For a brief period of time during my teen years, I lived near to a small family run bakery which made egg buns. It was truly a joy smelling them as I walked over to the bakery. Quite often I would get there just as they were just being removed from the oven. There was simply nothing better than placing them in a brown paper bag then rushing home to enjoy them with butter while they were still warm.
Recently, when I moved back to the city it was a disappointment to find out the bakery had changed ownership and no longer made egg buns. I did however find a place that sells them but the price was slightly ridiculous. This then led me to my new quest and that was to figure out how to make egg buns.
After a lot of trial and error this is the version that I’ve settled on that I want to share with you.
Ingredients
1000 g (8 cups) All-purpose flour
113 g (½ cup + 1tbsp) Sugar (granulated)
11 g (1 tbsp + ¼ tsp) Instant yeast
1 tbsp Sea salt
125 ml (½ cup) Oil, neutral flavour
438 ml (1 ¾ cups) Water, lukewarm
4 + 1 for glazing Eggs
2 tbsp Poppy seeds
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, yeast and salt until well incorporated.
- In a small bowl, whisk together oil and 4 eggs.
- Using a spatula or wooden spoon, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
- Add the water followed by the egg and oil mixture.
- Using the spatula to slowly pull the flour into the wet ingredients working your way to the side of the bowl.
- Once all of the liquid has been incorporated into the dry ingredients, start to knead the dough.
- Knead the dough until it comes away from the side of the bowl into a nice ball. (I’ve actually counted out 100 turns while kneading).
- Add a small amount of oil to the bowl, rolling the dough around to lightly coat.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel.
- Set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.
- After it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to deflate it and let it rise again.
- After the second rise, divide the dough into 12 or 15 equal pieces.
- Shape as preferred.*
- Place shaped dough on a parchment paper lined baking/cookie sheet tray. Allow to rise a bit.
- Whisk remaining egg. Brush shaped buns with egg wash twice making sure to get into the crevices.
- Sprinkle with poppy seeds.
- Place tray in oven that has been pre-heated to 375 F.
- Bake for about 20-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and place tray on cooling rack and allow buns to cool.
Tips & Tricks
- For this recipe, use oil that’s neutral flavor like corn oil.
- Don’t overwork the dough and try not to add additional flour. It will be sticky at first. If you add too much flour or overwork the dough, the end result will be tough.
- *For the buns pictured, I used a two-strand twist which was then knotted.
- For a version that’s slightly richer in taste and chewier use an extra yolk along with 12 g extra of flour.
- Substitute sesame seeds for poppy seeds.
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