Baked Leftover-Curry Buns
I have a problem and my problem is that I really really love curry buns. This is only a problem because a) there is only one place I know of near me that sells them and b) I cannot fry things and therefore have trouble making my own.
I’m still trying to organize a day when I can bully my roommates into deep frying things for me, but here is a recipe for baked ones that I used to tide myself over until the day when deep fried can reign supreme again.
Left-Over-Curry Buns
Time: About 2 hours, but half of that is just letting the dough rise
Serves: like 12-ish buns
Ingredients from the College Store (bought on meal points)
2 eggs
salt, like a hefty pinch
1/2 stick of butter, melted and cooled so it’s not scalding
I’m putting a cup of water here, but it’s free if you get it from the tap
additional egg for egg-wash
Ingredients from The Outside World (bought with real money)
Curry - recipe for the curry I used here, but I bet you could do it with leftover take out too
aprx 4 cups flour
1 packet yeast
big old pinch of sugar
(opt) black sesame seeds
Throw It Together
Put your sugar in a big mixing bowl. In very quick succession pour 1 cup VERY warm (NOT SCALDING) water into the bowl and then pour your yeast out on top of that. You are proofing your yeast to make sure it’s alive and kicking. Ignore it for like 7 minutes. Go do your dishes or something. If it’s good, it will poof up and get real big and foamy. If it’s dead then it won’t. You can’t really do this if your yeast isn’t good, I’m sorry. There are yeast-free dough recipes though, if you are desperate. I use one to make knishes.
Add your eggs and butter to the yeast. PLEASE make sure your butter is cooled down a little. Not so much that it’s re-solidifying, but if it’s too hot it will cook the egg. Mix.
Slowly add the flour like 1/2-1 cup at a time, mixing well between additions. The dough should pull together pretty quickly. It’s easier to if you a) have a dough hook on an electric mixer or b) do not have tendonitis like nobody’s business, BUT I don’t and I do and it worked out ok, so don’t worry. Relax and knead the shit out of some dough. The dough should have a smooth kind of elastic-y feel to it when the flour has all been added. It might be a little tacky but it shouldn’t cling to the sides of the bowl. If it’s still doing that, add more flour, or if it’s like a rock, add more water.
Knead for a few minutes and pray your wrists don’t finally decide to quit for good. You can either flour a surface and knead it on that, or be incredibly lazy and just do it in the bowl (which is what I did because I was sick of trying to get dried dough off my table).
Put it back in the bowl, cover lightly, and let it rise for like an hour, an hour and a half. It’s supposed to “double in size” but I don’t know, if it only “thirds in size” it’s fine.
Pre-heat oven to 375 and take out your curry.
Break off a little piece of dough. I used about a small handful, but I have really fucking tiny hands. It should be a little smaller than a golf ball. Roll the dough into a ball and then flatten it so you’ve got a flat circular shape. I used a regular kitchen spoon to put a generous spoonful of curry in the center, but if I had to guess I’d say it was about 1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons of filling.Gather the edges and sort of pinch/twist them together to seal off the bun, making sure no curry is leaking out. If it does, trying using less filing. Less is more. Place the buns sealed-side down on a baking sheet. Repeat until you are out of dough or curry.
Take an egg yolk and a little water and mix it together in a separate container. This is your egg-wash. To separate a yolk, start to crack an egg like you normally would, but instead of letting the egg fall, turn the shell upright, so the egg is still being held inside the shell. Use the two halves of the shell to carefully pass the yolk back and forth so only the egg-white is falling out until only the yolk is left. If you have a brush, brush the egg-wash over the buns. I don’t have a brush so I kind of just pitifully spoon it over. Optional: sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
Bake for about 17 minutes, until they begin to turn golden brown. Futz with the cooking time if you need, I don’t know how your oven works.
Cool at least 8 minutes. I served them with peas and some bootleg spinach gomaae so it was almost like a real dinner, but they are really snack food. They are best fresh, but are good for about 3 days. Refrigerate and toast well to reheat.