Happy Halloween!
JUST for a bit of fun this year, I thought I’d have a PLAY with some Enriched Bread Dough and see what I could come up with….
These Brain Buns are the result!
I’ve kept these simple and iced them with a raspberry icing but feel free to get creative, pipe them full of custard or slice and fill them with cream and jam like I did.
Ahhhh the power of play :-)
Have fun,
Jack
Raspberry Iced Brain Buns
Notes
This recipe will make 8 Buns
Difficulty: Easy to make, fun to shape, easy to bake
My Kitchen Temperature: 20°C/68°F
Start to finish: 4-.5 hours
Ingredients
For the dough
180g Room temperature Milk
1 Medium Egg (50g) plus an extra one for Eggwash
45g Golden Caster Sugar
20g Fresh yeast or 10g dry yeast
375g Strong White Bread Flour
5g Salt
35g Soft Unsalted Butter
For the Icing
400g Icing Sugar
100g Raspberries
Method
Making the Dough
In a large mixing bowl whisk your milk, egg, and yeast together.
Next add the flour, sugar, and salt. Mix everything together with your dough scraper until it comes together into a dough with no particularly dry bits or wet bits, then, break up the butter and poke it into the dough with your fingertips.
Turn the dough out onto a clean table and knead well for 10 minutes without dusting with any flour. Expect it to be slippery as the butter gets incorporated, use your dough scraper to help unstick yourself from time to time and clean up a bit and it will come together I promise.
Shape your dough into a ball and place it back into the bowl. Cover with clingfilm and rest at room temperature for 90-120 minutes (or in the fridge overnight like I did in the video)
Dividing and shaping
Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface, use the flat side of your dough scraper to cut eight 50g pieces, keep the rest covered to one side. Fold and roll them up into balls and line them up on the table with a little dust, then starting with the first one you did, turn it over, flatten and roll up into an oval. Shape them all this way and line them up accross two parchment lined baking trays.
Beat an egg in a cup and brush over each bun, use the side of a dough scraper to mark a line down the centre of each.
Cut the remaining piece of dough into pieces and roll into long strings. Then coil and stick them to the outside of your brain buns.
Final Puff
Cover loosely with clingfilm and allow 60-90 minutes for your buns to rest and puff up. At some point during this time preheat the oven to 200C Fan / Gas Mark 6 with 2 shelves inside and a deep roasting tray on the oven floor. Half fill a kettle with water.
Baking
Boil the kettle. Place your two trays on the oven shelves and carefully pour the hot water from the kettle into the tray beneath. Close the oven door and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden on the base.
To finish
Transfer your buns to a cooling rack. In a large bowl crush your raspberries, then mix in the icing cugar. Dunk your buns upsidown into the icing using a spoon to encourage it up the sides for MAXIMUM coverage. Leave to set on the cooling wrack.
