Meaty filled buns

Ingredients: Dough

• 3 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 180ml lukewarm milk
• 2 and ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ⅔ stick unsalted melted butter (75 g)
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or paste 
• pinch of salt

Heat up the milk for 30 seconds in the microwave or just until lukewarm, ensure it’s not hot. Add a tsp of sugar and the yeast. Stir together and set aside. 

In a bowl sift the flour, add the sugar, pinch of salt, egg and melted butter and the milk and yeast mixture which at this stage should be frothy. Mix everything until it forms a dough, then knead for 10 mins until the dough is smooth. Let it ride for 2 hours.

Once the dough has risen, knock it down, divide the dough into pieces and form balls. Leave it to rise for another hour.

Ingredients: Meat Filling

• 200g ground beef
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
• 80g grated cheese
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp hot English mustard
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Cajun spice
• 1 cup milk

Steps:

Finely dice the onion and garlic. Place a pan on medium to high heat along with 2 tbsp olive oil. When the oil has just heated, add the chopped onion, garlic and sugar. Once the onion have sweated, add in the ground beef along with all the spices, salt and parsley. Stir everything so that it’s evenly coated with the spices.

Once the ground beef has browned, add the mustard, mix for a minute then add the flour. Let the flour cook out, for a few minutes. Now add in the milk, stir for a short while, just until the mixture starts to thicken then add in the cheese and stir until all the cheese has melted and become one with the sauce. The consistency should be like a slightly thick gravy. Place the mixture in a glass dish to cool, then place in the fridge for a few hours or over night. Once you ready to use the filling, the béchamel mixture should have stiffened.

Now roll out your dough to around 12cm in diameter, place a scoop of your meat mixture in the middle of the dough. Now pull up the sides and pinch in the middle to seal, then turn the bun over so that the side you just sealed is facing your silicon mat, and roll it around to flatten it, this way you will ensure it’s properly sealed, and you will get a nice round top.

Once you’ve made them all, brush with an egg wash and bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven of 180 degrees. Or you can put it in the air fryer for 5 minutes at 180 degrees.

Let it cool before digging in! Enjoy.