Hello friends and not yet friends,
Welcome back to Mary's Test Kitchen
where we're making some giant vegan milk bread buns
for all your gigantic bread needs.
Like for making this Vegan Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Bread.
Or to make the most incredible sharable picnic sandwiches.
Or don't share.
These are your giant vegan milk bread buns and there are no rules!
Except start with your flour paste.
Combine a half cup of flour with
2 tablespoons of corn starch
in your stand mixer bowl.
If you don't have a stand mixer,
well...I feel for you I do.
It's just gonna get messy
so it's better to accept it now.
After stirring that together, add a cup of hot boiling water.
Pour slowly and don't splash yourself
because we don't want any ER visits
especially at a time like this!
Stir well and this is your modified tang zhong
AKA flour paste that is very unattractive
but will actually make your bread more attractive
than that other loaf down the street.
There's a life lesson in there somewhere.
This cooked concoction will help the bread stay tender
and retain moisture so it becomes springy and wonderful.
Now push this up the side of the bowl
so it's out of the way and we can continue with this one-bowl dough.
Add two cups of warm soy milk or plant-based milk of your choice.
Not too hot or you'll kill the yeast
and we're not about killing on this channel
so use a themometer to be extra careful.
A couple teaspoons of sugar will help our yeast along.
Speaking of yeast,
I'm using two and a quarter teaspoons of instant dry active yeast.
If you have the non-instant kind,
just use the same amount.
You're not going to see that much of a difference in this recipe.
Your rising times might just be a smidge longer.
Mix until the yeast is dissolved and then
you can just let it do it's thing for 10 minutes.
The yeast will start to eat the sugar and generate gas
making it look foamy.
And when you disturb it, some bubbles will float up.
That's how you know for sure that your yeast is alive!
If you have issues with this part
be sure to check out my blog post
linked in the description for
Troubleshooting Yeast and Dough.
Now that the yeast has bloomed we can stir everything together
until the flour paste is dissolved.
Switch to your dough hook and
we can add a quarter cup of sugar.
It's not quite as sweet as some Asian bakery breads
but still noticeably sweeter than regular white bread.
Of course you can adjust this to how you want it.
Remember who's bread this is.
Yours, of course!
Then, add the bulk of the flour.
Seven hundred grams or 5 cups of all-purpose flour using the fluff,
scoop,
and level method of measuring flour.
And mix on speed 2 until the dough forms.
It will look scraggly or even dry at first but don't be fooled.
This dough will be very wet.
And you'll be tempted to add more flour but don't do it.
At least not yet.
And this is also why it will get messy if you're doing this manually.
If you don't know how to knead sticky wet dough,
there are some good tutorials here on youtube,
just search how to knead wet dough by hand.
I'd show you myself...
but my chronic tendonitis won't let me these days.
So I rely on this machine.
After about 4 to 6 minutes,
your dough should be well combined with no dry bits.
Cover it and wait 10 minutes for this to
fully hydrate and become a little less sticky.
When you come back from your break,
add your room temperature vegan butter.
Run your mixer again,
this time about 5 minutes until the vegan butter
disappears into the dough.
If you are doing this manually,
it's gonna be even messier than before.
But, hey, your hands will be so soft afterwards.
So, pros and cons.
Dust your hands with flour and you can scrape the dough off the sides.
Check the bottom to see that everything is smooth and well combined.
No streaky bits.
And if it's still sticking to you, well.
Do your best.
It's fine, really.
Cover the bowl with a damp, lint-free kitchen towel
and let this rise for an hour or until
doubled or tripled in size.
When the dough has doubled or tripled in size,
you can take it out on to a floured surface.
Flour your hands and start to press out all the large pockets of gas.
You can see the dough is much less sticky than before.
Even though on humid days, I find tends to stay on the sticky side.
Either way, it's fine.
Just use a ittle flour as a barrier
and a little finesse
to get your dough into this smooth dough shape.
Now, you can divide the dough into
six to make giant vegan milk bread buns.
To shape each bun,
I'm just going to knead the edges into the middle,
turning as I go.
Then flip it over and using the edges of my hands,
I push the edges in more,
creating tension at the top.
You can also cup your hands over the top
and move the dough in a circle.
The bottom sticks to the table
and that gently creates top tension as well.
If that makes sense.
Then continue with all the pieces, placing them on a parchment-lined baking sheet as
you go.
Give them some room.
Just like people, they need space to develop into their best selves.
Cover and let them double in size.
And just like before,
don't let that cloth dry out otherwise it will stick and de-puff your buns.
Add a syrup wash.
This is one part corn syrup
and one part water and it'll help the buns brown nicely.
Finally, you can bake these in your fully preheated oven
until the tops are nicely browned.
As always, everyone's oven can be a little different
so go by the result rather than trying to stick to a time.
The tops should be nicely golden brown.
And the bottoms too.
They should sound hollow when tapped.
Wait for these to cool before slicing into them.
And perhaps making some super rich Vegan Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Bread.
Or making some giant picnic sandwiches to share.
Or not share.
These are your Giant Vegan Milk Bread Buns.
What will you do with them?
Please let me know in the comments below. And that's it!
Thanks so much for watching to the end, my friends.
Please give this video a thumbs up
if you liked it and share it with anyone who needs
big buns in their lives.
As always, don't forget the full printable recipe
is linked in the description box
along with any other recipes I've mentioned...
if I have a recipe for it, that is.
If you have any requests,
please let it in the comments with the #reciperequest
in one word so I can find it later.
For more bread recipes, check out my bread playlist
and if you particularly like Asian bakery stuff,
check out my Chinese bakery playlist including
Curry Beefless Buns, Vegan Char Siu Bao and more!
And until next time, stay well and safe.
Bye for now.