Slow Baked Whole Wheat Dinner Buns
Make these fluffy whole grain buns for fresh eating or freezing
Servings: 20 buns
Equipment
- Nutrimill grain grinder
- Bosch bread bowl with dough hook
- large bowl
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 11x14 glass baking dish
- plastic wrap or damp cloth
Ingredients
- 6 cups fresh milled red fife flour
- 3-4 cups whole grain pastry flour
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup raw honey
- 4 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 cups heated milk
- 1/2 cup melted butter or lard
Instructions
- Measure warm water, salt and honey into your mixing bowl.
- Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of dry yeast on top and let sit.
- Warm your milk on the stovetop and measure in butter or lard.
- Heat until the fats have melted, then remove pot from the burner and cool.
- Measure 6 cups of red fife wheat into your mixing bowl.
- When milk has cool enough it won't kill the yeast (aka is warm but not painfully hot when you dip your finger in it), also pour it into your mixing bowl.
- Turn your Bosch mixer on and let it knead your dough for about 5 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and let the machine also mix this in.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and slowly knead in another 2-3 cups of pastry flour.
- Knead the dough until it is soft and satiny.
- Grease a large bowl and place your dough in it for a first rise.
- Rub the top of the dough with melted butter or lard to keep moist while rising.
- Cover the top with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and leave it in a draft free place until dough has doubled in size.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently flatten it.
- For the dough into a round ball once again and let it rest for 20 minutes.
- Heavily butter your glass bread pan, being sure to get the walls as well as the bottom of the dish.
- After it has rested, roll the dough into balls that are 2.5 inches in diameter. Place them in the glass pan, creating rows of 4 buns that are touching one another.
- When you've finished rolling buns, cover the pan with the same damp cloth and let them rise until they're about 1/2 the height of a normal bun.
- Remove the cloth and place them in a 275F oven to slow bake for 30 minutes.
- When the tops are golden brown and you can smell the aroma of fresh bread wafting from the oven, remove the pan and set in on a wire rack to cool.
- Cover the top with your damp cloth and leave the buns in your pan for 20 minutes.
- Remove and recover with the damp cloth until cool.
- Serve warm or bag, label and freezer for later.
Notes
Be sure you don't let your buns fully rise before putting them in the oven. The whole idea behind slow bake buns is that they finish rising as they cook, achieving a beautiful, tall bun that is light and fluffy.
If your buns fall flat in the oven, you let them rise too long before baking.
