Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 1 cup water (warm)
• 3 tablespoons butter (melted)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup milled flaxseed
• 1/4 cup wheatgerm
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• some rolled oats or sesame seeds (or something else)

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer bowl, add yeast, water, and 1/2 cup of flour, whisk together. Let stand until it starts to foam (10-15 minutes).
2. Add in butter, egg, salt, and sugar. Whisk together.
3. Add in remaining flour, flaxseed, and wheatgerm. Using a bread hook on the stand mixer, kneed until it is elastic, but sticky to the touch (but not sticky enough that placing a spoon in pulls apart add some flour if it does and continue to mix).
4. In the bowl, add some more flour for dusting and turn into a ball. Add olive oil and coat the bowl/ball. Cover bowl with aluminum foil, and set aside and let rise until it doubles in size (about 2 hours).
5. On a cookie sheet add parchment paper, sprinkle a little flour and pull out the dough into a rectangle. Divide dough into 8 equal parts and turn into balls. Let rise till they double in size (about an hour).
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
7. In a bowl, mix the beaten egg and milk. Brush dough with egg mixture. Add oats, seeds, or whichever you choose to the top of buns on top.
8. Bake in oven for 15-17 minutes, or until gold ‘n brown. They will likely stick together, so you will need to pull them apart.
9. Enjoy your sandwich, or have them plain (they could make excellent dinner rolls as well)!

Inspired by

I tried the first recipe I found! For the most part I followed the recipe to a T, with the exception of adding flaxseed and wheatgerm. In addition, I use fast rise yeast, it cuts the time in half for rising, but I listed the standard times, just in case you do not use such!

Closing

Wow, I was so impressed how these turned out! I never have been able to get a fluffy bread like this to work before and I am excited! It must be the egg and butter that made it work (and not letting the yeast foam too long). I will most definitely make these again, likely as a dinner roll, too! However, if I was to to do the latter, I would likely make them slightly smaller.

I used these buns for Lentil Protein Patties, and they were perfect!

If I was to try anything different the next time, it might be to forego the last egg brush. I ended up having a lot of the egg spill over onto the baking sheet. I know some dinner roll recipes use milk on top instead, so I might try that approach in the future.

Either way, these were really good, give it a go!