Pizza Buns

By Hester

Ingredients

• For the pizza bun dough:
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 tsp instant (Bread Machine or Rapid Rise) yeast
• 1 cup quite warm water (120-130° F.)
• 1 Tbsp vegetable, canola or other neutral oil
• For the toppings:
• 1 1/2 cups pizza sauce (make your own or a good store-bought)
• 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Details

Servings 12

Preparation

Step 1

1.For the dough: In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the kneading hook, mix together 2 1/2 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt and instant yeast. In a measuring cup, combine the warm water with the oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Knead by hand or with the mixer until the dough comes together in a ball and is smooth. It shouldn't stick to your hands or be dry and crumbly (**add more flour in 1/8 cup increments or more water in Tablespoons, as necessary to achieve this). Grease a bowl and place the dough ball into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 30 - 45 minutes, depending on how warm your kitchen is.


2.Prepare two baking sheets by lining each with a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.


3.Remove the dough to a floured cutting board. Cut the dough evenly in half. Cut each half in half again. Cut each piece in half again, to make a total of 8 pieces. To make thinner buns like I made here, cut each piece in half again to make a total of 16 pieces of dough.


4.Rolling: Dust a rolling pin and your rolling surface lightly with flour. Take a piece of dough and roll into a rough circle shape about 1/4-inch thick. Place the dough circle onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with each dough ball, placing each on the prepared sheets (you can place them fairly close together as they don't spread much).


5.Topping: With all your rolled dough on the baking sheets, using a teaspoon from your cutlery drawer (not the measuring kintop each piece with a heaping teaspoon of pizza sauce (about as much as it will holand spread it over the top, going as far to the edges as you can without it going over the sides. Top with a generous amount (1/4 cup-isof shredded cheddar cheese. Repeat with all the buns.


6.Baking: Preheat oven to 375° with the rack in the centre of the oven. To avoid the second sheet from over-rising while the first one bakes, I placed one sheet on top of the stove while it was pre-heating and placed the other in a cooler spot in my kitchen. That way the sheet on top of the oven rises a bit quicker and the other a bit slower. Leave your buns to sit for about 20 minutes, or until they look puffy around the edges. Bake for 18-20 minutes (for thin buns - longer if you made fewer, thicker buns). Remove from oven (and pop the second sheet into the oveand let stand for 1 minute, then remove buns to a cooling rack. (If you're pressed for time, you could probably bake the two sheets at the same time by putting your racks in the top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 and rotating your sheets half way through baking)


7.Freezing: These buns freeze well. I froze them on a baking sheet and then transfer to a freezer bag. To enjoy from the freezer, no need to thaw. Just place the frozen buns on a baking sheet and warm in a preheated 400° oven for 7 or 8 minutes.


https://www.seasonsandsuppers.ca/homemade-pizza-buns/