Yesterday for Mother’s Day we hosted a backyard cookout. The menu included chicken, sausage and pork ribs, along with two substantial salads, garlic bread and my world-famous lentil burgers for the vegetarian contingent. My lentil burger recipe calls for 1 cup or 210g of uncooked lentils, which usually means buying a box or bag and dealing with leftovers.
Now that I’m back in the States, I am discovering the joys of the self-serve bulk food department of my neighborhood stores. Not that we didn’t have bulk foods in Dubai, but I wasn’t allowed to help myself. It’s such fun to use the little scoop and measure out just how much I need for a recipe. I was able to buy exactly 210g of French lentils and now I don’t have a box in the cupboard with leftovers that are never enough for another recipe.
Another bonus of the bulk foods is the fabulous mix of teas and infusions available. They all sound and smell wonderful but I especially love the ones with ginger.
Blossom Tea Honey Buns
For these blossom tea honey buns, I used a Tiesta tea that my grocery store called Ginger Sweet Peach, despite the complete lack of peaches in the mix. You can use your favorite fruit infusion to make these buns.Ingredients
2 tablespoons blossom tea or your favorite mix
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup or 60ml honey
1/4 cup or 50g white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 envelope (1/4 oz or 7g) active dry yeast
2 3/4 cup or 350g bread flour
1 cup or 110g whole grain rolled oats
1 egg, beaten, for brushing on buns before baking
Optional for decoration: honey and extra tea leaves
Method
First, brew your tea by adding 1 1/4 cups of boiling water to the tea mix. Steep for 5 minutes then strain and discard the tea mix. Check out that gorgeous color!
Mix white sugar and yeast in a large bowl. When the liquid has cooled to a lukewarm temperature, add it to bowl containing the sugar and yeast. Leave to prove for a few minutes.
When the yeast starts to foam, mix in the flour, oats and salt.
Knead until you have a smooth dough ball. This is a soft dough but don’t be tempted to add more flour. The rolled oats will need that moisture as the dough is kneaded and then rises.
Place the dough ball in an oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Put it in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Divide and form the dough into 10 balls and place them on a baking pan lined with baking parchment. Make sure to leave some space for rising. Since our theme is flowers, I made a last minute decision to make a larger bun out of two balls of dough so I could lay them out in a flower shape. So, as you can see in the photos, I only made nine buns out of mine.
When dough has almost finished rising, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Brush the tops of the buns with beaten egg.
Bake for 17-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown, turning your pan around halfway through so they will brown evenly. Remove the buns from the oven.
Optional: While the buns are still warm, brush them with some honey and sprinkle with a few tea leaves for decoration.
Enjoy!
Many thanks to this month’s Bread Bakers host is Mireille of Schizo Chef. She challenged us to bake with flowers. Check out all the lovely recipes:
- Apricot Orange Danish Pastry from Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Basil Flower Mini Bread Rolls from Sneha's Recipe
- Butterfly Pea Flower Buns from Sara's Tasty Buds
- Eggless Gulkand Muffins from Cook with Renu
- Blossom Tea Honey Buns from Food Lust People Love
- Hibiscus Sweet Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Lavender Brown Butter Banana Bread from The Schizo Chef
- Lemon Calendula Scones from Palatable Pastime
Pin these Blossom Tea Honey Buns!
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