SOURDOUGH HOT CROSS BUNS WITH KAMUT WHEAT

Sourdough Hot Cross Buns with Kamut Wheat image

These fragrant, sweet, and tangy hot cross buns are made with 50% whole grain Kamut flour and sourdough leavening. They're soft and delicious, with spices and dried fruit inside, and an orange icing on top. Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten around Easter, but can be enjoyed by anyone for breakfast or a snack any time of the year.

Provided by Melissa Johnson

Categories Recipes

Time 1h25m

Yield 15

Number Of Ingredients 19

Ingredients

Dough
265g warm milk (1 cup + 2 Tbsp)
43g unsalted butter (3 Tbsp)
45g brown sugar (3 Tbsp)
1 egg
200g sourdough starter (~2/3 cup stirred down)
220g whole grain Kamut wheat flour or home-milled Kamut wheat berries (1 2/3 cups flour)
220g bread flour (1 2/3 cups)
1 tsp salt (6g)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (2.6g)
1/2 tsp ground allspice (1.3g)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (1.3g)
1 cup dried currants or raisins (140g)
Cross
40g all purpose flour (3 Tbsp)
65g water (1/4 cup)
Icing
Juice of a mandarin or half an orange (3 Tbsp, 45g)
95g powdered sugar (3/4 cup)

Steps:

I built 200 grams of ripe starter overnight by feeding 40g of starter with 80g water and 80g flour. This 1:2:2 feeding the night before worked well to have ripe starter by morning in a cold springtime kitchen. Other possibilities for timing and build are fine too.
Dough Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
These instructions are for using a stand mixer, but hand/spatula mixing is fine too, and you may find that slapping and folding works well to incorporate the ingredients and develop gluten without a mixer.
Heat the milk until it is quite warm but don't worry about reaching the scalding temp of 170F. You just want the milk hot enough to melt the butter and sugar.
Chop the butter in pieces, then add it and the brown sugar to the hot milk. Stir until everything is mostly melted. Set aside to cool a bit while you prepare the other ingredients.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg, sourdough starter, flours, salt, and spices. Then add the warm milk-butter-sugar mixture.
Mix with the dough hook on medium speed until the dough comes together, about 3-5 minutes. It's okay if the dough is a little sticky because the dried fruit will pull some moisture from the dough over time. (See the photos below for a sense of the dough consistency.)
Finally, add the dried fruit to the mixer bowl and mix another minute or so.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and place somewhere warm to rise until the dough has expanded by about 75% in size (see photos in gallery below). This could take five or more hours.
Shaping and Final Proof
Grease one 9"x 13" pan (15 rolls) or two round 9" inch pans (16 rolls).
Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, gently de-gas it by pressing down on the dough, and then divide it into 15 or 16 pieces.
Roll the pieces into balls and place them in your pan(s) with some space between them.
Cover and let the dough proof somewhere warm until the rolls have doubled, around three hours. (See the gallery below for pics of spacing and expansion).
Decorating, Baking, and Icing
Preheat your oven to 350F.
For the piped crosses, mix the flour and water in a small bowl and then spoon the paste into a small zip-top bag.
Cut a 1/4" or smaller hole in one corner of the bag and pipe horizontal and vertical lines onto the buns.
Bake the buns for 24 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through if the buns are not browning evenly. You may choose, like I did, to then switch your oven to broil for 1 additional minute to further brown the tops of the buns. Keep a close eye on them if you do this.
Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a towel or cooling rack.
Mix a few tablespoons of orange juice (ideally fresh-squeezed) with 3/4 cup of powdered sugar, and then brush the icing on the warm buns.
You can serve these buns warm from the oven.
Extra buns can be covered and stored at room temperature for several days. Reheat them for 10-15 seconds in the microwave, or by toasting them in a toaster oven.