Superstition and Sugary Butter Buns

After a long hiatus and now that I am no longer pregnant, I thought I should try baking bread again to see if the myth of "pregnant ladies can't make bread rise" is still valid. Since my bread making skills are sub-par in my view, it will really have to depend on such myths to see if I will get things right without skills and with "superstition" on my side.

Saw this sugary butter buns from Pook's blog and it looked delicious (as always since she does pretty things with food) with very few ingredients. Meaning to say, I do not have to specially head out to buy this and that just to get things going.

I hand kneaded everything and took very very very long to make it elastic (told you I was sub-par in bread making!). That said, the dough did not looked "satiny" at all as how all bread dough should be before you proof it. 

Then I realized, I forgot to add butter!!! Argh... so I added butter and it was better... for a short while and went all sticky again.

Achy arms got the better of me and begged me to give up. So I did. I mean, I HAD TO, right? Every other blogger mentioned how therapeutic hand kneading would be. I just just couldn't agree. Give me a machine anytime!

The result? The buns turned out quite good surprisingly. The original recipe called for 90g of butter and 90g of sugar to be sprinkled on top of the buns before baking. Tried as I might, I just couldn't use them all and used 1/3 of it instead. It still turned out a tad too sweet for my liking.

So superstition is indeed on my side....

Sugary Butter Buns
Makes 10 small buns

Ingredients
Dough
270g  bread flour
30g cake flour
5g salt
2 tsp instant yeast
50g sugar
30g unsalted butter
100g milk
1 egg
80g water

Topping
90g unsalted butter (I used 30g only)
90g granulated sugar (I used 30g only)

Method

1. Combine flour, salt, instant yeast and sugar in a bowl.
2. Whisk the egg with milk and water.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the egg mixture into it. Mix and knead into a dough.
4. Bring dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead till dough pass the elastic membrane test.
5. Form dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl.  Cover bowl with cling wrap and let it rise for 1 hour or till it doubles in size.
6. Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 10 equal portions and shape into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let the dough balls rest for 10mins.
7. Roll each ball into a batard or log shape. Rest again for 20mins or till they are double in size.
8. Just before baking, cut the top of the dough and place the butter cubes over the dough and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
9. Bake at preheated oven at 190 degC for about 15-20mins or until golden brown.

Bake date: 10 Aug 2012