How To Make Yogurt Lemon Poppy Seed Sourdough Soft Buns

Yields:  9 buns

INGREDIENTS:

Sweet Stiff Starter:

60g sourdough starter (100% Hydration), preferably use at its peak 

180g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)

85g milk or 75g water (I used full cream or whole milk) 

30g sugar (I used organic brown sugar)

Main Dough:

140g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)

All stiff starter (above)

15g light brown sugar, please increase or reduce accordingly to your liking.

1 1/4 tsp salt

45g egg, whisked (from 1 medium egg)

100g greek plain yogurt (reserve 10g and add in later if needed) I used total 100g 

30g butter, room temperature

10g poppy seeds

Zest of 1 1/2 lemon

Egg Wash:

1 egg + 1 Tbsp milk

Utensil:

8" square pan

Note:  If you use water to build the sweet stiff starter, you may want to add 15g of milk powder in the main dough to enhance the taste.

METHOD:

1. Sweet Stiff Starter 
1. In a bowl of stand mixer, dilute starter with milk/water, stir in sugar and add in bread flour.  Mix with paddle attachment until well mixed and all come together.   It can be done by hand mixing too.
2. Cover and let it ferment until tripled. I prepared a night before and leave it in aircond room (approximately 24 - 25C room temperature) overnight until tripled.  It took about 9 - 10 hours depending on your starter.  It should take around  5 - 6 hours to get triple at room temperature at 28C - 30C. 
2. Kneading Dough:
1. Put all ingredients (except butter) into a bowl of stand mixer.  I usually slightly torn the stiff starter dough first.
2. Slightly combine the mixture by hand with the paddle attachment before turning on the machine so that the flour will not splash out.  Using the paddle attachment, mix for 2 minutes or until all incorporated. This step is critical to prevent  an uneven mixed dough as the stiff starter is rather hard and a dough hook may not be able to mix it well enough.
3. Change to hook attachment and knead for another 3 minutes or until the dough comes together. Add in butter and continue knead for 10 - 12 minutes or until the dough become smooth, silky and reach window pane stage.  The whole kneading process, I stopped few times to scrape down the dough from the hook to be sure it is evenly kneaded and also to prevent the motor from overheating.
3. 1st Proofing/Resting:  
1. In the same bowl, let the dough rest for 45 minutes. Keep it covered with clingfilm or use a lid.  The dough rose slightly in 45 minutes.  
4. Shaping:
1. Transfer the dough to a clean surface then divide dough into 9 equal portions (approx. 79g each).  Please use a kitchen scale if you want to be exact.  
2. Form each portion to a ball.  Please watch the video here "How to shape bun"
3. Place bun onto the baking pans lined with parchment paper.
5. Final Proofing:
1. Let the buns proof at a warm place until the dough rise double in size. This one took approximately 2.5 hours at at room temperature of 29C - 30C.  The duration of proofing depends on your ambient temperature and the starter.
6. Baking:
1. Preheat oven at 190C (top & bottom heat) or 170C (fan-forced) for 10 - 15 minutes.
2. Brush with egg wash.
3. Bake in a preheated oven for 18 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown.  
4. Remove buns from oven and pan.   Let them cool on rack.

Sweet Stiff Starter

Main Dough

GENERAL NOTES:

SOURDOUGH STARTER

Please click this link for "How To Make Sourdough Starter" and "Sourdough Maintenance" 

A healthy starter is very crucial as advised by Baking with Gina.   It is advisable to feed your starter regularly if you want your bread to rise nicely and to use the starter (levain) at its peak.  A starter that is fed regularly will be more active in general.  If the mother starter is not strong, the bread dough will not rise a lot even though the starter is used at its peak.  

GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT & WINDOWPANE TEST

Gluten forms when flour comes in contact with water.  Hydration of the flour causes the sticky and stretchy protein to form, giving structure to the bread.  This makes your bread trap air and rise. 

Gluten in dough can be developed by autolyse, resting, kneading or folding.

The windowpane test is used to determine whether the dough has been sufficiently kneaded.  By gently pulling the dough (or you may pinch off some dough) and trying to stretch it into a thin membrane.  If you are able to stretch the dough paper thin and translucent  without tearing, then the gluten is fully developed.  However, if you can stretch it without tearing but the membrane is not transparent, then the gluten is not yet fully developed.  

However, from my experience not all the recipe can achieve a thin and translucent window pane stage easily.   For example low hydration and low fat dough.  For such recipes, a reasonable window pane is good enough and it can be left to rest. Gluten will continue to develop while resting.  Exercising restraint to not over-knead the dough prevents the gluten from being overworked and broken.   Some of you may have experienced the dough breaking during the second proofing.  It is because the dough is over kneaded. 

The total kneading time for me is usually 15 minutes at low speeds except brioche dough with high fat percentage or dough using liquid fat which usually takes a little longer (maybe 18-20 mins).

From my experience, I found that high hydration dough with high percentage of fat will be easy to stretch and achieve a paper thin windowpane stage.

KNEADING TIME

For kneading, please regard the timing provided as an indication only. It is only meant as a guide.  Timing may differ depending on the brand of flour and electric mixer used. The protein content may vary from one brand of flour to another.

FLOUR

The right flour plays a very important role in bread making.   To achieve fluffy, soft and light bread, I used Japan High Gluten Flour in most of my bread baking.  The protein content is around  12 - 13%.

HYDRATION

The liquid measurement given is also a guide.  It is advisable to always reserve some liquid and not add it all in one go.  This would give you the opportunity to adjust if necessary. If dough is too dry, add the reserve liquid one tablespoon at a time until the right consistency.  This is because each flour absorbs water and hydrates differently. 

PROOFING

Please note that the proofing timing may also vary depending on your climate, environment, flour and your starter. 

If you are unable to judge by just looking at the dough, you can do the finger poke test:

Proofing:

1. Lightly press the side of the proved dough with your finger.  If it bounces back immediately without any indentation, it means the dough is under proved and needs more time before baking.
2. If the indentation stays and it doesn’t bounce back, it means it has been over proved.
3. If the indentation slowly bounces back and leave a small indentation, it is ready to bake. 
4. There will be a final burst of rising once the bread is placed to bake in the oven and it is called oven spring. 

WRINKLE TOP OR SHRINKING

If your bread collapses or gets wrinkled on top after removing from oven, it could be because your dough over proved during the second proofing. Please proof until the tip of the dough just reaches the rim of the pan, around 80% - 90% in size.

BAKING TEMPERATURE AND TIME

Do also note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.