Tuesday, February 17, 2015

hotdog buns 2.0!

I seem to pick long holiday weekends to do my potato bun testing... this will be a short post, because it's just a tweak of the original. But I do have pictures!


Sourdough sweet potato hotdog buns that are vegan (dairy and egg-free), soft and have a bit of a protein boost. I incorporated some tweaks from last time: besan flour, which is ground-up beans, has 7 grams of protein per ounce, and a nice pale gold color; sweet potatoes, which aside from giving the dough color, provide a bit more moisture and sweetness; freshly-fed active sourdough starter and reduced amount of yeast; and white whole wheat flour and high-gluten flour.
The tweaked proportions:
Make Sponge: Mix together in a mixer bowl:

150 g. cooking water, 10 g. dry yeast, 100 g. besan flour, 100 g. white whole wheat flour.
Let sit at least an hour. Add:

300 g. high-gluten flour
100 g. white whole wheat flour
Mix just until incorporated, then let rest 20 minutes. Add:

365 g. active starter (6 hours after feeding)
365 g. mashed boiled sweet potato (two medium-sized potatoes)
60 g. kosher margarine
15 g. salt
50 g. dark brown sugar
Switch to the dough hook and mix 10 minutes on low speed. At first it will look too wet, but as the moisture distributes and the gluten develops, the dough will come together round the hook and clean itself off the bowl. If it doesn't after about 5 minutes, add a handful more of either white or whole wheat flour.
Once it's smooth and silky and passes the windowpane test, round it out and cooking spray the top or brush with margarine. Cover and let rise 2 hours, turn out and give two 3-folds, then let rise another 2 hours (or what I did: ferment 1 hour, 2 3-folds, then overnight in the fridge.)

We made mostly hot dog buns, 75 g. each, but also two burger buns (4 ounces/ 113 g. each) and two soft pretzels.

Let them rise, covered with a towel... 

it only took about 30 minutes -- they should just touch....


and into the oven. 

Bake at 360 until nicely golden.

Look how yummy and golden!!!

Nice and soft, but substantial enough to hold up against juicy burgers and condiments. The buns, minus two which we just had to sample, get to live in the freezer for hot lunches... yum!