How to Bake Aberdeen Buttery
Yields: 16 buns
Preparation time: 40 mins + 2 hours (inactive)
Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients needed to make Aberdeen Buttery:
- 1 lb 2 oz strong plain flour, plus more for dusting
- 12 ¼ fl oz warm water
- 10 oz butter, plus more for serving
- 7 gm easy-blend dried yeast
- 1 tbsp sea salt flakes
- 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 3 ½ oz lard
- Vegetable oil, for greasing
- Ready-made jam, for serving
Cooking instructions for Aberdeen Buttery:
- Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and stir in sugar, yeast and a dash of salt until mixed thoroughly.
- Poke a small depression in the middle of the flour mixture and pour water into it gradually while stirring the mixture at the same time, until all of it is incorporated into the mixture to form slightly sticky dough.
- Dust your working surface generously with flour and place the dough on it.
- Knead it gently for about 10 mins or until it turns smooth and pliable.
- Grease a clean bowl with some oil and place the dough in it.
- Roll it across the sides of the bowl until lightly coated with oil, wrap it up with a cling film and allow it to rise in a warm place for an hour until it doubles in size.
- Meanwhile, mix the lard and butter together and whisk them with an electric mixer until they blend into a creamy, fluffy mixture.
- Split it into four parts and set aside.
- Return the risen dough to the freshly-floured working surface and knead it again for a couple of minutes.
- Flatten it out with a floured rolling pin to form a ½’’ thick 16’’x8’’ rectangle.
- Spread the creamed butter-lard blend across 2/3 of the flattened dough, starting from its shortest side.
- Fold the uncoated portion over the buttered part of the dough while placing the other end of the rectangle over its folded portion.
- Roll it again into its original size and thickness and repeat the fold two more times, while smothering the surface with creamed butter-lard blend each time until all of it is used up.
- Warm up your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Roll the folded dough for the final time into a 16’’x8’’ rectangle yet again of ½’’ thickness and slice it out into 16 portions.
- Roll each of them into a round bun and press gently to flatten them slightly.
- Set aside in a pre-greased baking tray for an hour to let it rise to double its previous size and put them inside the oven to bake for about 18 minutes or until they puff up and turn golden brown.
- Drizzle a lashing of melted butter over the butteries and serve alongside jam.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
