12 Grain Buns

I've been more in a bun-mood than a bread-mood, so I thought that I would try my hands at making buns - I had never done these before! When I went to the store (bulk barn = love), I planned to just get whole wheat flour, but then a 12-grain variety caught my eye - Had to use it! So, my whole wheat buns were going to be 12 grain buns.


What , you may be asking, types of grains are in this 12-grain flour. Your answer - deep breath - hard whole wheat flour, whole spelt flour, kamut flour, granola oats, ground flax seeds, quinoa seed, amaranth seed, barley flour, whole rye flour, dark buckwheat flour, hulled sunflower seeds and hemp seeds. The non-ground seeds really gave a nice texture to the buns.

The rest of the recipe (with my variations):

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar (I used honey)
• 4 cups whole wheat flour (I used 3 c. whole wheat, 1 c. 12 grain flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
  

I only used one cup of my new found flour mostly since it was a lot heavy, with more substance, and I wanted my buns to still be airy and fluffy - and not heavy lumps. I may try more next time to see how it goes. Despite only having one cup - there was a lot of crunch from the grains

So I cheated and used the bread machine to make my dough. Once done, I let it rest under a bowl for 15-ish minutes to rise. I cleaned my kitchen while waiting. Then I shaped it into 8 round buns, trying to handle it as little as possible. I let them sit, covered with wax paper and then a towel for 30-ish minutes. I went to participate in Etsy virtual labs.

When they were all risen and ready. I put them in a 350 C oven for 15 minutes on a baking stone. I didn't have cornmeal to dust the stone with, so I just used some more 12 grain goodness, and it worked well. After 15 minutes, I took one and tapped the bottom - it was hollow sounding - so they were done!


And that's my first bun-making experience. Wow recipes make long blog posts hehe.