Sweet Buns Recipe
I found this recipe in a old church cookbook that was my grandmother's. I was in need of a bun recipe to make beet rolls, which is a Ukranian dish and it's just a sweet bun wrapped in a beet leaf. This recipe didn't disappoint once I found it.
Now to mention the fact that I was just fascinated by the cookbook with all the facts and pages, there was areas on what antidote can help if someone drank this chemical and different things on what you do in a medical emergency. The recipe itself explains how to tell if water is lukewarm after boiling it, the only thing it doesn't tell you what temp to bake it and for how long, but that also could be for the fact I know my grandparents didn't have a typical stove, it was an old school wood burning stove. They didn't even have running water you had to go and find the well pump a few kilometers away, very Homestead to give you an idea of the type of recipe it will be like.
Ingredients
About 8 cups Flour
2 1/4 cup Warm Water
2 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
4 tbsp Soft Shortening
1/2 cup Sugar
2 pkg Yeast
2 tsp Sugar
Now I know what you are probably thinking, that's quite a lot of sugar for bread, it definitely not meant to be healthy, it's to taste good. I use this bread because it doesn't have the normal homemade taste of yeast, my husband doesn't care for the flavor of homemade bread so this is something he can enjoy as well. Not only that you can use it for a variety of recipes. So I've made beet rolls, cinnamon rolls, garlic buns, bread, dinner rolls you name it, makes for a great bread.
Start off measuring out 7 cups of flour in a large bowl, I just add it to my mixer bowl and then set aside.
Measure 2 1/4 cup of warm water and seperate 1/2 cup of it. To the 1/2 cup make a yeast mixture by adding 2 tsp of sugar and the 2 packages of yeast. If you don't have the packages like myself, then it is 2 1/4 tsp per package, for this recipe that's 4 1/2 tsp. Let mixture sit for 15-20 minutes till foamy
In a seperate small bowl beat 2 eggs then set aside till ready.
To the warm water add tsp of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar, mix well. Then add 4 tbsp of soften shortening to water then combine into four with the eggs and yeast mixture.
Mix everything with a spoon till combined then either knead by hand till soft dough forms adding flour if dough still too sticky. Or out in mixer with dough attachment and go till a ball forms and finish remaining kneading by hand just so your don't ruin your machine.
Grease a bowl with shortening and put dough inside, also grease the top of the ball. I like to add a damp towel on top to keep moisture. Then let sit somewhere warm till it doubles in size. My air fryer has a proofing option so I put it in there. But you can also turn your oven on low and put in the proofing drawer.
Once double put on floured surface and seperate to desired sizes. This one I made 4 loaves. To get a nice shape roll and then pinch the bottom side together gives a nice look on to and keeps it together.
Preheat oven to 400 F and you can either proof longer or throw info preheated oven. Cooking time vary by size, rule of thumb is a nice golden brown crust. Loaves I usually do 30 minutes and smaller buns around 10 minutes.
Once or of the oven to achieve a softer crust you can brush with melted butter. For flavour you can mix desired herbs and spices. I like garlic and Italian seasoning to make a garlic bun or bread.