Wake and Bake
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[Photograph: Carrie Vasios]

These easy whole wheat buns pair nicely with sweet honey butter. Add a sprinkle of flour de sel if you like your breakfast salty-sweet.

About the author: Carrie Vasios is the editor of Serious Eats: Sweets. She likes to peruse her large collection of cookbooks while eating jam from the jar. You can follow her on Twitter @carrievasios

adapted from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham

Every recipe we publish is tested, tasted, and Serious Eats-approved by our staff. Never miss a recipe again by following @SeriousRecipes on Twitter!

About This Recipe

Yield: makes 12 buns
Special equipment: baking sheets, parchment paper, whisk

Ingredients

  • For the Buns
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water, divided
  • 1/2 ounce active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  •  
  • For the Honey Butter
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup honey, or to taste

Procedures

  1. For buns: In a large bowl, combine yeast and 1/2 cup warm water. Stir to combine then let sit for 5 minutes. Add remaining 1 cup water, salt, sugar, and whole wheat flour to the bowl and stir for 2 minutes. Add all purpose flour and stir until mixture is smooth, about 1 minute more. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a dish cloth and let sit until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.

  2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide dough into 12 equal portions, lightly rolling each portion into a ball and placing on the baking sheets. Let buns sit for 15 minutes to rise some more. Bake buns until golden and lightly crisp on top, 20-25 minutes.

  3. For honey butter: In a small bowl, stir together honey and butter until smooth. Serve immediately with buns or store in the refrigerator.