Brown Buns at Beauly

Outlander Kitchen

I don't like making yeasted breads; I almost always make my husband do that -- but he likes doing it! Whole wheat bread isn't my usual thing, either, even though I love a grainy bread that's full of nuts and seeds. But this one worked out really well! It's light and fluffy, and with the stand mixer it didn't feel like a lot of work. (I think it would have to be kneaded a long time by hand. I'm not about to do that.)

The pre-ferment step helps with the rise, I think, and I suspect the oatmeal in it helps with the texture. Neither of these makes it more difficult, but they do add some wait time. Forming the buns took a little practice, but was much easier to get the hang of it than I expected. It was easier if the dough could stick a bit to the counter than if there was a lot of flour.

We had a lot left over after our initial meal, where we served them with a soup we'll be posting next week, but I noticed they were the perfect size to serve as a burger bun, so that's what we did. And I was right, they were great that way!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:03]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:05]: with heather today um i am planning to
[00:08]: make soup tomorrow
[00:10]: which is not what this video is
[00:12]: uh but i'm going to serve it with some
[00:16]: bread and so i decided we're going to
[00:18]: make the brown buns at beuley i looked
[00:21]: up how to say it
[00:23]: from the outlander kitchen cookbook
[00:27]: so
[00:29]: we're going to make this tomorrow but
[00:30]: there are two steps you need to do
[00:34]: the night before
[00:35]: and then they just sit overnight so no
[00:37]: big deal
[00:38]: um
[00:41]: first off i have some whole wheat flour
[00:44]: this is supposed to be stone ground
[00:46]: whole wheat but i just had some
[00:48]: regular whole wheat flour
[00:51]: um i have a little bit of yeast that i'm
[00:54]: going to put into my whole wheat flour
[00:57]: yeah that's it
[00:59]: and
[00:60]: then this oh we're supposed to mix this
[01:02]: up first sorry
[01:04]: kind of mix that yeast into the flour
[01:06]: [Music]
[01:08]: and then
[01:11]: i've got some lukewarm
[01:15]: whole
[01:16]: milk
[01:17]: she says you can also use the whey
[01:19]: leftover if you've made the crowdy
[01:21]: cheese like we have made previously i
[01:24]: didn't use my way and i didn't keep it
[01:27]: it's been too long now to use it but if
[01:29]: you have that
[01:31]: you can also serve that on top of these
[01:33]: or in these rolls on top of these rolls
[01:35]: whatever
[01:36]: with these rolls if you want
[01:39]: but i'm just going to use the whole milk
[01:40]: here
[01:41]: so i'm going to
[01:43]: add
[01:44]: the
[01:45]: milk
[01:47]: to the flour and yeast
[01:49]: and we're going to stir this up
[01:52]: and i expect that this will just kind of
[01:55]: become a little bit
[01:57]: bubbly overnight the sugar in the milk
[02:01]: will feed the yeast a little bit and it
[02:02]: will be a little bit like
[02:04]: um
[02:05]: [Music]
[02:06]: a little bit like a sourdough starter
[02:08]: but not really sour but you know a
[02:09]: little bit like that in that sort of
[02:11]: texture
[02:13]: um
[02:13]: [Music]
[02:16]: so there we go and you can certainly
[02:19]: smell
[02:20]: the whole wheat flour there
[02:26]: okay
[02:28]: that is all stirred up i'll clean off
[02:30]: the spoon later and she also says to
[02:33]: cover this with a plate
[02:35]: and just leave it out at room
[02:37]: temperature overnight um
[02:41]: i'll see if i have a plate that will fit
[02:44]: it otherwise i'll do some
[02:46]: plastic wrap loosely but i think i'll
[02:48]: have a plate that will fit both of these
[02:50]: because both of these need that
[02:51]: treatment for the overnight
[02:53]: um
[02:55]: so that is the more complicated step
[02:58]: this is
[02:60]: rolled oats that she says to coarsely
[03:03]: grind there's a whole section in the
[03:05]: book about grinding uh whole grains and
[03:09]: nuts and in that she says that a coarse
[03:12]: grind
[03:14]: should take three to five pulses on a
[03:16]: food processor if you're using
[03:19]: small amounts you can also use a coffee
[03:21]: grinder
[03:23]: now this you can kind of see it's there
[03:26]: are some
[03:27]: large pieces
[03:30]: um still so you can you can tell that
[03:32]: these are oats still but there are also
[03:34]: some smaller pieces so i would call this
[03:37]: a coarse grind it is definitely not
[03:40]: flour
[03:41]: um
[03:42]: but it is
[03:43]: definitely not whole
[03:45]: oats uh and for me i went about 15
[03:49]: pulses on my food processor and i think
[03:52]: that's i think that's good
[03:53]: i don't think it'll matter
[03:55]: overly much if i ground them a little
[03:58]: bit too much
[03:59]: or if you grind them a little bit too
[04:02]: not quite enough
[04:03]: i think it'll still be fine
[04:05]: because we're going to soak these in
[04:07]: water overnight this is just room
[04:09]: temperature
[04:10]: water
[04:13]: and i am just going to mix this up
[04:17]: just to get it all sort of touching the
[04:20]: water
[04:22]: and that is it for tonight
[04:27]: we're going to let these sit at room
[04:28]: temperature
[04:29]: and we'll be back here in the morning to
[04:32]: show you what we need to do next
[04:33]: so it's the next morning
[04:35]: our two mixtures have been sitting
[04:38]: overnight
[04:40]: probably
[04:41]: something like 13
[04:43]: ish hours at this point because it's not
[04:46]: almost not morning yet but that's okay
[04:50]: we're ready to put together the dough
[04:52]: and i have
[04:54]: the rest of the whole wheat flour
[04:57]: already measured in the bowl of my stand
[04:59]: mixer you can mix this by hand and knead
[05:02]: it by hand
[05:03]: but i'm going to take the shortcut that
[05:05]: she
[05:06]: actually describes in the book
[05:08]: and use my stand mixer
[05:09]: because i hate needing bread so
[05:12]: so we have the whole wheat flour
[05:15]: we're going to add the rest of the yeast
[05:18]: in the recipe
[05:21]: some kosher salt
[05:25]: and we're just going to mix this up
[05:27]: on low speed just to sort of mix it all
[05:29]: up together a little bit
[05:34]: distribute the yeast and the
[05:37]: salt and that's plenty
[05:41]: and now we're going to add all of the
[05:44]: wet ingredients which include
[05:49]: this which is called
[05:51]: i'm not sure if you can see that very
[05:52]: well whatever this is called the
[05:54]: pre-ferment
[05:56]: also called in the uk a sponge
[05:60]: uh in france a poolish or a pulish
[06:04]: and italy a biga so this is just
[06:09]: um the
[06:10]: flour and it had milk this time although
[06:12]: often that's just water and just a
[06:14]: little bit of the yeast from the recipe
[06:16]: to sort of start the ferment it gives
[06:18]: you a little bit of a sourdough taste
[06:20]: but not
[06:22]: not exactly sour dough but it sort of
[06:24]: goes that way lets the bacteria and the
[06:26]: yeast
[06:27]: sort of grow overnight
[06:29]: anyway i did some reading on that
[06:33]: um and so we're gonna add this
[06:36]: and it's it is sort of spongy there's
[06:38]: all the air from the yeast
[06:43]: [Music]
[06:45]: there we go
[06:47]: and then
[06:49]: in here we have the
[06:52]: coarsely ground rolled oats
[06:55]: that
[06:56]: um
[06:57]: we just soaked in water overnight
[07:00]: so this also goes in here
[07:06]: i think that's just to make them a
[07:07]: little bit softer get them hydrated a
[07:09]: little bit
[07:14]: so we have that
[07:16]: [Music]
[07:17]: um
[07:19]: we're also going to add a little bit of
[07:21]: honey for some sweetness and a little
[07:23]: bit more
[07:25]: food for that yeast
[07:33]: there we go
[07:35]: and
[07:36]: [Music]
[07:37]: yep one
[07:39]: egg here
[07:40]: so it's going to be a little bit of an
[07:42]: enriched dough but
[07:46]: not much mostly breads don't usually
[07:48]: have eggs this one does
[07:50]: so we're going to
[07:52]: mix this on low speed
[07:54]: until it is sort of mixed thoroughly and
[07:57]: it forms a
[07:59]: rough
[07:60]: ball
[08:01]: so let's see how that goes
[08:04]: okay haven't been mixing for long but
[08:07]: it's finally gotten all of the dry flour
[08:09]: up off the bottom and i'm going to call
[08:11]: that done for this portion
[08:15]: and now i get to scrape
[08:17]: all of this off as much as i possibly
[08:19]: can
[08:21]: we're going to take the paddle
[08:22]: attachment off
[08:27]: and
[08:31]: there we go
[08:33]: we're going to switch to the dough hook
[08:35]: which i have there we go hat around here
[08:37]: somewhere
[08:40]: there we go
[08:42]: so she's oh wait i'm also supposed to
[08:44]: scrape down the sides sort of bring it
[08:46]: all together a little bit
[08:49]: this seems like it's going to be very
[08:50]: sticky right now but
[08:53]: as you need it it should get less sticky
[08:56]: fingers crossed
[09:01]: all right
[09:02]: so
[09:03]: we're going to knead this on medium
[09:06]: until the dough is smooth firm and
[09:09]: slightly tacky but not sticky this is
[09:11]: going to take like 10 or 11 minutes
[09:13]: according to her i'll keep track of how
[09:15]: long it takes for us
[09:17]: and
[09:18]: uh
[09:19]: we'll see you when it's all done i'll
[09:21]: let you know how long so we've kneaded
[09:23]: this for 11 minutes plus a little bit
[09:27]: and it is still very sticky
[09:30]: um
[09:32]: we are going to add a tiny bit more
[09:34]: flour and see if we can get it more to
[09:36]: the
[09:37]: tacky and not sticky stage
[09:41]: um
[09:41]: [Music]
[09:43]: just
[09:44]: i have to wash my hands again um just to
[09:47]: just to make sure we get it
[09:49]: not super sticky because you don't
[09:50]: really want it sticky later on
[09:54]: and it won't ever
[09:57]: i don't think it'll ever get better here
[09:59]: so
[09:60]: what i'm going to do is add
[10:02]: maybe a tablespoon more flour and knead
[10:04]: it for a little bit and see what happens
[10:06]: i'll let you know i'll show you what it
[10:08]: looks like when we're done with that and
[10:09]: let you know exactly
[10:11]: how much everything
[10:13]: all right
[10:16]: so
[10:17]: i've added about
[10:20]: two tablespoons actually two tablespoons
[10:22]: of my whole wheat flour and it's
[10:24]: definitely more on the tacky not sticky
[10:28]: side although there's still some
[10:29]: sticking to my fingers
[10:30]: um we're gonna call that good
[10:33]: and i'm gonna wash my hands again
[10:36]: so to prepare the bowl
[10:38]: for the dough the bowl we're gonna proof
[10:40]: it in we're supposed to butter it i've
[10:44]: seen some recipes call for oil
[10:47]: um
[10:48]: so this is
[10:50]: not unusual
[10:54]: i'm using salted butter just because
[10:57]: i don't mind a little extra salt with my
[10:59]: butter on a
[11:01]: bun
[11:02]: on a dinner roll or something like that
[11:04]: so
[11:06]: that is
[11:07]: what we're doing
[11:10]: there we go that's pretty well buttered
[11:12]: and we're going to use more of this
[11:14]: melted butter later so i'm just going to
[11:16]: set this aside with the
[11:22]: brush that's what it's called
[11:24]: and so now
[11:31]: done with our mixer
[11:33]: we're going to take the dough
[11:36]: and move this out of the way
[11:39]: so we've prepared our bowl with butter
[11:42]: and now we're just going to put the
[11:43]: dough
[11:45]: in it
[11:50]: it's still kind of sticky but we're
[11:52]: going to go with it
[11:54]: it's good enough
[11:55]: and we are supposed to
[11:58]: excuse me we are supposed to sort of
[12:00]: turn this around in the bowl to get all
[12:02]: of the sides
[12:04]: covered
[12:05]: with the butter
[12:07]: so
[12:09]: now we're going to set this aside we're
[12:12]: going to put this put a clean dish cloth
[12:15]: on top
[12:17]: and we're going to let it
[12:18]: rise for an hour and a half to two hours
[12:20]: or until it's doubled in size
[12:23]: she says a warm
[12:26]: draft free place i might have to put it
[12:29]: in my
[12:30]: actually
[12:32]: it's not super cold today even though
[12:33]: it's winter
[12:36]: so i might try just leaving it out on
[12:38]: the counter
[12:39]: if it doesn't seem to be rising very
[12:41]: well i'll use my proofing drawer
[12:46]: but
[12:48]: all right
[12:49]: we'll see you in an hour and a half to
[12:51]: two hours
[12:53]: okay
[12:54]: our dough has been rising for a little
[12:56]: over 90 minutes it definitely has
[12:59]: doubled
[12:60]: there we go
[13:02]: that's kind of cool oh
[13:04]: i'm going to keep this handy because
[13:06]: we're going to keep our the stuff we're
[13:07]: not working with um covered
[13:11]: so it doesn't dry out i guess
[13:13]: i'm going to lightly flour
[13:16]: my work surface with some of this whole
[13:19]: wheat flour
[13:22]: um she doesn't say what kind of flour he
[13:24]: uses but i figure since it's all whole
[13:27]: wheat might as well
[13:29]: and we're going to
[13:31]: turn this out
[13:33]: and divide it
[13:39]: into
[13:40]: 12 pieces
[13:42]: because this is going to make
[13:45]: 12 buns
[13:47]: so i've got
[13:52]: this bench scraper that i'm going to be
[13:54]: using
[13:55]: to help me
[13:57]: divide it
[14:01]: two pieces
[14:12]: four pieces
[14:15]: and then each one of these needs to be
[14:18]: three
[14:24]: i'm not trying to be
[14:27]: perfect with these they can be different
[14:29]: sizes i don't care that much
[14:31]: she says to have two parchment sheets
[14:36]: um
[14:36]: [Music]
[14:38]: two
[14:38]: baking pans lined with parchment i've
[14:41]: got one ready
[14:43]: i kind of feel like they should all fit
[14:44]: on one
[14:46]: but i don't know how big they're going
[14:47]: to get so
[14:49]: we'll see um yeah i'm going to cover
[14:51]: these
[14:53]: with the same clean cloth and now
[14:57]: uh she says to draw the edges
[15:01]: of the dough
[15:03]: together the corners
[15:07]: actually the edges
[15:08]: into the center to make a ball
[15:11]: there we go and pinch
[15:14]: that seam together
[15:17]: and then
[15:20]: turn it over
[15:21]: [Music]
[15:23]: and
[15:24]: roll it
[15:26]: with your palm
[15:28]: to make
[15:30]: a tight circle five or six times i
[15:33]: probably did more than five or six times
[15:34]: there
[15:35]: and
[15:35]: [Music]
[15:39]: flatten it
[15:40]: slightly
[15:43]: and then i'm going to put it on here
[15:47]: um i will i'll go ahead and put them all
[15:49]: on here and then i'll separate them into
[15:50]: another
[15:52]: uh onto another sheet if i feel i need
[15:54]: to but we're just going to keep doing
[15:56]: that with all of our
[15:58]: dough here
[16:03]: and to make our buns um
[16:05]: [Music]
[16:06]: so we're going to do that 12 times
[16:10]: and keep the pinched side on the
[16:13]: bottom
[16:14]: okay i have rolled all of my buns
[16:18]: doesn't look bad
[16:20]: considering i've never really done this
[16:22]: before
[16:23]: and i found that
[16:25]: when the counter is not
[16:27]: super floured it rolled better instead
[16:29]: of just slipping around it it stuck a
[16:31]: little bit and rolled better so
[16:33]: not too much flour for sure
[16:36]: when i reflowered it
[16:38]: it got much harder so
[16:40]: anyway little tip
[16:42]: so now we are going to
[16:45]: cover these with plastic wrap and let
[16:46]: them sit at room temperature until they
[16:48]: have almost doubled
[16:50]: 60 to 90 minutes
[16:52]: and then we'll be just about ready to
[16:53]: bake
[16:54]: um
[16:55]: so we'll see you in an hour or so the
[16:58]: buns have been proofing for an hour
[17:00]: uh they are definitely i would say
[17:03]: doubled
[17:04]: in bulk
[17:06]: and i'm going to
[17:07]: use some melted butter and brush the
[17:10]: tops
[17:12]: with melted butter
[17:15]: i'll if i need more i'll go ahead and
[17:18]: melt a little bit more
[17:20]: and then
[17:23]: we have some
[17:25]: of the rolled oats that we're just going
[17:27]: to sprinkle on top make it kind of
[17:30]: pretty and let you know that these are
[17:33]: oat buns
[17:34]: and
[17:36]: we're gonna do that with all of them and
[17:37]: then we're gonna put them in the oven uh
[17:40]: at 350 degrees
[17:42]: uh and i have my
[17:45]: uh rack set she says to bake them in the
[17:48]: middle but i know two of these don't fit
[17:50]: on one shelf so i have my racks sort of
[17:53]: lower middle and upper middle and
[17:56]: in the middle of our time we're going to
[17:59]: rotate them and switch them so they'll
[18:02]: sort of cook a little bit more evenly
[18:04]: and she says they will take 30 to 35
[18:07]: minutes
[18:08]: and doesn't really oh they're supposed
[18:11]: to
[18:12]: be golden brown and sound hollow when
[18:15]: tapped on the bottom so
[18:17]: i'll let you know what they look like
[18:19]: when they're all done and let you know
[18:21]: how long they took
[18:23]: [Music]
[18:31]: on this episode of cooking the books
[18:32]: with heather you watched me make the
[18:34]: brown buns at bewley
[18:36]: from teresa carl sanders outlander
[18:39]: kitchen cookbook
[18:41]: and i'm not really a bread gal
[18:45]: i don't
[18:46]: love to make bread i usually leave that
[18:48]: to my husband um but he doesn't want to
[18:51]: be on camera
[18:53]: so i made it um
[18:55]: so i was really glad that i could use my
[18:57]: stand mixer for this
[18:60]: because i really think that you probably
[19:02]: would need to
[19:04]: need this for a really long time
[19:06]: um
[19:08]: if you were doing it by hand
[19:10]: so i'm glad that i didn't have to
[19:12]: it it
[19:13]: rose beautifully
[19:15]: they turned out light they um
[19:18]: were a good size for whole wheat it was
[19:22]: one of the
[19:23]: lightest
[19:26]: breads that i've certainly that i've
[19:28]: ever made myself
[19:30]: so
[19:32]: i liked that
[19:36]: grinding the oats was not a big deal but
[19:38]: i do that
[19:40]: i'm used to that because i do it for a
[19:42]: cookie that i make
[19:46]: and so it wasn't a new thing to me but
[19:49]: it does require then the food processor
[19:51]: as well as the stand mixer
[19:54]: um you can do small batches in a coffee
[19:57]: grinder as well
[19:59]: um
[20:01]: so i was i was really impressed i don't
[20:04]: know that i would ever say any bread is
[20:06]: super easy
[20:07]: there's always a lot of waiting time
[20:09]: while it rises and but the shaping of
[20:12]: these
[20:13]: was not as difficult as i
[20:16]: thought it might be
[20:17]: and a little tip i found that if you had
[20:21]: too much flour on the board
[20:23]: that it rolled
[20:26]: it didn't roll into a nice
[20:28]: ball as well as if you had less flour so
[20:31]: if it got a little sticky on the on the
[20:34]: countertop that was helpful
[20:37]: in rolling those out but
[20:39]: um
[20:40]: we had those with uh some soup and it
[20:42]: was they were really great sort of
[20:44]: dipped in the soup and and with that
[20:47]: uh flavor added was good and then
[20:51]: we used the used some of the leftover
[20:52]: ones as hamburger buns
[20:55]: and that was really good as well so it
[20:57]: was a nice felt a little bit healthier
[20:60]: as a hamburger bun but they happen to be
[21:02]: sort of the perfect size
[21:04]: and um
[21:06]: so that worked out really really well
[21:07]: for us
[21:09]: um so if you have leftover feel free to
[21:11]: do that with them or just make them for
[21:13]: that if you want
[21:15]: because they do turn out great for
[21:17]: hamburger buns
[21:19]: and
[21:20]: i would i would make them again but i
[21:22]: would probably make my husband do them
[21:23]: the next time
[21:25]: but
[21:26]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[21:28]: give me a thumbs up hit the subscribe
[21:30]: button and come back and watch me make
[21:31]: something else next week
[21:33]: [Music]