I have a bit of a crush on Dan Lepard.
Apart from being a really nice guy, he’s also incredibly innovative – rare in a profession that’s thousands of years old, particularly one in which the base ingredients don’t vary much. Dan’s recipes are always different and interesting, involving unusual ingredients and methodology that I’ve never tried before. I’m sure I can feel new synapses forming in my brain every time I bake one of them.
This particular recipe is a good example: I’ve never used soaked semolina before, I’ve never shaped buns in this way, and I would never have thought to add yoghurt and honey to the dough.
A recommendation to my breadbaking buddies – bake these as soon as possible! They’re easy, quick and truly delicious. My breads are usually chewy, hard crusted sourdoughs, so these made a nice change and the boys devoured them in record time. The photos here are of my second batch – baked this morning at Pete’s request.
The recipe is here, and there are additional photos on Joanna’s blog as well.
Some construction pointers:
1. The dough is shaped into a rectangle (I used my fingers rather than a rolling pin) and then cut into eighths, but not separated, so the finished buns look like the photo below.
2. Dan provided me with a little more detail about the scoring process (albeit after the buns you see here were baked):
Liberally sprinkle the semolina over the top then press lines in the dough right down to the base, using a downward motion then pull the knife straight back up again. These lines should be very heavily indented in the dough, as if you are embossing it with the knife.
3. I baked these at a lower temperature and for less time than specified – 210C with fan for 15 minutes, although I suspect my oven might be running a bit hot at the moment.
Dan talks about serving these with barbecued pork belly, but they’re also absolutely to-die-for perfect with peanut butter…
We ate them with Jamie Oliver Botham burgers for dinner – fantastic fare for a cold winter’s night!
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Other Dan Lepard recipes:
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