Time softens everything. So I decided a simple experiment of making buns with a significant amount of pre-ferment in it. These turned out super soft and very tasty.
The recipe starts in the preceding night.
PreFerment:
- 350 Grams of All Purpose Flour.
- 250 Grams of Water.
- A pinch of Yeast.
Mix this into a shaggy ball and keep it covered for about 12 hours. Overnight the yeast gets to work and will eat thru the flour, doubling in size with hundreds of air bubbles.
Buns:
- The full preferment.
- 100 grams of water.
- 50 grams of honey.
- 50 grams of butter.
- 10 grams of salt.
- 150 grams of flour
- An unknown amount of flour.
There are two values for flour. This will be explained as we get into the kneading part. Combine all the ingredients and start kneading. This will be a very sticky mess but it will slowly come together. Help it along the way by adding in a fistful of flour at a time. It took me close to 15 minutes of kneading and almost 6-7 fistfuls before I was satisfied with the the soft, bouncy ball.
This went straight into the fridge for slow proofing.
So I started the preferment at night. Kneaded and put the dough ball into the fridge after breakfast at around 10 AM. Took it out at around 4 PM. Let it come to room temperature. It had doubled in size inside the fridge so without further delay, I shaped it into hot dogs.
A milk wash and 25 minutes in the preheated oven at 180C.
Had some Tilapia fillets, fried them up. The perfect weekend dinner of Sea Dogs.
Enjoy.
Uncomplicated Cooking 