Basic Dinner Rolls & Burger Buns [TangZhong Method]

After my success with TangZhong bread - with the help of my new lovely assistance the Kenwood Chef Sense - I became a bit more confident in bread baking. I know it's just one success, but sometimes we all just need that little push in life, isn't it? (Okay I should stop trying to act deep.) Anyway... so what I did was I remade the bread dough and turned them into dinner rolls and burger buns.

P.S. This is a scheduled post as I just left for a 3-week holiday in Eastern Europe!
Thank you for visiting and my apologies as I won't be able to visit your blogs during this period.
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I think we had never eaten dinner rolls at home before - mainly because X is not fond of eating plain bread. The only times we ate bread were when we were out in restaurants. I knew that the dinner rolls are not going to disappear by themselves so I decided to jazz them up and made them into sliders. The sliders were filled with meatball patties, a creamy sauce and lots and lots of cheese - which made a superb and filling dinner. I will be sharing the recipe in the upcoming post!

I love burger buns that have sesame on top - I will be slightly disappointed when the burger I eat doesn't have a sesame-coated bun. Yes, I know I'm just a bit weird at times like this. 😛 We had the burger buns with pulled pork - I tried a new pulled pork recipe and it ain't good, so the next time I'll just stick back to my stove-top BBQ one.

With that same batch of bread dough, I used some to make Pork Floss Buns for X's breakfast (upcoming recipe too!). So after having bread for a few breakfasts and two heavy dinners of bread, X called it quits and did not want any more bread for the next few days/weeks (hopefully not months). It will probably be a while before you see more bread recipes in the future!

I didn't take all the step-by-step photos this time round as I already had a video of the dough-making in the Mini Sausage Bread Rolls post, head over there to check it out!

Some Step-by-Step Photos

Basic Dinner Rolls & Burger Buns [TangZhong Method]

 

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Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

1 hour 25 mins

 

Inactive time: 3 hours of dough-rising not included.

Yield: 12 dinner rolls or 9 burger buns

Ingredients

TangZhong

• 25 grams bread flour
• 125 grams water/milk

Main Bread Dough

• 80 to 125 grams milk, scalded and cooled (See Naggy 1&2)
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 120 grams TangZhong
• 350 grams bread flour
• 55 grams caster sugar
• 7 grams milk powder
• 5 grams salt
• 6 grams instant yeast
• 30 grams unsalted butter, chopped and softened at room temperature

Topping

• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
• Sesame seeds (for burger buns only)

Method

TangZhong

1. Combine bread flour and water/milk in a small pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it has a pudding-like consistency.
2. Remove from heat and let cool completely before using.

Main Bread Dough

1. Butter or oil a large mixing bowl, set aside.
2. Place milk, egg, TangZhong, bread flour, caster sugar, milk powder and salt in another clean and dry mixing bowl. Fit the mixer with a dough hook and run on low (Speed 1 on Kenwood Chef Sense) until a loose dough is formed. Add in the yeast and knead until a dough is formed, scrapping down the sides if necessary.
3. Add in the unsalted butter and knead for 15 minutes until the dough is soft and no longer sticky.
4. Lightly dust the table top with bread flour. Transfer the dough onto the floured table top and knead by hand for another 5 minutes, dusting with more flour if needed (but not too much). Pinch a piece of dough a test if it's ready - the dough is ready when it can be stretched into a thin membrane and a hole poked in the center is smooth and not an irregular tear-off.
5. Shape the dough into a ball and place in the buttered/oiled mixing bowl. Cover with clingwrap and set aside in a warm and draft-free area to rise for 1 to 2 hours, until double in size. (See Naggy 3)

Shaping

1. Lightly dust the table top with bread flour again. Turn the dough out again onto the floured table top and knead for 2 minutes.
2. Burger Buns: Divide the dough into 8 to 9 equal pieces (about 80 grams each) and roll each piece of dough into a ball. Flatten slightly and place on a baking sheet. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.
   
   Dinner Rolls: Lightly grease a 9x9-inch or 10x10-inch baking dish. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (about 60 grams each) and roll each piece into a ball. Place them into the greased baking dish, cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Baking

1. Preheat oven to 180C / 355F (not fan-assisted).
2. Burger Buns: Brush the top with milk (you can use egg or cream) and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
   
   Dinner Rolls: Brush the top with milk (or egg or cream).
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the top is golden-brown. Remove the buns/rolls from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool before using.

Naggy Notes

1) For first-timers: If this is the first time you are making the bread, add only 80 grams of milk instead of 125 grams. This is because different brands of bread flour absorbs liquid differently. Add more milk after mixing in the butter if the dough is dry.

2) Scalding the milk: Heat the milk to a simmer, stirring frequently to prevent a skin from forming on the top, then let cool until it's warm or at room temperature before using. Some milk has a type of protein which inhibits yeast rise. Hence it's best to heat the milk to denature (sort of kill) the protein before using.

3) Overnight: You can let the dough proof overnight in the refrigerator. Just wrap the bowl with a clingwrap and stash it in the refrigerator.

4) The bread is best on the day it's made, but you can bake the bread up to a day in advance before using.

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