing of dreams.
Coffee talk aside, I have been craving a burger. Burgers are not something I frequently make at home because if done well a burger needs a lot of accessories. My dream burger is a classic, backyard cookout burger with all the fixings. I've talked myself out of ordering in a burger several times that I decided to finally just do it myself, including making the buns.
Buns need to be soft, not have a lot of chew or pull to make eating a stacked burger easy. The only reasonable route to go is an enriched dough. I don't make a lot of enriched sourdough mainly because it's more resource intensive - aka a lot of butter, milk and eggs. My usual sourdough is simple, four ingredients and time you've got bread! After making these buns I’m a little less intimidated by enriched doughs, by adding a few more ingredients and you've got a soft, buttery roll with a slightly sour flavor.
Sourdough Brioche
Recipe from Bryan Ford, changed slightly to be less sweet
For Levain
100 grams Mature Sourdough Starter
50 grams Wheat flour
150 grams AP flour
200 grams Warm Water
Final Mix Ingredients
400 grams AP flour
100 grams Wheat flour
250 grams Levain
115 grams Cold Water
175 grams Unsalted Butter, soft
175 grams Eggs
175 grams Sugar
6 grams salt
Sesame seeds, optional
Method
Cube your butter into chunks and make sure it is soft to the touch before you proceed.
Combine all of your ingredients into a big bowl - crack eggs in a separate bowl, and then add the water to them before adding to the rest of the ingredients.
Use your hands to squeeze everything together. It's going to be messy and sticky, so make sure your bowl is big enough to where you aren't making a mess and spilling over the sides.
If you absolutely feel you need to add more flour, now is the time to do it. Add in small amounts at a time, but don't go overboard. With kneading either by hand or with a machine and time the dough will give you the necessary gluten development! Trust the process.
I used a machine to mix because enriched dough is a sticky mess. When using a machine to knead start at the lowest speed and mix for 2 minutes. Turn up to medium speed and mix for 2-3 minutes or until you see the dough start to come together. Let the dough rest for 1 minute, and then switch it to the highest speed setting and let it mix until the dough slaps on the side of the bowl and has a smooth surface. This can take 10-15 minutes. Make sure you don't burn out your little mixer!
If you are hand mixing, first add only half of the butter and squeeze until all ingredients are incorporated. Once you have a consistent texture, you can begin to stretch and slap the dough on the table, while slowly incorporating the rest of the butter. It will come apart very easily, but the longer you knead/stretch/slap the dough, the more it will come together. You can give it a few periods of rest (5 or so minutes) to let it come together.
Remember: with a machine mix, it takes 15 or so minutes for the dough to come together. If you opt to hand mix brioche, be prepared to knead and develop your dough for at least 30 minutes. Flour your work surface as well, to ensure that your dough doesn't stick too much.
Once your dough is fairly smooth on the surface and has come together, place it in a clean and oiled bowl for bulk fermentation. If you hand-mixed, you can give it a couple of stretches and folds every 30 minutes to continue to help the gluten formation process.
Allow your dough to go through the initial rise in a warm place for 6 hours.
After you notice your dough is smooth and springy to the touch, put it into the fridge overnight to continue developing flavor and a strong structure. I usually will refrigerate it for about 10 hours at 40f.
Once you complete the cold stage of your fermentation, remove the dough. You can divide and shape into whatever shape you want. For buns 130-gram piece and round them into little balls. You can put them side by side on a baking tray. It's ok for them to proof into each other because they will bake nicely and pull apart.
Brush your dough with an egg wash and proof for about 4 hours, or until the dough grows noticeably in size and becomes springy to the touch. You'll also start to get a great aroma from the dough.
Preheat your oven to 375f, and egg wash your brioche one final time and add sesame seeds if using.
Bake your brioche for 20-25 minutes. Depending on your oven and color preference you may need to go a bit longer.
The thing about these buns for me is that they are a little dense, maybe I need to work a little more air into them. Close crumb texture is not uncommon for an enriched dough, however these weren't as light as brioche I've made before. It might be that I didn't use bread flour, so I might not have had as much gluten development. I also used more wheat flour than the inspiration recipe called for. I did love that by fermenting overnight the depth of flavor was amazing! The usual strong butter flavor of brioche was subtly married to a soft sour tang.
