Soft Homemade Cheese Buns

These soft homemade cheese buns are delicious. They are fluffy and cheesy and are a great dinner option.

Caraway seeds pair perfectly with cheese and add extra flavor to the buns.

Ingredients

To make the buns you will need the following ingredients:

• Milk – whole milk
• Yeast – active dry yeast
• Flour – regular all-purpose flour
• Vegetable oil
• Butter
• Sugar – white granulated sugar
• Salt – fine salt
• Cheese – medium/mild cheese, such as Gouda, Cheddar.
• Egg – room temperature, to prepare the egg wash. Egg wash is optional, it doesn’t affect the final taste of the buns, but it gives that beautiful golden brown color.
• Water – for the egg wash.
• Caraway seeds – these are optional, but they add aroma and additional flavor to the buns.

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Instructions

Make the Dough

Begin by scalding the milk.

In a small saucepan, add a little bit of water just to cover the bottom of the saucepan, this will prevent the milk from sticking to the saucepan. Next, pour in the milk, and heat over medium heat until a skin forms on top. Make sure the milk doesn’t boil! Remove from heat and let cool, otherwise hot milk will kill the yeast.

The temperature should be about 40°C (105 degrees Fahrenheit), you can use a thermometer or simply finger test the liquid. Simply stick a clean finger into the milk for a few seconds – it should feel comfortably warm, not hot.

Next, in a mixing bowl combine the warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Mix until yeast dissolves. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes until the surface is frothy. If you don’t see any foam after 10 minutes, the yeast is too old and the dough won’t rise properly.

Now, add salt, vegetable oil, then gradually add flour. Knead until smooth and elastic. I prefer kneading by hand, but you can use a mixer if you like.

Shape the dough into a ball, and cover it with a clean tea towel. Put it in a warm, draft-free place to rise for 1 to 1 and a half hours or until the dough has almost doubled in size.

Make the Buns

Remove the dough from the bowl, and divide it into even pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball and flatten with your hand to around 2cm (1″) thick.

Arrange the pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Using your fingers, make a depression in the center of each bun.

In a small bowl whisk together the egg with a tablespoon of water. Brush the sides of the buns with egg wash.

Place a piece of butter, add grated cheese, and sprinkle salt and caraway seeds on top.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F ).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the buns are pale golden on top.

Tips

Take your butter out of the fridge beforehand to soften a bit.

You can store the buns at room temperature for two days.

You can brush the buns with milk instead of egg wash.