Try this Bath Buns recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 4 large eggs
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tbsp caraway seeds
- 1 x packet of 7g dry yeast
- 150 ml skin temp water
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp strong bread flour
- 3 3/4 cup strong bread flour
- 185 g soft butter
- pinch mixed spice
- a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- 2.5 tbsp white sugar
- 2.5 tbsp water
- caraway seed comfits
- Carbohydrate 76.1485700315871 g
- Cholesterol 2089.75 mg
- Fat 190.273085000932 g
- Fiber 1.19700000242852 g
- Protein 52.5152550012635 g
- Saturated Fat 107.44633000004 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (920g)
- Sodium 57597.3289104168 mg
- Sugar 74.9515700291586 g
- Trans Fat 17.2848495002283 g
- Calories 2185 calories
Step-by-step
- In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and the water and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
- Use a candy thermometer to watch until the sugar reaches 225F.
- In a large frying pan, over a very low heat, stir the caraway seeds until warm. Note that it should only be hot enough for you to be able to reach your hand in and stir with your fingers.
- When the sugar liquid has reached 225F, remove from the heat.
- Take one tsp and drizzle it over the caraway seeds.
- Use a wooden spoon to stir the seeds until the sugar has dried.
- Pour in another tsp, and again stir until the sugar has dried.
- Repeat another 10 times, until the sugar has built up.
- Set aside in an airtight container until ready to use.
- Warm up a mixing bowl by swirling with boiling water and emptying.
- Whisk together yeast, sugar, and water, then cover in a warm place for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to start to ferment.
- Beat in the eggs and flour, and cover with cling wrap and place in a warm place for 1 hour (I like to turn the oven on low and place the bowl on the open oven door).
- An hour later, once risen, mix in the dough ingredients- strong bread flour, butter, sugar, mixed spice, salt and lemon juice.
- Knead to get a smooth dough, then cover again with the cling wrap and place back in a warm place for almost two hours.
- Punch in the dough, then form the dough into small orange size. Place on a baking paper lined baking tray, cover with cling wrap and set aside in the warm spot to rise again.
- Preheat the oven to 220C/425F and bake for ~20 minutes until golden brown.
- While baking, in a small saucepan, stir together the extra sugar and water until it becomes a thick syrup.
- When the bath buns are removed from the oven, spoon over the sugar syrup and sprinkle the caraway seed comfits on top.
Rushing the initial yeast fermentation phase ruins the crumb structure before the dough ever hits the pan. Warm the mixing bowl thoroughly with boiling water and empty it completely before combining the 150 ml of skin temperature water, dry yeast, and initial sugar measurement. Allowing this mixture ten undisturbed minutes in a warm environment creates the vital carbon dioxide pockets required to lift heavy enrichment additions like soft butter and eggs later. Strong bread flour provides the necessary gluten network to support high fat content, whereas standard all-purpose flour yields a dense, crumbly bun unable to trap rising gases effectively.
Creating Caraway Comfits and Dough Enrichment
Coating caraway seeds requires precise temperature control when boiling sugar to 225°F on a candy thermometer. Adding the hot syrup drop by drop while stirring continuously builds a hard candy shell around each seed without clumping the batch together. Mixing the enriched dough demands thorough kneading until the gluten strands develop elasticity, followed by a mandatory two-hour bulk fermentation in a draft-free space set near 80°F. Shaping the portions into uniform orange-sized spheres ensures even heat penetration during the twenty minutes of baking at 425°F.
Freezing and Reheating Strategy
Bake batches ahead of schedule and freeze the un-syruped buns in airtight plastic bags for up to two months. Thaw frozen baked units at room temperature for three hours, then refresh them directly on a wire rack inside a 350°F oven for exactly six minutes. Apply the freshly boiled sugar syrup and caraway comfits immediately after the thermal refresh to replicate the texture of a freshly baked batch.
