Smush test #2… recipe included!

Recipe: This recipe was made using some professional equipment. I’ll list the step by step the way that I did it and then also alternatives for the home kitchen to try and emulate as close to what I did as possible.

~ 18-30 buns (depending on how big you wanna make em! I’d recommend 2.5 oz for little guys and 5 oz for big boys. Pictured are 3-3.25oz

High gluten flour : 825g
Sugar : 85g
Yeast : 12.5g
Salt : 12.5g
h2o : 290g
Canola Oil: 92.5g
Eggs : 155g

I’m doing large batches in an 80qt 8 speed planetary mixer. A 2 speed Hobart would work too just with speed 1 and 2 for 5 mins and 5-7 mins on 1 then 2. For the 8 speed I’m doing 4 mins speed 3 4 mins speed 4 then back to speed 3 for 4 mins. Couldn’t tell you why we settled on this it just seems to give the best results for us through trial and error. At home on a kitchen aid I would try to maybe just add a little bit of mixing time to account for the heftier metal hook that I’m using. After mixing proof the dough in a warm room for about 2 hours. If your kitchen is cool this could be closer to 2.5 or 3. You’ll want to look for roughly doubling in size but more importantly you can lift up a corner of the dough on the bottom and see if any of the bubbles from inside are starting to break the surface. If the dough still looks flat underneath then it needs more time. If it looks spider webby like all the air has bursted through then it’s a bit over. You’re just looking for signs of some of the bubbles starting to break through the bottom surface. At that point you’ll want to punch down the dough and cut and round into dough balls and place them on a sheet with parchment paper. I then let these proof at ambient temp for about 1.5 hours. At this point they went into my fridge uncovered. For the home baker you may want to wrap your sheet tray with a garbage bag to cover but not smother them. It leaves some air to get in and out but won’t over humidify them or stick like plastic wrap would. Fridge for 24 hrs. Hell they could probably last 48 in there if anyone wanted to try longer you’d just have to proof them less when you take them out. At this point I turned on my warm proof box and set my oven to 350 with a low fan on. I moved the tray from the fridge to the 95f proof box at 60 percent humidity for about 30 mins to get them to where they finally wanted to be before egg washing once and placing them back in the now turned off and cooling down warm proof box for another 20 mins. At home I’d recommend taking them out of the fridge after ~24 hours and letting them proof for 1-4 hours depending on how cold/warm your kitchen is. You want them to get back to temp and grow another 25% or so. The dough is more resilient than you’d expect it to be if you’re able to round the dough balls really tight while shaping and should be nowhere close to actually overproofing. When ready to bake I egg washed them again and put em in the oven. I like to use a 1 egg plus 2 yolks and a splash of water ratio for my egg wash. Baked for 18 mins! I turned the tray 4 times every few mins because I love to babysit lol. Can definitely just turn it once halfway but I like to keep an eye on them while they bake in case they need more or less time or if my oven isn’t baking very evenly (it doesn’t). Anyways let them cool a bit before trying the smush test (20 mins or so). Good luck and enjoy!