Sweet Buns for Tea - Easy Yeast Dough Recipe
There is always time to bake fresh sweet buns for a cozy home tea. It's easy and quick, and takes very little hands-on effort. Small buns can be baked separately or as one large loaf that you break apart into buns – this is convenient and simplifies the process. Stored properly, this kind of baking stays fresh for several days.
It is generally accepted that “sdoba” means a higher content of various enrichments in bread and bakery products – butter, sugar, milk, eggs. The total amount of these additions can reach up to a quarter of the weight of the flour. Thanks to this, the bread is rich in calories and goes stale more slowly. Sweet buns are usually made small and without filling – they are simply sweet, fluffy, soft white bread, perfect for desserts and tea.
Like any bread, sweet dessert buns are baked from flour – most often wheat – with added butter, eggs or egg yolks, milk and sugar. Yeast or a sourdough starter is used as the leavening agent. To my taste, yeast dough is better suited to sweet buns – it is easier to control, and the buns turn out fluffier and softer. In addition, the bread gains extra volume while baking.
What makes these buns interesting is that the enrichments are added at the very beginning of making the dough, and the buns themselves are shaped by simply rolling balls. While proofing, the buns grow in volume, and after baking they become very soft, with a tender crust that doesn't harden. You can eat them as they are, or with jam, preserves or condensed milk.
These are simple buns made from yeast dough with added milk, butter, eggs and sugar. They turn out soft and sweet, and are great for serving with tea or dessert.
For the enriched dough to be soft and smooth, it needs to be kneaded several times after rising with the yeast. As a rule, we leave such dough to rise in a warm place three times. After the second kneading, the buns are shaped and placed on a baking sheet or in a pan. During the final rise the buns grow considerably. In the pan they touch one another, forming a cellular loaf from which the finished buns break off easily.
More with eggs
Milk CookiesSimple homemade milk cookies with butter, egg and flour. Crumbly or soft inside, with a fresh milk aroma and optional apple jam. Perfect with tea.
Biscotti: Italian Dry CookiesClassic Italian biscotti with almonds, hazelnuts and candied fruit: no fat, no leavening, twice-baked until crisp. Step-by-step recipe with photos.
Raisin CakeHomemade raisin cake: a quick butter sponge batter with soaked raisins and orange zest, baked in a tube pan and dusted with powdered sugar. Perfect with tea.
Cantucci with AlmondsTraditional Tuscan cantucci: dry twice-baked almond cookies with orange and lemon zest and Cointreau. Step-by-step recipe with photos.
Savoiardi (Ladyfingers)Homemade savoiardi, or ladyfingers: dry, airy sponge fingers for tiramisu and other desserts, made with just 4 eggs, flour, cornstarch and sugar.Ingredients
7-8 buns
- Wheat flour 3 cups
- Eggs 3
- Butter 50 g
- Sugar 1.5 tbsp
- Milk (2.5%) 150 ml
- Instant dry yeast (half a 11 g packet) 5-6 g
- Milk, egg for brushing
- Salt extras
Step-by-step recipe
- Before making the buns, take the butter out of the fridge in advance – it should become very soft, like custard, but not melt. Also take out the eggs and milk and let them come to room temperature. You will need premium wheat flour and instant dry yeast – note, not the kind for a sponge, but the kind that is added directly to the flour.
- Sift 2 cups of flour into a large bowl, and another cup into a separate dish – this is for adding while kneading. Add the dry yeast, 0.5 tsp of fine salt and the sugar to the flour, making sure there are no lumps. Stir the dry ingredients with a fork until the mixture is completely uniform.
- In a large cup or bowl, mix the milk and three egg yolks, separating them from the whites beforehand. You won't need the whites in this dough – you can make meringue from them. Add the milk and yolks to the flour. Add the very soft butter as well. You can melt the butter, but then it will get warm.
- Knead the dough for the buns. At first it will be very sticky. Add flour little by little and keep kneading until the dough almost stops sticking to your hands, becomes very soft and stretches well. Dust the bottom of a large bowl with flour, roll the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Cover the dough with a cloth or a clean towel and put it in a warm place for 40-45 mins.
- After the time is up, knead the dough again, adding flour in small portions. Roll the dough into a ball once more, cover it with a cloth and put it back in a warm place. During this time the dough will roughly double in volume. Prepare a baking sheet or pan. I prefer to bake these buns in a round silicone pan 22-24 cm in diameter. This amount of dough makes 7-8 buns weighing about 100 g each.
- Grease the pan with a little butter, literally 0.5 tsp. Knead the dough lightly and cut it into 7-8 pieces. Roll each piece between your palms into a ball the size of a hen's egg. Place one ball in the center of the pan and arrange the rest around it like a daisy.
- Cover the pan with the shaped buns with a cloth and leave for 25-30 mins. During this time the buns will grow, touch one another and form a round loaf with clearly separate buns. In a bowl or cup, mix one hen's egg and 2 tbsp of milk. Whisk the mixture with a brush and brush it over the whole surface of the buns.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the pan with the buns in to bake for 30 mins. You can judge doneness by the color of the surface. A nicely browned bun is done. To be sure, use a toothpick – when you pierce a finished bun, there should be no traces of raw dough on it. Take the finished buns out of the oven, remove them from the pan, transfer to a board and cover with a cloth.
- Separate the cooled buns from one another and put them in a wicker basket, covering them with a napkin. And, of course, brew some good tea with lemon. Everything is ready for tea time. If you like, you can add vanilla, lemon zest or orange liqueur to the dough. The dough also works well with raisins.
Silicone dough mat with markingsAliExpress
Dough scraper with scaleAliExpress
Kitchen scale up to 5 kgAliExpress
Pull chopper for garlic and onionAliExpress
Oil sprayerAliExpress
Vegetable chopper with handleAliExpress| Yield: | 7-8 buns |
| Calories: | 300 kcal per 100 g |
| Prep: | 2 h |
| Cook: | 30 mins |
| Total: | 2 h 30 mins |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |