Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Taco Stuffed Buns - And The Pizza Buns Variation

I had promised some step by step pictures but was not able to get them this time. I will update the post in the future with them. I promise!
 
Soft Buns Recipe:

You can use any regular bun recipe you prefer. Additionally, I have seen these made with store bought dough or with biscuits (think Pilsbury). Whatever you prefer is great, this just happens to be my favorite recipe.

Large Eggs     2
White Sugar   1/4 cup
Salt                1 tsp (I actually didn't use any salt)
Cooking oil    1/2 cup
Warm water   1 cup
Warm Milk    1 cup

White Sugar 1 tsp
Warm water 1 cup
Active Dry yeast - 1 x 1/4 oz or 8 g package

All purpose flour approximately 8 1/4 cups

Put second amount of sugar in warm water in a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over top. Let stand 10 minutes. Stire to dissolve yeast.

Beat eggs in large bowl. Beat in first amount of sugar and salt. Add cooking oil, first amount of water and milk. Mix. Add Yeast to egg mixture. Mix.

Work in enough flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Turn out onto floured surface. Knead 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with tea towel and let stand in oven with light on and door closed for about 1.5 hours until doubled in bulk.

Taco filling used:

Ground beef - fried, drained and cooled.
Grated Cheddar - I used a lot since we love cheese, about 1-2 cups grated
Taco seasoning
Salsa - about 1 cup, enough to hold everything together but not runny or soupy.

Mix filling well to spread out seasoning. You could probably cook the taco seasoning into the beef as you normally would for tacos but it might be a bit runnier unless you simmer it all down.

After 1.5 hours, punch the bread dough down.

Take a ball of dough and roll it out fairly thin. I stretched them length-wise to make them more like mini loafs. Place filling in the center and roll in from one side - pinch the ends and edges sealed as you roll it up. I placed on a cookie sheet, seam side down and baked at 375 for about 15 minutes until the tops just started to turn golden. (same cooking time as the regular buns.) I brushed the tops lightly with Margarine to keep them soft once I took them out of the oven.

This recipe makes approximately 36 regular buns. I made 2 dozen cloverleaf buns (three small pieces each in a muffin tin cup) and 1 dozen of the taco buns from this recipe. Art had a great time helping roll them out and fill them. It's not complicated!

A few were not sealed well and there was a little mess on the cookie sheet but not much. They are very hot on the inside, so let them cool a bit after you take them out of the oven.

Pizza Fillings
Really, there is no rule here. My boys prefer plain cheese pizzas so I only used mozza and tomato sauce with pizza seasonings. You can add whatever other toppings you'd like to the mix. Only use enough of the tomato sauce to wet the filling ingredients. Too much and you end up with pizza filling soup on the pans, not enough and the buns are kind of bland.
Rolling these was much more difficult for me than the taco buns as the tomato sauce made it harder to seal them. But regardless of the mess or time spent, they were an absolute hit with the kids.

Enjoy!  And let me know how yours turn out!