White Buns from the Aga

Last night, Christmas Eve, we had a great family dinner and today we decided to stay at home and do whatever we we like best. That means (also): baking bread! This morning I managed to bake very tasty and soft white buns. The recipe I followed is a combination of several, found on the internet.

Ingredients:
- 500 g wheat flour
- 200 g water
- 100 g milk
- 20 g butter
- 20 g honey
- 8 g dry yeast
- 8 g salt
- some melted butter for brushing

Method:
Mix the milk with the water, the honey and the butter and place it on the warming plate to warm up. Put the flour in a bowl and add salt and yeast, whisk it until well mixed. Put it also on the warming plate. At the moment all the ingredients are warmed up to somewhat over room temperature you can mix it in the mixing bowl, using a rubber spatula. When the dough is going to form a ball, transfer it to your working surface and start kneading it for at least 10 minutes. I prefer the Bertinet method: I wrote about this way of kneading in my previous posts about baking bread.
When the dough is ready (stick your finger in the dough, lift it and when it is falling down after a few seconds without leaving any dough sticking to your finger, it's ready), transfer it to a clean bowl, cover it with plastic and let it proof for an hour or so. It has to double in volume, when it is not very warm in your kitchen, put the bowl on a rack on the warming plate.

After this take out the dough and transfer it to the working surface (no dusting with flour is needed), flatten the dough with your both hands and form a thick sausage, which you cut in 11 pieces, all weighing about 75 g. Use your dough scraper for this, or a sharp knife. Let the pieces rest for about 10 minutes.
Now flatten the pieces again, and fold the outsides in, forming a ball with sufficient tense on the surface of the dough. Roll them with your hand and place them seam down on a baking tin, covered with baking paper, a few centimeters apart. Cover them with plastic again and let them proof until have doubled in size (about an hour or more, if necessary on a rack on the warming plate).

When the buns are ready for baking, remove the plastic, brush the tops with melted butter and bake them in the roasting oven, half high. Create steam by putting a baking tin on the floor of the oven and pouring a glass of hot water in it. Bake for about 10 minutes and transfer the buns to the baking oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.