Sweet Buns - Copy Cat Texas Roadhouse Buns

2 cups milk – Scalded and cooled to lukewarm (I used 2%)

½ cup warm water

4 tsp Instant Dry Yeast  - (I had individual packets, so I had to use about 1 ½ packs)

1 tsp sugar

½ sugar

About 7-8 cups bread flour

2 whole eggs

½ cup Honey – (This is totally optional, if you want a sweeter bun add this, but they both turn out tasting good)

3 Tbl butter – melted

2 tsp salt

1.        To begin you’ll want to start scalding 2 cups of milk and then let cool to lukewarm (I popped mine in the fridge for faster cooling).

2.       While the milk is cooling, take a small bowl and add ½ cup warm water. Then add 4 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until dissolved. It’ll look foamy at the top. Like the picture below. 

3.      While you’re waiting for the yeast to dissolve and the milk to cool, you can take out a large bowl to mix all the dough in. Also take out 2 eggs, honey, sugar, bread flour, butter, and salt.

4.       Once your yeast and milk are ready, you can add the yeast, milk, ½ cup sugar, and enough flour to make a medium batter that is light and foamy (like a cake box mix batter - I added flour one ½ cup at a time until I got it to the right texture. It’s always easier to add flour in small amounts instead of pouring in huge amounts of flour you can’t take back). Beat the ingredients thoroughly.

5.       Now that you have a light batter you can add 2 eggs, ½ cup honey, 3 Tbl melted butter, and 2 tsp salt. Beat well. Now add more flour until you get a soft dough. Once you have completed the dough, sprinkle a small amount of flour onto a flat surface to start kneading. Add more flour as needed if the dough gets sticky. Knead until the dough is smooth. Take another large bowl and grease the inside so when the dough rises it won’t stick to the sides (I just used PAM cooking spray).  Place the dough in the bowl and then take out and flip over, so that the dough gets a covering of the grease. Cover bowl with Cling Wrap, and let sit for about 1 ½ to 2 hrs when dough has doubled in size.

6.       Set the oven for 350 degrees. After the dough has doubled you can remove it from the bowl and put it out on a floured surface. I then separated the dough into 4 equal pieces to rest. Net take a baking sheet, spray with PAM. Taking one of the pieces of dough, I tore off small pieces and rolled them into small balls, placing them on the greased cooking sheet.  I let them double again in size, which took about a half hour. The two pictures below are the buns rolled out on a sheet, and then the one after is after they've doubled in size. 

7. When doubled, buns can be placed  in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how large the rolls were made. Once they’re out of the oven, immediately rub butter on top (I used a basting brush, worked the best). Adding the butter to the top definitely makes them look better, softens them up, and gives them a little added flavor.