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Baked cheesy top sourdough buns.

Sourdough Cheese Buns

Kate Schat
Take your classic sourdough buns and dress them up with some seasoning and homemade cheese.
4.84 from 6 votes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Proofing Time 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 45 minutes
Course Bread
Cuisine American
Servings 24 buns
Calories 84 kcal

Ingredients
  

Pre-Ferment

  • ½ cup sourdough starter it needs to have doubled, but can be falling and needing to be fed, it does not need to be at 'optimal bread baking state'
  • ½ cup warm water
  • cups all-purpose flour

Dough

  • Pre-ferment from above
  • 1 tablespoon butter, coconut oil or olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 2 ¼ - 2 ¾ cup all purpose flour

Cheese Topping

  • ¾ cup grated Asiago or cheddar or a blend
  • Smoked paprika to taste
  • Garlic powder to taste

Instructions
 

Pre-ferment

  • Mix the pre-ferment of sourdough starter, flour, and water up 8-24 hours before you want to bake. The longer beforehand, the more sour your end product will be. If I plan to mix the dough in the morning, I make it before bed. Cover with plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let sit on the counter.

To Make the Dough

  • Melt butter, honey, and salt on low in a saucepan. When it's melted and combined, turn off the heat, add your milk, and stir to combine. With a thermometer or your finger, test the temperature of the mixture. By thermometer, it should be no more than 105 °F. By your finger...you should be able to comfortably hold it in for 10 seconds. If it's not this warm, turn the heat back on to warm it. If I use a heavy bottom pot, there is enough residual heat to heat the milk, if I use something like a thin enamel pot, there isn't.
  • Add the warm liquid to your mixer (or bowl you plan to mix the dough in) and add your pre-ferment.
  • Stir to combine; it's not going to combine super well until you start adding flour.
  • Add your flour, starting on the low end, and mix the dough, adding more flour as needed just until it's combined, but not a cohesive, nice dough.
  • Let sit 15-30 minutes, then knead the dough.
  • This dough takes more kneading than most- my mixer kneads on low for 10 minutes, so if kneading by hand, you're going to knead about 10-15 minutes.
  • If the dough sticks to the bowl or your hands, add a little more flour, but try not to add too much. It's not a stiff dough, it's on the softer side. Try wetting your hands/counter for kneading if it's sticking and you've already added a lot more flour.

Bake in One Day Method

  • Cover your dough with plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let rise 2-3 hours until it looks like it's kind of doubled (don't overthink it, as long as it's 1.5'd its original size).

Overnight Method (see notes)

  • Cover your dough with plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let sit overnight. It will be gigantic and beautiful in the morning.

For Either Method: Continue as Below

  • Punch your dough down, give it a few kneads. Yes, you are letting it rise twice before shaping.
  • Cover with plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let sit 2-3 hours until it's doubled. To test if your dough has doubled, dip your finger in flour and poke the dough. If the dough bounces back- it's got more to give and needs to keep rising. If the dough stays indented, it's given all it has to give and you can proceed.

To Shape Your Buns

  • Punch down the dough, dump it onto a lightly floured counter. Flatten out into a roughly 10" x 6" rectangle. Cut into 24 portions.
  • Shape the buns however you want, personally I prefer to choose the smoothest looking side up, and tuck the sides down under, pinching them together to make a cute little dough ball. Put the ball dough side down on a greased or lined pan. If you want pull apart buns, put the dinner buns in a 9×13 pan; they will pretty much be touching. If you want stand alone buns use a cookie sheet and space them farther.
  • Cover and let rise 2-3 hours. If your house is REALLY cold, like below 60 °F turn your oven on for a minute or two. Tuck a cast iron pan in first to help retain heat. Turn oven off and put covered bread into oven.
  • When it's doubled (don't forget to take buns out if they're in there!) preheat oven to 375 °F.
  • Sprinkle cheese liberally all over the top, then follow up with a sprinkle of smoked paprika and garlic powder, to taste. Not only do they add flavour, they also add contrasting colour with the smoked paprika.
  • Bake for 15 minutes, check internal temperature with an instant read thermometer – this is the best way to know when your buns are done, because you may have them a different size than mine and sourdough bakes longer than yeasted…underbaking is a very common problem. They should be 190 °F to 200 °F.

Notes

  • OVERNIGHT TWEAKS - In my extensive testing of this recipe, I have found if you are doing an overnight rise, you can skip the autolyze rest before kneading AND skip the first punch down and rise. Just let mix, knead, let it rise, punch down and shape in the morning.
  • EXCESS EGGS IN YOUR HOME?! You can swap ¼ cup of milk for an egg! Add the egg in step 3. It adds an awesome boost to your dough and when you've got extra eggs, why not?!
  • NO HONEY? Use an equal part of maple syrup. You can also use double the amount in granulated sugar.

Nutrition

Serving: 1bunCalories: 84kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 3gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gTrans Fat: 0.02gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 154mgPotassium: 31mgFiber: 0.4gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 51IUVitamin C: 0.004mgCalcium: 49mgIron: 1mg
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