Friday, July 8, 2011

The Noob Bread Maker - Hotdog Buns

There is one thing I am good at which I am not at all proud of; I procrastinate. As much as I have the urge to bake bread sometimes, the idea is often shelved. As a result, my progress in bread making is far lagging behind as compared to other aspects of baking. One possible accomplice to my procrastination could be the undesirable outcome in my experience with sweet buns so far; they tend to become a little dense when left for sometime, which I deduced was either due to the direct bread method employed or the nature of the recipe itself. 


Finally, the day came when I tasted sweet victory in my battle with bread. I could not contain my excitement when I witnessed my hotdog buns coming out fresh from the oven. Despite the less-than-perfect appearance, the buns were amazingly fluffy, thanks to the water roux method. Even after leaving the buns overnight, they maintained their softness and fluffiness. Now that I have discovered the goodness of the water roux method, I am going to use it faithfully for most of my breads in future. 

hotdog bun with dijonaise mustard

Handling the dough was a tricky process. The resulting dough was very sticky and using my instincts, I turned to flouring my hands to resolve the situation, which helped a great deal. I have to admit that I am quite a noob when it comes to bread making. I tried rolling a portion of the dough into a long strip, after which I wrapped it round a hotdog, hoping to achieve a spiral-shaped bun. I reckon I do need more practice to get the hang of shaping bread dough. For the remaining dough, I shaped them into ovals, which I later sliced lengthwise to place the hotdog topped with dijonaise mustard.


As one can see from the picture above, the cross section is airy instead of being densely knitted together like some of the bread that can be obtained from neighbourhood bakeries.

Hotdog Buns
Serving size: 7 buns
Taste and texture: Soft and fluffy buns.

Ingredients:
water roux dough - recipe from Kitchen Corner
7 hotdogs, boiled.

Making the buns:

Prepare water roux buns -  Make water roux dough according to the directions stated in link above and allow dough to proof for the first time. Punched the dough when it is fully proofed. Test proofing of dough by gently pressing a finger into dough. Dough should spring back slowly.   

Shaping the dough - Flour hands lightly when handling dough to prevent dough from sticking. Portion out dough weighing about 65g each. Roll pieces of dough into long strips before winding them around a piece of boiled hotdog to get spiral shaped buns. Alternatively, shaped the portions into ovals.

Second proofing - Place shaped dough on baking trays lined with baking paper, allow some space between doughs. Proof shaped doughs for about 30 to 40 mins.

Baking the buns - Brush eggwash evenly over each proofed dough. Dough may be slightly depressed. Allow dough to rest for 10-15 minutes before baking at 180 degrees C for 12-15 minutes.

7 comments:

  1. The hotdog buns look so delish. You have finally taken the step towards bread! :)

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  2. Congrats on your bread success... Hehe, I am also trying to bake bread these days, which is really difficult. Hehe.

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  3. ZY, welcome to the bread-making world. Once you've tried it, you be hooked. Great job for your first try. Looking forward to more of your creations!

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  4. I had an absolute fear about making breads in the past as it all turned out to be failures. But wooo-hooo .. I love it now. I think it's a matter of practice. After a while you get a hang of it. The smells of fresh bread in the oven is totally different from cake and one plain dough has so much potential.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi
    Just saying hello to you. I like your long winder posts, it is really great of you to share your thoughts and I learnt a lot from your postings. Just to check with you, it is not easy for me to get valrhona ( tampines ), so usually I get the normal cocoa powder. Can you recommend me the closest best quality that I can get from Phoon Huat. I am a bit confuse and do not know what to choose the last time I went there. I need it for choc frosting. Thank you. Ai yo, I also very long-winded,ha ha.

    Kium

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  6. hi kium,

    Thank you. I have been less winded these days as I am rather busy with work and my daily on goings.

    I would advise you NOT to get any cocoa powder from phoon huat. It is quite inferior compared to many brands out there.

    Try hunting for cocoa powder from the following locations:

    Tampines mall Hersey's outlet - Hershey's normal cocoa and Hershey's special dark

    Tampines one cold storage (basement) - try to search if they have green and black's cocoa. this brand is only available at selected cold storage.

    century square basement NTUC finest - see if they any of the above mentioned brands.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi
    Tks for your reply, I thought my comment was lost.
    So "green and black" is a cocoa brand? Quite weird for a brand's name.

    kium

    ReplyDelete

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