It was bread week on Bake Off this week – arguably the most intimidating of all, as Paul Hollywood cast a steely eye over loaves, tear away bakes and rolls made by the remaining 11 contestants.
This week’s technical came in the form of floury white burger baps. Eight of them to be exact – and we all know Paul and Prue are sticklers for numbers.
The bakers’ initial response was one of quiet confidence. After all, plain white rolls seem easy enough, no? “I have never made a floury bap before,” announced Michael. “If this works, it’ll be a new thing I can make and if it doesn’t, I’ll buy them from the shops like everyone else.”
We can’t argue with that logic.
While Paul set the challenge to make veggie burgers as well, we thought we’d keep it simple and stick to the buns for now – or baps, what’s the difference again? (Also FYI – we are totally buying the veggie burgers at the supermarket until we perfect our cooking skills.)
So if you want to try your hand at making your own bread to pair with your burgers, Jenny Walters of Apply To Face Blog has shared her white burger bun recipe with us.
This recipe, which makes 12 buns, involves using a free standing mixer, so if you don’t have one it might take slightly longer to mix yourself.
Ingredients:
500 grams of strong white flour
200 mls milk, warm
100 mls water, warm
2 packets of dry instant yeast (2 x 7 grams)
50 grams of melted butter, cool or warm
20 grams caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tbsp melted butter – to brush rolls when warm out of the oven
1 1/2 tsp salt.
Baking Times:
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Proving time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
Method:
1. Place the dry ingredients in the free standing mixer (or your own mixing bowl). Put the salt and yeast on separate sides of the bowl.
2. In a separate jug, add all the wet ingredients together – milk, water, butter and eggs – and give a whisk with a fork. Then, pour into the dry ingredients.
3. Mix on a medium speed (with a dough hook, if you have one) for five minutes. The dough should be a sticky batter.
4. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour. It will triple in size, so don’t be alarmed. Cover with oiled clingfilm so the dough doesn’t stick to it.
5. When ready, punch the dough down into the bowl, pushing it with your hands to remove the air. Heavily flour your work surface and tip the dough out. Flour the top of the dough too, as this will make it easier to handle. Keep flouring it if it gets sticky again. Weigh out 12 equal balls, give or take a few grams.
6. Line a baking tray (Jenny uses Bakoglide). Take each piece, flouring gently as you go, and place on the tray. To make sure they stay in tight balls, pull the sides of the dough ball tightly downwards to the bottom. If you keep pulling the dough sides downwards, tucking them underneath, a tight, smooth ball will form. Keep your fingers floured to help.
7. Cover with oiled clingfilm and put somewhere warm to rise for half an hour until significantly puffed up. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Jenny found that the tops of these rolls can colour up too quickly, so she uses a silver foil rectangle – made to hand – to slide quickly upon the tops if needs be.
10. Remove from the oven and brush the tops with melted butter. Leave for five mins before putting on a wire rack to cool down. Slice in half once cooler.
Follow Jenny on Instagram @applytofaceblog for more baking inspiration.
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