Semolina bbq buns

[Dan Lepard]

Semolina bbq buns

This summer’s prime sandwich is bbq pork belly and needs a good chewy light crust around it. This is it.



75g semolina or cornmeal, plus more to finish
25g unsalted butter
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant dry yeast
450g strong white flour, plus more for shaping
oil for kneading

Spoon the semolina into a mixing bowl, pour on 150ml boiling water, stir well and leave for 10 minutes. Mash the butter, honey, yoghurt and salt into the mixture with a fork then slowly work in 200ml warm water, breaking up any lumps with your fingers. Stir in the yeast and flour, work to a smooth soft dough and leave for 10 minutes. Give the dough three 10-sec kneads on an oiled surface over 30 minutes, then leave, covered, for an hour. Roll the dough to about 25cm x 35cm on a floured surface, lay on a baking tray lined with non-stick paper and leave covered for 20 minutes. Cut the dough into eight flat rectangular “rolls” and leave again covered until risen by half. Heat the oven to 240°C/fan 220°C/465°F/gas 9. Brush the tops with water, sprinkle evenly with semolina and score a crisscross on top with a butter knife. Bake for about 20 minutes until brown on top.

[alatham]

Ok, great! But what about a recipe for the pork belly?!

Thanks, Dan!

[Zeb]

Here's my first attempt at these, couldn't make the scoring look like Dan's, but they went down a treat, all gone now!

Soft white baps and semolina bbq buns on their way to the barbecue in our back lane today

[celia]

Dan, I have a baking crush on you... (Don't panic, David. )

All your recipes are just so darn interesting, and you seem to come up with a way to use ingredients and different techniques that I never read about anywhere else. I don't know how you do it. This particular recipe is a good example - I have never soaked semolina before using, I've never shaped like that before, and the use of both yoghurt and honey in the bread is a delicious flavour enhancer.

Ok, so now that I've come out about my crush, here's the other reason for my post....

I'm assuming that what you want us to do in this recipe is to shape the dough into a rectangle, then cut it into eighths, but not separate the buns apart? Is that right?

Many thanks, both for the answer and all the extra synapses I form in my brain whenever I bake your recipes!

Cheers, Celia

PS. I have just pulled a second batch of these out of the oven. I didn't separate the buns this time, and turned my heat down to 210C with fan - baking time only 15 minutes. I think my oven is running hot! The photos will be posted on my blog tomorrow morning...

[Dan Lepard]

Yes, that's right, don't pull the rectangles apart.

Just looking at what I've written, if I'd had more space in the magazine I could have gone into lots more detail about the scoring. Liberally sprinkle the semolina over the top then press lines in the the dough right down to the base, using a downward motion then pull the knife straight back up again. These lines should be very heavily indented in the dough, as if you are embossing it with the knife.

Dan

[celia]

Thanks, Dan! Here are some photos of my buns...

[Gill the Painter]

Did somebody go and mention my favourite meat - pork.

What a fabulous recipe Dan. Your buns look great Zeb and Celia (a nice healthy spot of hero-worship without the creepiness I see).
A question.
Is the semolina detectable at all? If it is I'll need to tweak it out , as my lovely husband finds it creamy in a pudding sort of way when I've used it in the past.

& the shaping has caught my imagination too. Doesn't it look refreshingly different to the ordinary bun shape.

Noice!

[danfan]

Noice, Gill? Good to see British understatement ain't gone the way of the family silver! Buns and belly pork - just shouldn't be allowed .
If it's raining, fry off the pork, add it to your bbq sauce in a pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes at 15psi. Meltingly delicious.
But for the buns, should we use fine or coarse semolina (dusting looks fine), fine, medium or coarse corn meal?
Swift reply please. A chap's salivating here, don't you know !

[Zeb]

for the buns, should we use fine or coarse semolina (dusting looks fine), fine, medium or coarse corn meal?
Swift reply please. A chap's salivating here, don't you know !

I used fine semolina in mine

[celia]

I used fine semolina as well - Gill, it has the same texture as flour, so didn't stand out in the bun much for us, only really noticed it in the dusting.