Hey lovely people! Yesterday was a really special day. It was the first of December and when I woke up, we had snow! And so much of it. It's nice to have that fluffy crispy white blanket, especially during the time of the year when it gets dark outside already at 4 pm. I was also happy to see that my fifth cookbook (in Estonian) with gluten free vegan recipes is in the stores now!
We are visiting my parents right now and I came to an idea. Me and my mom Krista have always loved cooking together. We have catered many events and even a beautiful 50 people wedding all by ourselves. When it's Christmas or my dad's birthday, me and my mom are always sweating in the kitchen and we really dig it. When one of us messes up, we laugh and scream and try to fix it together. I remember when mom wanted to make her special peach pie, she opened the can and shouted: "Darn it, it's a pineapple!". So pineapple pie we had. Actually there were juicier words, but it's a family-friendly blog!
But yes, that idea I was talking about! I offered my mom if she would be interested in cooking together for my blog. Fortunately she said yes. Maybe it was the fact that it's quite depressing outside and a warm oven seemed really inviting. Anyway, we had fun. We made her wonderful multigrain buns that have accompanied our many-many family events and cozy weeknights. They are super fluffy, really soft and definitely not bland tastewise. You can experiment with different flours (try barley flour for example) and flour ratios, but this exact version is also really good. Use them as burger buns (we did!) or dunk them into this comforting vegetable and dumpling soup or serve them as breakfast buns with different spreads. So many options. Happy baking and let me know how they turned out for you! PS! A tip from my mom: don't even think about baking when you have a bad mood. Listen to some good music first and dance a little, like I did.
Time: about 1,5 hours
Serves: 20 medium buns, one large baking tray
- ¾ cup / 80 g whole-wheat flour
- ¾ cup / 80 g rye flour
- 1 cup / 80 g oat flour
- 2 Tbsp / 11 g active dry yeast
- 3 Tbsp unrefined cane sugar
- 3 Tbsp sunflower seeds or other seeds
- 1 tsp dried oregano or thyme
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 ¾ cup / 400 ml lukewarm water or plant milk
- a little bit under ½ cup / 100 ml (olive) oil
- 2 cups / 250 g all-purpose flour
Whisk whole-wheat flour, rye flour, oat flour, yeast, sugar, seeds, oregano or thyme and salt together. Add water or plant milk and mix more. You will have a mixture that is as thick as a sour cream. Let it rest and rise in a warm place for 10 - 15 minutes. It's necessary, because these flours will need more rising time than all-purpose flour. Now add a bit of the oil and all-purpose flour. Mix it and knead it and add the rest of the oil during the process. When needed, add a tiny bit of flour, but oil is better when working with the dough. Your dough ball will be rather soft and that's the way it should be. Let it rise in a warm place for half an hour or until it has doubled in size. Now start the oven at 400 F / 200 C. Then knead the dough a little bit more and form it into a long sausage. Cut the sausage into 20 pieces and form buns. When the oven has reached its temperature, bake the buns for 15 minutes, until they are golden brown. Enjoy!
