Baking Recipe: Juicy Buns using leftover Doughnut Dough

Ever wonder what can you do with remainder yeast dough? Don't toss it out in the bin as I think that's plain wasteful. I didn't know what to do either at first, so I decided to experiment by piecing some technique I learnt through my bagel making.

Now, do you remember I posted about Peanut Butter and Jelly Doughnuts recently? Well the dough recipe suggested could get more than 20 doughnuts out. For doughnut dough recipe, click here. Since I don't need more than 20 doughnuts, I used the left over dough to make buns.

I think this is such a great switch up. From doughnuts to dinner rolls or use the buns for breakfast or lunch. Pair it with chicken mayo, tuna, ham or even a fried egg. The bun is really light and fluffy on the inside. Plus it can be stored up to a week in a fridge. Just pop it back in the microwave, heat up for about 10-20 seconds. I assure you that you still get to enjoy the freshness of the bun as it's not like the store bought ones where it will dry out after a day or two. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Here are the simple steps.

To prepare and bake the bun:

1. Preheat oven to 190 Celsius.

2. Roll remainder dough to any shape you like, set it aside for another 15- 20 minutes and cover with the dry cloth to allow it to rise.

3. Meanwhile, cover a tray with parchment paper and  boil some water in a deep pot. When water is boiling, turn down the heat slightly, and gently drop 1 rolled out bun at a time, and cook it for just 1 minute. Take it out and set it on your baking tray. Do the same for the remainder.

4. Lightly beat 1 egg and egg wash the buns. I would recommend some egg wash as it will give you a glossy brown shine when bun is baked. Now go creative. Add some sliced almonds, sesame seeds or poppy seed or any topping of your choice.

5. Bake the buns for about 20 minutes or until golden brown in colour.

*Some tips I discovered*

Freezing dough

• I wouldn't recommend to freeze the dough, unless the dough you prepared is meant for freezing. It's because I read somewhere that you will need to double the amount of yeast, as yeast might die during freezing stage.
• To thaw: Set it out on a tray line with parchment paper, cover with a greased cling film (e.g: vegetable shortening), then thaw dough in the fridge overnight and let it rise again (approx 2 1/2 hours) slightly longer than the usual 1 1/2 hours before working them in to your bread, then cover with cloth and set aside for another 20 minutes to allow it to rise again.

To store in fridge and use later

• You can roll out bread to your desired shape or choose to roll later. Just make sure to cover with cling film wrap and put it in a zipper lock bag.
• To thaw: Set ready rolled bread on to a tray line with parchment paper, cover with a cloth to allow it to rise (approx. 20-30 minutes) and then bake them accordingly. For non-ready roll breads, thaw and let dough rise (approx. 30 minutes), work the dough by punching slightly, and roll into desired shape. Cover with cloth and set aside for another 20 minutes to allow it to rise.

Hope this helps, for more tips click here.

xx