Tomato Swirl Buns

I needed to bring some buns to a dinner, but I wanted something more interesting than my usual fluffy white buns. But not too complicated, since I didn't know what else was being served.

I decided that tomato powder would be a nice addition, and a swirl pattern would be nice.

The finished buns didn't have a strong tomato taste. There was just a hint of a different flavor, but not so much that it was distracting. The orange color was interesting, and the swirl was pretty.

If you're making this for a meal where you're in charge of all the flavors, these would be nice with the addition of an herb or other flavoring along with the tomato.

So here's how it went:

Tomato Swirl Buns

1 cup lukewarm water

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon tomato powder

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, and sugar and set aside for 10 minutes, until it is foamy.

Add the bread flour and salt and knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Add the olive oil and continue kneading until the oil is incorporated and the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic.

Remove about 2/3 of the dough, drizzle it with a little olive oil, and put it into a clean bowl. Cover the bowl and set aside.

To the 1/3 portion of dough remaining in the bowl, add the teaspoon of tomato powder and knead until it is completely incorporated. Drizzle with a little olive oil, cover the bowl, and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about 60 minutes.

Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Now it's time to combine the two doughs. I put the tomato dough on top of the plain dough, rolled them out, then rolled it up like a jelly roll and sliced the log into rounds. The spiral pattern was nice. But of course you could combine then any way you like.

Cover the buns with plastic wrap and set aside until they have doubled in size. If the tops of the buns are sticky, you can dust them with some flour; I like rice flour for this sort of thing.

When the buns have doubled, bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool on a rack. If you prefer a soft crust, cover the buns with a clean kitchen towel while they cool.

This has been submitted to Yeastpotting.

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