The soft buns are delightful single-serving leavened breads to enjoy at any time of the day.
A great snack for buffets.
And let’s not forget how happy your kids or grandkids will be to find a couple in their lunchbox at school break!
Seasoned with just olive oil and salt or with a few olives or a sprinkle of rosemary, the buns are among the best things you can eat when you’re hungry.
Serve them warm, and they’re even better. Next to a plate of cheeses and cold cuts, they’ll disappear in no time.
The recipe for soft buns is simple to make; it just requires some time for the dough to rise, so don’t rush.
I assure you they will be perfect. I added just one step to make them even softer—a second rising—to get excellent, fluffy buns.
A trick that works and enhances the taste of your buns, making them soft, is using milk. For those who are intolerant, you can use plant-based milk.
If you can’t, water in equal quantities is fine, but they will be less soft.
They are excellent filled with cherry tomatoes, zucchini, or Tropea onions, but also plain with just extra virgin olive oil and a few grains of salt.
Personally, I always make a few more to have as a backup in the freezer, and I recommend you do the same.
One leads to another!
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Rest time: 6 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 14-16 buns
- Cooking methods: Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
- Energy 204.92 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 24.90 (g) of which sugars 2.09 (g)
- Proteins 4.54 (g)
- Fat 10.08 (g) of which saturated 1.50 (g)of which unsaturated 8.01 (g)
- Fibers 0.82 (g)
- Sodium 388.83 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 50 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for the buns
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/3 cups Manitoba flour
- 2/3 cup water (slightly warm)
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 2 1/4 tsp fresh yeast (dry 4 g)
- 5 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- to taste olive oil
- to taste water
- salt
Tools
- Work Surface
- Kitchen Scale
- Measuring Cup liquid measure
- Bowl
- Baking Tray
- Parchment Paper
- 1 Tea Towel
Preparation of the buns
In a bowl, pour the flour.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water and add the flours, incorporating the milk, oil, and sugar.
Start kneading, finally adding the salt.
Once the ingredients are all combined, knead the dough on the work surface for about ten minutes.
The dough should be smooth and homogeneous.
Form a ball, place it in a lightly greased bowl, score the dough, cover it with a tea towel, and let it rise for at least 4 hours in the oven turned off with the light on.
After 4 hours of rising, turn the dough onto the work surface and start rolling it out with a rolling pin.
Divide the dough into pieces of about 75/80 g each and shape them into regular balls.
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and, with oiled hands, gently press them to form the buns, let them rise for about 1 hour.
After this time, use your fingertips to make the classic bun dimples.
Create an emulsion in a bowl with a little water, oil, and fine salt, and brush the entire surface.
Preheat the oven to 200°F and bake for 20/22 minutes in a static oven, (or 190°F in a ventilated oven for 15/20 minutes).
Until golden brown.
After cooking, brush the buns again with the emulsion.
Enjoy your meal.
Tips
This is the basic recipe, but you can enrich your buns with cherry tomatoes, onions, oregano, olives, slices of zucchini, cheeses, etc.
They can be frozen but after cooking and cooling down.
A common mistake made when making soft buns is using too much yeast to make them rise quickly. This is not optimal for digestibility.
Avoid making a typical beginner’s mistake with leavened dough. Instead, let the dough rise longer, and you’ll see the result will be perfect.
Again, it’s important to have a second rise once the buns are shaped. Let them rise for an hour and a half to get very soft buns.
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Can I enrich the buns with cherry tomatoes?
I recommend red cherry tomatoes, but if you want, you can alternate them with yellow ones and a few capers for a nice color effect!
Can I use olives?
Green olives are my favorite, but if you don’t like them or prefer them, use black ones, always slicing them into rounds.
