Chocolate Buns (with table cream, no milk, no butter)
Sweet soft buns made with table cream and studded with chocolate chunks. The dough is leavened with both sourdough starter (or discard) and instant yeast.
Servings: 8 giant buns
Ingredients
- 188 g table cream
- 2 eggs (100 g) beaten, reserve one tablespoon for eggwash
- 100 g whole spelt flour
- 300 g bread flour
- 8 g instant yeast one packet
- 50 g sourdough starter or discard
- ¾ tsp salt (4 g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp cardamom see note 1
- 125 g chocolate chunks or chips
For the yudane
- 1/2 tbsp 4 g flour
- 27 g boiling water
Instructions
- Combine everything except for the yudane ingredients and chocolate chunks in a stand mixer. Mix on low to combine, then mix on low-medium speed for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the yudane by combining the flour and boiling water and giving it a good mix.
- Add the yudane to the dough and knead until dough passes (or almost passes) windowpane test (around another 5-10 minutes). If this is difficult, it may help to mix/knead the dough in 5 minute segments and allow the dough to relax in between.
- Once the dough is sufficiently developed (i.e. more or less passes the windowpane test), add the chocolate chunks and knead or fold to combine evenly.
- Let the dough rest covered, in a warm place until almost doubled (about 1.5 hours for me).
- After dough has finished bulk fermentation, divide into 8-10 equal pieces (8 will give big buns). Form the divided dough into round spheres, tucking in the skin in a rolling motion with your hand. Place the formed buns onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, leaving ample room for expansion. If you are not covering the buns, brush the buns with the reserved 1 tablespoon of beaten egg (adding a bit of water to thin the egg out) so that they do not dry out during proofing. If you are covering the buns during final proofing, brush the eggwash while the oven is preheating.
- Proof until dough is puffy and almost doubled. If you poke the dough gently, it should not bounce back immediately. If you shake the tray, the dough should jiggle somewhat.
- Preheat oven to 365 degrees F 15 minutes before you are ready to bake. If you still have egg wash leftover, brush the remainder on the buns while the oven is preheating.
- Bake the buns for 15 minutes, buns should be lightly golden brown.
Notes
Note 1: For ease, I used volume measurements for the spices. Because the spice percentage is quite low, we are not too fussed about exactness, but the cinnamon and cardamom together should roughly equal 3 grams in weight.