Knot-Buns

This recipe is a request from my blogger friend after she looked at the delicious and tempting buns I put on my online journal. I'll try to explain some of the bread-making jargon here but if it's still unclear please contact me okay.. I'll be glad to explain it to you. Please follow the instruction closely because if you don't the bread won't look like the picture below.

Ingredients:

1 pack of Quick-rise (instant yeast)
4 1/4 cups of unbleached bread flour
1 cup of milk
2 tbsp sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter
1 can of vegetable oil spray (to spray the pans)

Egg wash:
1 egg + 1 tbsp milk

Equipments: Food processor (if available), 1 large vertical tupperware, 2 round cake pans
Oven: 425F & 350F (bake for 10 - 15 mins)

Method:

1. Pour the milk in the measuring cup together with the butter. Warm the milk and butter in the microwave for 2 minutes until the butter is soften.
2. Then stir the milk-butter mixture and pour the beaten egg into the mixture. Stir gently.
   
3. Pour the flour and salt in the food processor. Pulse the food processor so that the salt is mixed carefully with the flour.
   
4. Then sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour+salt mixture. Then pour the milk a little at the time while pulsing the flour mixture for a couple of minutes or until the dough is soft and sticky. If the dough is dry, add 1 tbsp of milk first a little at a time into the food processor and pulse the dough until it's sticky but not wet.
5. Leave the processed dough in the food processor for 5 to 10 minutes to rest. (This is important)
6. Afterwards, knead the dough for 10 minutes on floured board until the dough is shiny and elastic. Then put the kneaded dough in a buttered/sprayed large vertical tupperware.Put the tupperware near to the tv or next to the tv for 1 1/2 hrs. The dough must rise double from it's original size.
   
7. Once rise, punch the dough down once but not knead. (This is important). Then put the dough back into the tupperware and let it rest for 10 minutes
8. After the resting, divide the dough into half. One dough divided into 8 small balls, and divide the other dough into another 8 balls. Total 16 dough balls.
9. Sprayed the pans. Put all divided doughs in the pans.
   

How to make the knots:

1. Take one ball and roll it about more than 6 inch long, max 12 inch. Then make a knot carefully without breaking the dough.
2. Then put the knotted dough in the pan carefully.
3. Do the same to all small doughs. Be creative.
4. Then arrange the dough in circular manner with 1" space. Do not overfill the cake pans. If the pan is rectangular, then arrange the dough in rectangular manner.
5. Then egg wash all of the knotted doughs. Cover the washed dough and let it rise for 30 minutes. (This is important). Once rise, sprinkle sugar on top of the dough.
   

Personally, I put the dough that I already made under plastic cake cover. This way it will trap the air from the dough and let the dough rise double from it's original size.

Baking:

1. Fill a pan of ice and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. Then put the cake pans in the oven while the ice-pan fully melted.
   
2. Check the oven making sure that the ice pan already melted and bring the ice-pan out leaving the cake pans in the oven until the doughs are golden brown but not burn.

Once baked, let the buns cool for a few minutes before eating. DO NOT put the buns in a plastic before the buns fully cooled because these may make the buns stale.