- Makes 12 buns – Ready in 24 hours (as long as you have a mature sourdough starter available to use) –
Gather together…
50g melted butter (heated in the microwave for 10-20 seconds on HIGH).
200ml lukewarm milk (heated in the microwave for 20 - 30 seconds on HIGH).
50g brown sugar (any type of brown sugar is fine).
1 medium egg (lightly beaten).
150g of very active and bubbly sourdough starter (see below for how to get it to this stage).
350g strong white bread flour.
50g strong wholemeal/brown bread flour.
1 tsp salt (fine 'table' salt, not salt flakes/coarse grains).
plus...
5 tbsp plain flour to dust the work surface / dough.
and finally...
40g butter, melted.
140g (1 packed cup) soft brown sugar - light or dark both work fine.
1 tbsp ground Cinnamon.
Get making…
1. FIRST THING IN THE MORNING OF THE DAY BEFORE you want the buns to be ready, remove the sourdough starter from the fridge (if that's where you keep your starter, I usually keep mine on the kitchen worktop and only put it in the fridge if I'm not baking with it for 3+ days). As you need 150g to bake the buns with, you'll need to discard less of the starter than usual, ensuring you have a 1/2 cup (120g) of starter left in the Pyrex bowl (I now use a Pyrex - aka toughened glass - bowl to store my sourdough starter, after having three regular glass jars crack, each incident was a near miss each time for my poor starter "Mary" - eek!) To that 120g of starter in the Pyrex bowl, add a 1/2 cup (120g) of lukewarm water - at this stage stir well to loosen the starter - then add a 1/2 cup (60g) of wholemeal flour. Stir well and wipe down the sides with a clean damp cloth, cover the jar with a clean, dry cotton cloth (secured with an elastic band) and put it to keep warm in the oven, WITH JUST THE OVEN LIGHT ON (the heat from the bulb will keep the oven slightly warm) for 3 to 6 HOURS - however long it takes for your particular starter to become very active and bubbly. If it is a COLD DAY then pre-warm your EMPTY oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON. Set a timer to ring after 3 hours to remind you to check your starter and in the meantime put a note on the oven door so that no one unwittingly turns the heat on and frazzles your starter - eek!
2. Check your sourdough starter half way through the six hours, i.e. after 3 hours (set a timer to remind you to do this). If it looks bubbly and active - great, get on with the recipe steps. If it looks inactive or hungry (i.e. if a layer of watery 'hooch' liquid has formed within the starter or on the top) then stir in the hooch and do another cycle of 'discard all but 1/2 of a cup and feed with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup wholemeal flour'. If it is a COLD day, repeat the quick oven pre-warm (warm the empty oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON to continue to keep the sourdough starter cosy).
3. After the three or six hours, so in the EARLY / MID AFTERNOON OF THE DAY BEFORE you want to bake, start to make the enriched dough. In a medium-large bowl (you can use the bowl of a stand-mixer-with-dough-hook-attachment if you don't want to mix by hand) mix the 50g of melted butter with the 200ml of lukewarm milk and the 50g of brown sugar.
4. If necessary, let the buttery-milky-sugary mixture cool for a minute or two until it is lukewarm and not hot (so you don't scramble the egg or frazzle the yeast!), then add the beaten medium egg and the 150g of happy, bubbly, active sourdough starter. Stir well to combine.
5. In a SEPARATE medium bowl, combine the 350g of strong white bread flour, the 50g of brown/wholemeal bread flour and the 1 tsp of salt. Mix well.
6. Tip the flour/salt mixture into the wet ingredients and mix very well with a metal spoon - or with a stand mixer and dough hook attachment - (for about 1 minute) until there are no floury patches. There is no need to knead properly, don't over-mix!
7. Cover the bowl with a clean damp tea towel (flat across the top of the bowl, not touching the dough) and put it in the oven with just the oven light on (this will keep the rising dough at a constantly warm enough temperature) for 4 HOURS. Again put a written note on the oven (so it isn't turned on fully by accident) and set a timer to ring to remind you when 4 hours have passed. During its time in the oven the dough should rise a bit, but don't worry if you can't see much of a difference.
8. In the EARLY EVENING OF THE DAY BEFORE baking day, clear a large space on your (clean) worksurface and dust the worksurface with 3 tbsp of plain flour. Tip out the dough and sprinkle 1 more tbsp of flour on top of the dough (you may need even more if the dough seems to be sticking). Shape the dough into a large rectangle using your hands to press/ease it gently into shape. Dust the dough with another 1 tbsp of flour and then (to finish off shaping) use a rolling pin, to achieve an A3-paper-sized rectangle (approximately 50cm x 30cm) of dough.
9. Melt 40g of butter (for 10 - 20 seconds on high in the microwave) and brush it generously over the dough rectangle, right to the edges.
10. Sprinkle by hand the 140g (1 packed cup) of soft brown sugar thickly and evenly over the buttery layer. Top with 1 tbsp of sprinkled Cinnamon, again do this by hand for an even coverage. Go right to the edges with the toppings.
11. Roll up the dough by lifting the long edge closest to you and rolling it up away from you (you may need to use a fish slice to help unstick it from the surface if you have rolled the dough onto a less-well-floured part of the worksurface). You will end up with an overly-long looking Swiss roll. Transfer it to a cutting board if you are concerned about your worktop.
12. Use a serrated bread knife to cut the 'Swiss roll' in half, and then each half into six. So you have twelve roughly equal pieces, which look like swirls when you lay them facing upwards. If you absentmindedly cut the dough into slightly fewer or slightly more swirls, fear not - they will still be fine.
13. Line a 25cm x 25cm baking tin (10 inch square) with greaseproof paper, or even better use a reusable silicone liner (I use one shaped like this Toastabag reusable liner designed for a 1lb or 2 lb loaf tin, but which works well in many different tins, including the 25cm x 25cm one we are using now).
14. Arrange the 12 swirls (with the swirl pattern uppermost) in the lined tin leaving small (approximately 1cm) gaps between each - they will swell and fill the space.
15. Cover the baking tin with PLENTY of foil (Lakeland sell 'extra wide' foil, and Tesco sell some that is 450mm / 45cm wide), so there are no gaps. Use two lengths of regular width foil at right angles if you don't have any extra-wide foil, but this does risk a drier end result. Stretch the foil across the top of the tray (not touching the buns) to keep moisture in, to ensure the buns stay soft during proving and baking. A reusable beeswax wrap CANNOT be used here, as it needs to be oven-proof for later in the recipe. A baking tray placed over the top CANNOT be used either, as it does not seal in the moisture sufficiently.
16. Put the generously-foil-covered tray in the oven-with-just-the-oven-light-on (to keep a constantly warm temperature) for 1 to 2 HOURS so the swirls puff up - set a timer to remind you.
17. Then put the tray of uncooked dough swirls in the fridge overnight, still covered with the foil.
18. On BAKING DAY ITSELF take the COLD uncooked dough swirls out of the fridge and place the tray containing them (still covered with the foil) in a COLD OVEN. This cold oven baking method seems unusual, but it works and it saves time and energy as there is no need for wasteful oven-preheating.
19. Set the oven to 200 C (180 C fan) or Gas 6 and bake the buns in their FOIL- COVERED tray for 45 minutes. (Part of this time will be taken up with the oven heating up, this is fine as it gives the buns time to warm through before baking).
20. Then REMOVE the foil and bake for a further 5 minutes only uncovered, to brown the tops slightly. You can use the foil to store the buns in and then wash, save and re-use the same piece(s) of foil many times.
21. Cool the baked buns in the tin for at least 20 minutes before eating, so you aren't scalded by the delicious but lethal syrupy-brown-sugar they will be sitting in.
22. To store, keep the (cooled) buns in an airtight tin at room temperature and eat them up within 3 days. On day 2 and day 3 they can be re-freshed by heating individual buns in the microwave on HIGH for 20 seconds.