How to Make Buns: Methods & Recipe

Made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and yeast, buns are small rolls that have a richer and sweeter taste than plain bread; let’s discuss how to make buns.

A bun is also called a bread roll, like a burger bun. It can be flavoured or filled with some other ingredients depending on style, including spices and dried fruits. There are various types of buns, such as Nigerian buns, Bath buns, Chelsea buns, sweet bread buns, currant buns (like hot cross buns, saffron buns, London buns, and Colston buns.

In this post, we will only focus on how to make Nigerian buns and sweet bread buns.

Steps to Make Nigerian Buns: Ingredients and Instructions

Nigerian buns are harder and less oily in comparison with the Nigerian Puff Puff. Some buns of this type are so hard, which is why they’re called rock buns. To make Nigerian buns, you will need plain flour (which is also referred to as all-purpose flour), evaporated milk or powdered milk, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, warm water, nutmeg, and vegetable oil.

More specifically, the following ingredients will be enough to make 7 buns balls:

• 150 grams (or 5.3 oz) of plain flour
• 2 tablespoons (tbsp.) of evaporated milk (such as Peak Milk) or 1 tbsp. of powdered milk
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 tbsp. of granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg (to create the authentic taste)
• Vegetable Oil (this will be used for frying)
• Warm water (this ingredient will be used for mixing)

Here are the instructions to make buns with these ingredients: 

• Put the necessary amount of oil in a deep pan or pot and heat up the oil just before you begin the preparation for the batter.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar & salt together in a bowl.
• Then, pour in around ¼th cup of water at a time and mix lightly each time till you can see the consistency of the batter is similar to thick muffin batter. You could need more or less than 1 or 1 ½ cups of water depending on the flour. You have to be careful so you don’t over-mix since this could make your buns hard.
• The oil temperature should be around 350–355ºF (about 176–179⁰C), and the vegetable oil should be on medium heat before the frying starts.
• You can make use of an ice cream scoop — or your hands if possible — for dropping the batter into the hot oil without getting the deep pan overcrowded.
• As soon as you notice that one side of the buns is lightly browned, turn & keep fry till your buns are done. Do note that the whole frying process for each batch will last around 5 min.
• Try to be careful not to fry your buns in oil, which is too hot as this will make the outside of the buns brown and keep the inside raw. If you notice your oil has become too hot in the middle of frying, you can add room temperature oil (just a little bit) to the hot oil. This will help lower the temperature.
• It is best to serve your Nigerian buns warm.

Please note: Let the buns mixture rest for around 10 min before you start frying as this will enable the gluten in the flour to relax before the frying begins.

How to Store Nigerian Buns

If exposed to air, buns can quickly become stale. Thus, the ideal thing is to let them cool and then wrap them in aluminium foil or cling film. When that is done, keep the buns stored in airtight containers for a maximum of three (3) days.

You can also freeze them and store for as much as three (3) months. Consider defrosting buns slowly in your fridge to avoid condensation that could form on their surface.

That is all about making Nigerian buns. Let’s now proceed to the second type — bread buns — which are less common in Nigeria than the first one.

Steps to Make Sweet Bread Buns: Ingredients and Instructions

Everyone loves eating bread, which is a fantastic starter to any meal. Bread is ideal for supper or as a snack. When you’re hungry for an afternoon snack, nothing can be more inviting than the aroma of freshly baked bread. Soft and fluffy, these sweet bread buns are so appetizing and tantalizing that you could eat at least a couple in just a single sitting.

They also have such a delicious taste that they are perfect to be eaten on their own. You can serve sweet bread buns with navel orange marmalade, vegemite, and nutella. As the aroma still lingers in your kitchen, you will find quite rewarding sitting down with a good magazine, sipping a cup of coffee, and devouring your freshly baked bread buns.

Two variations of sweet buns can be made with this recipe. You can use one half of the recipe for making plain sweet buns while you can add coconut toppings to the other half. This sweet bun recipe will allow you make two different kinds of great sweet bread buns, which you can enjoy with your favourite coffee or tea.

As regards the cook time, do note that the prep time last one hour, 30 minutes and the cook time 15 minutes. Your buns should be ready in one hour, 45 minutes. And you will get a tray of sweet buns within this time frame.

To make this, you will need plain flour, milk powder, caster sugar, egg, butter, yeast, salt, and desiccated coconut.

More specifically, the following ingredients will yield a tray of sweet bread buns:

• 480 grams (around 16.9 oz.) of plain flour
• 3 tbsp. of milk powder
• 4 tbsp. of caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons of dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 egg (this has to be lightly beaten)
• 40 grams of butter chopped
• 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut
• 150ml of lukewarm water

Here are the instructions to make sweet bread buns with these ingredients: 

• Make the dough by sifting the flour, milk powder, caster sugar as well as salt into a bowl.
• Then, add dry yeast & mix well. Create a well in the flour mixture and add the beaten egg, butter and mix everything properly.
• Add water gradually and mix so you can form a soft dough.
• Now, transfer dough onto a floured surface. The next thing is to knead for twenty (20) min until the dough gets elastic and smooth.
• At this juncture, you should roll the dough into a big ball & place it in a greased bowl. Use cling wrap (or something similar) to cover the bowl and let it be in a warm place. Allow the dough to rise till it becomes double in size, and this should require 60 min at least on cooler days.
• As soon as the dough becomes double in size, use your fist to punch down the dough. You can now transfer it to a lightly floured surface and knead for about another 10 min.
• Having done these, divide the dough into sixteen (16) equal portions and then roll each portion into a ball. 

You can also make this with coconut toppings. You may consider making some buns (say 10) with coconut toppings and then leave the rest as plain.

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Here are the steps to make sweet buns with coconut toppings:

• Start by brushing the top of the dough with water & put the moist surface of the dough into your dessicated coconut.
• Put the dough portions on a baking tray and place this tray in a warm place till the dough portions rise and become double in size.
• Preheat your oven to 180°C (3560F) and brush the plain doughs using lightly beaten egg. Now, put them in the oven. Note that you don’t have to brush the doughs that have toppings with egg.
• Bake them for around 12–15 min till the top of the bread buns becomes golden brown and remove your sweet buns from the oven. You can now allow them to cool slightly.

You can enjoy your sweet bread buns with homemade lemon jam when they are still warm.

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