Garlic Dough Balls
This Matt Adlard bread recipe is all about the tangzhong (湯種), a roux of flour and milk. This provides softness and elasticity that you just can't get otherwise. Use these as burger buns, hotdog rolls, or my favourite, tear-and-share garlic bread.
Ingredients (Tangzhong):
20 grams bread flour
105 millilitres whole milk
Ingredients (Bread):
440 grams bread flour
205 millilitres water
8 grams instant dried yeast
6 grams caster sugar
7 grams sea salt
45 grams olive oil
30 grams panko breadcrumbs
Ingredients (Garlic butter):
75 grams unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, grated
Method:
Add the milk and the 20 grams of bread flour to a small saucepan over low heat, and stir/whisk until it just begins to turn into a thick paste.
Don't take your eye off this, it turns quickly.
Remove from the heat for 10 minutes while you mix the dough.
In a small bowl, combine the instant dried yeast and warm water (at body temperature, 37°C) and allow to bloom for 5 minutes.
Into the bowl of a stand mixer (dough hook attached), combine the remaining bread flour, bloomed yeast and water, caster sugar, sea salt, and olive oil.
Add the cooled tangzhong mixture to the top and knead on medium speed for 4 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, form into a ball (it will be sticky, but form a floury crust that should make it easy to work with) and drop into a lightly oiled bowl.
Cover with some equally lightly oiled cling film.
Allow to rise for an hour, or until doubled in size.
Once proofed, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press the air out.
Cut with sharp clean knife (or dough scraper) into equal portions, depending on your form factor. If you want chunky tear-and-share bread, aim for 50 gram pieces. If you want dinner rolls, or burger buns, aim for 90 gram pieces.
For each dough piece you'll process them in the same way:
Take your dough piece, flatten into a circle on your work surface.
You'll work around the dough like a clock -- starting at 12 o'clock, pull the edge of the dough up, and fold into the centre.
Do the same at 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock, etc so that you have folded the edge into the centre six times.
Then flip the dough over so the seam is facing downwards.
With a loose claw grip, rest your hand over the dough and make clockwise circles with your hand.
This should form the dough into a taut ball.
I've found the easiest thing to use is a cake tin with a removable base, but anything ovenproof will work.
Spray your tin with cooking spray, or brush with vegetable oil.
Once generously coated, add your panko breadcrumbs and swirl around until every surface is coated with panko. Tip out the excess.
Add your doughballs to the pan, leaving some room for them to prove. For reference, the photo is 50 gram dough balls.
Cover with a lightly oiled piece of cling film and allow to prove for another hour. They should puff up enough to fill the gaps and connect to each other.
Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan-assisted) while you're waiting for the dough to prove.
Once ready, you can egg wash them (one egg yolk and a splash of double cream or milk) or if you prefer them a little softer, you don't have to bother.
Either way, sprinkle generously with flaky salt and bake for 20 minutes.
Once there's a nice golden colour on top, they should be just about done.
You can probe with a thermometer or even just a skewer/cake tester to check, but I've found these to be incredibly forgiving in their bake.
Remove them from the oven and allow to cool. I used a cake pan, so I popped off the removable ring after a couple minutes.
To serve alone or with pasta or pizza, I like adding the rest of the garlic butter and shaving over a little parmesan.
For burger buns, I tend to omit the garlic from the butter and generously sprinkle over sesame seeds.
