Baking with Herman starter: Sweet buns and Traditional milk bun
So after making my Herman starter, it is ready to be used for baking on Day 5.
I am interested to repeat those old-school recipes that I tasted in those neighbourhood bakeries and thanks to the Herman starter Facebook group, there are some wonderful recipes being shared there.
On the day that you want to bake the bread, feed the Herman starter in the morning. Here's how I do it.
In a separate bowl, I weigh out 1 tablespoon of plain flour and 1 tablespoon of milk and then top up the remainder with Herman starter until 65g. Why 65g? Read on and find out. This part is to be used for baking.
Then I feed the bulk Herman starter, the original starter mixture, with 2 tablespoons of plain flour, 2 tablespoons of milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Just a quick note about the following recipes, so far it seems that most Herman starter recipes use a single proof and cold oven method. So I have made the 2 recipes below according to these procedures.
Herman Sweet Bun
125g bread flour
65g Herman starter (what we made earlier)
50-55 ml water
20g sugar (optional)
1g salt (pinch of salt)
15g butter
1. After feeding the Herman in the morning, it will be bubbly and active by late afternoon.
2. Add the Herman to the dry ingredients (except butter and water) and mix as you add in the water little by little. When it comes together as a dough, tip it out and start kneading in the butter.
3. After 15 minutes, shape the buns into the desired shapes and place them on a lined baking tray. Then leave to proof overnight at room temperature.
A first taste of the buns was that they were quite sweet and a bit dry. As the Herman starter contains sugar to start with, it gives a sweet taste to the bread, so I would not actually recommend adding sugar to the dough as I did here. As for the dryness of the bread, I would attribute it to the flatness of the bun, so next time I will try to use a baking tin. Overall the taste is similar to 'old-school' sweet buns!
Traditional Milk Bun
The next recipe I tried was the traditional milk bun.
65g Herman starter (prepared same as above)
Egg + milk 75ml total (I used 1 egg and topped up the rest with milk)
Salt 1g
Butter 15g
Bread flour 150g
1. Mix the flour, salt and starter in a bowl. Then add the egg and mix. Add the milk gradually and when the dough forms, tip it out and knead in the butter. Knead for 15 minutes.
2. Shape the dough and place in a lined baking tin. Here is my dough after kneading.
3. Leave it to proof at room temperature overnight.
4. Leaving the proofed bun in the oven, preheat until 180 degrees C and bake for 20-25 minutes until the bun is cooked or gives a hollow sound when tapped.
After the bun is completely cooled, slice it and store it in an airtight container. The bun is very soft and bouncy, with a fragrant crust. It also keeps for up to 4 days, maintaining its moisture and texture.
I am interested to repeat those old-school recipes that I tasted in those neighbourhood bakeries and thanks to the Herman starter Facebook group, there are some wonderful recipes being shared there.
On the day that you want to bake the bread, feed the Herman starter in the morning. Here's how I do it.
In a separate bowl, I weigh out 1 tablespoon of plain flour and 1 tablespoon of milk and then top up the remainder with Herman starter until 65g. Why 65g? Read on and find out. This part is to be used for baking.
Then I feed the bulk Herman starter, the original starter mixture, with 2 tablespoons of plain flour, 2 tablespoons of milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Just a quick note about the following recipes, so far it seems that most Herman starter recipes use a single proof and cold oven method. So I have made the 2 recipes below according to these procedures.
Herman Sweet Bun
125g bread flour
65g Herman starter (what we made earlier)
50-55 ml water
20g sugar (optional)
1g salt (pinch of salt)
15g butter
1. After feeding the Herman in the morning, it will be bubbly and active by late afternoon.
2. Add the Herman to the dry ingredients (except butter and water) and mix as you add in the water little by little. When it comes together as a dough, tip it out and start kneading in the butter.
3. After 15 minutes, shape the buns into the desired shapes and place them on a lined baking tray. Then leave to proof overnight at room temperature.
4. As I left the dough on a flat tray, the dough just grew in size and became very flat.
5. Then leaving the buns in the oven, preheat until 180 degrees C gradually and then when the temperature reaches 180 degrees C continue baking for another 20-25 minutes until the buns are cooked and gives a hollow sound when tapped.
The advice is to increase the temperature gradually 10-20 degrees C every 5 minutes until 180 degrees C. However, this could vary according to the oven. My oven uses a simple heating element plus start and stop method so such a method would not actually work with my oven, it is just better to set the target temperature and let the oven do its thing.
6. And here are the baked buns.
A first taste of the buns was that they were quite sweet and a bit dry. As the Herman starter contains sugar to start with, it gives a sweet taste to the bread, so I would not actually recommend adding sugar to the dough as I did here. As for the dryness of the bread, I would attribute it to the flatness of the bun, so next time I will try to use a baking tin. Overall the taste is similar to 'old-school' sweet buns!
Traditional Milk Bun
The next recipe I tried was the traditional milk bun.
65g Herman starter (prepared same as above)
Egg + milk 75ml total (I used 1 egg and topped up the rest with milk)
Salt 1g
Butter 15g
Bread flour 150g
1. Mix the flour, salt and starter in a bowl. Then add the egg and mix. Add the milk gradually and when the dough forms, tip it out and knead in the butter. Knead for 15 minutes.
2. Shape the dough and place in a lined baking tin. Here is my dough after kneading.
3. Leave it to proof at room temperature overnight.
Look how it has grown!
4. Leaving the proofed bun in the oven, preheat until 180 degrees C and bake for 20-25 minutes until the bun is cooked or gives a hollow sound when tapped.
After the bun is completely cooled, slice it and store it in an airtight container. The bun is very soft and bouncy, with a fragrant crust. It also keeps for up to 4 days, maintaining its moisture and texture.
Comments
Post a Comment