These buns were a very spontaneous idea, as I needed something that would not require to be reheated and my partner could take it to work for his lunch. And it was a great idea, and now I would double the portion, because 8 buns vanished very quickly.

What I love about flour, is that you can basically have an empty fridge or just some leftovers of stuff in your cupboards, but if you have some flour, yeast and a good idea you can make something from nothing. Like these white mushroom buns. But it’s the same with crepes, pancakes or dumplings – with seemingly not very interesting and simple ingredients you can prepare very tasty meal. Something extraordinary almost from nothing really. Maybe not extremely nutritious, but extremely tasty for sure.

Who doesn’t like freshly baked fluffy bun, stuffed with mushrooms?

To make it a little bit more nutritious I decided to mix plain flour with some rye flour I had in my cupboard. I like buns to be very fluffy and lightweight so I tend to mix more heavy flours (like spelt, rye or wholegrain) with plain white flour. Sometimes these heavy wholegrain flours makes the final dough more dense and not as fluffy as I like. If you have the same problem, you can try mixing different flours together.

Also I’m not very good with proportions and measuring ingredients (as you probably know from my baking mistakes post), so keep it in mind preparing your ingredients. I always throw everything into a pot without measuring, so my measurements are guesstimated. Sorry about that to everyone who likes to have exact proportions.

But these buns are great – fluffy, with aromatic mushroom stuffing. Amazing still warm, but also very tasty when cooled down. And depending of your liking you can make them quite big or very small – then they become great party food. They will be a perfect addition to different soups or stews, as an easy lunch or snack when you’re out and about.

Definietly recipe worth trying and repeating 🙂

white mushroom stuffed buns

INGREDIENTS for dough:

• about 400-500g in total of plain flour mixed with rye flour in proportion 2:1
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 sachet (7g) dried yeast
• 1-2 tsp cane sugar
• good pinch of natural rock salt
• some warm water
• poppy seeds
• 1 whipped egg to brush the buns on top (skip for vegan option)

INGREDIENTS for filling:

• 500g white mushrooms
• 1 brown onion
• thick slice of butter or coconut oil for vegan option
• natural rock salt
• lots of freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Start with preparing yeast. I always use the same method with dried yeast and fresh yeast and if I only won’t kill them with too hot water, it always works perfectly. So start with heating some water, I would say about 150ml. It’s easier to add more water when needed. Water should be nice and warm when you put your finger into it, not hot and not lukewarm. Add sugar and yeast and give it a stir so yeast have a chance to dissolve. Then leave it for couple minutes stirring occasionally. Yeast will start growing making a nice fluffy foam on top.

I always use a large pot to pre-knead my dough, it’s less messy. Mix together 2 flours (or only plain flour), salt, olive oil. Add yeast and start kneading. If you need a little bit more water add some more. When the dough starts becoming one piece transfer it on a pastry board and knead until you get quite elastic, not too dense dough. If you knead about 100 times should be perfect. Transfer back to the pot and keep in a dark warm place for about 40 minutes.

In the meantime prepare filling. Peel or rinse mushrooms and chop them quite finely. Do the same with onion. Heat a non-stick pan and melt slice of butter. Add onion first and fry until golden. Then add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Fry until mushrooms stop being soggy and start being golden. Switch off the heat and leave it to cool down.

Up until now dough should double its size. Place it on the pastry board and knead again about 100 times. Sprinkle pastry board with some flour and roll out the dough quite thinly to a large rectangle. Cut in smaller rectangles (I’ve made 8 buns) depending of how big your buns are made to be. You can make them quite big or very little. Place some mushroom stuffing on each piece of dough and roll like a burrito.

Take a large baking tray and place a piece of baking paper. Place buns leaving some space between them, they will grow a bit. Again place them in a dark warm place for about another 40 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200°C. Whip one egg and using a brush, brush all the buns. It will give them this nice golden-brown shiny glaze Sprinkle with some poppy seeds and bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the oven after baking and give them some time to cool down. Enjoy on it’s own or as an addition to a soup. They are also a great snack when you’re out and about.