Thirty percent whole egg by flour weight is enough to change a dough's behaviour completely: the fat in the yolk shortens the gluten, the water in the white adds hydration, and the result is a dough that feels firm but bakes into something that pulls apart in strands. The double egg wash is what makes them look like they came from a bakery.
Thirty percent egg, and what it replaces
180 g of beaten egg (about 3.5 large eggs) for 600 g of flour. That egg brings roughly 130 g of water with it, so the added liquid drops to 250 g and the effective hydration stays near 70%. Nothing else in the recipe changes from a standard enriched bun — sugar, salt and butter stay at the levels you would expect.
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 530 g | 88% |
| Whole wheat | 70 g | 12% |
| Beaten egg | 180 g | 30% |
| Milk | 250 g | 42% |
| Starter 1:5:5 at peak | 210 g | 35% |
| Sugar | 50 g | 8% |
| Salt | 11 g | 1.8% |
| Butter | 50 g | 8% |
Four folds with rests, and tension-rolling
Four coil folds, 25 minutes apart, each followed by a 10-minute rest — an egg dough that is folded too quickly tears instead of stretching. The balls are shaped by tension-rolling on an unfloured bench: cup the hand, press down, and move in a tight circle until the surface is smooth. That surface tension is what makes the buns rise as domes rather than spreading.
The double egg wash
First wash goes on before baking, the second 10 minutes in. A single wash gives a shiny top; two washes give the deep, lacquered gold that reads as professional. 200 °C, no steam, 20 minutes. If the tops brown before 15 minutes, tent with foil — egg wash burns faster than a plain crust.
- Crumb rating 4/5: golden, soft, pulls apart in strands.
- Best on the day they are baked; reheat at 150 °C for 5 minutes on day two.
- The dough freezes well as shaped balls — bake from frozen at 190 °C for 26 minutes.
Whole egg, not yolk, for the dough. Yolk-only doughs bake up richer but the crumb loses the spring that makes these buns pull into strands.
Sources / 参考来源
Published reference works consulted for this log: