Recently my son and daughter-in-law gave me a copy of Jane Eastoe’s National Trust Book of Bread≤, which is a collection of heritage recipes from around the United Kingdom. The National Trust is a charity dedicated to preserving and protecting the United Kingdom’s heritage.

This book, however provides interesting challenges for the serious sourdough baker, as it author states:

“A sourdough starter cannot be used interchangeably with any recipe, as with fresh yeast or dried yeast. A starter can be made with various flours, which impact on the behavior of the dough. Until you gain experience working with starters, it is best to follow a recipe for sourdough bread.”

JANE EASTOE, NATIONAL TRUST BOOK OF BREAD

That said, she offers just one sourdough recipe in her book for you to follow.

Still, nearly all of the recipes in the collection go back in history before the development of instant yeast and baking soda as leavening agents. That means, somewhere in the past, someone used sourdough in their original bakes. My quest is to show readers that sourdough starter can in fact, quite often be used interchangeably with many recipes.

Such is the case with the Bath Bun, Britain’s 10th most popular bread choice.

The “Bath bun is a traditional English sweet bread roll originating from [the town of] Bath. The buns are circular, with nib sugar and currants on top of their highly glazed exterior. The texture is dense and close, while the flavor is lightly spiced and sweetened, with lump sugar underneath,” reports the Taste Atlas.

Continuing they explain, The dough for Bath buns is usually based on plain brioche dough or rich egg and butter dough with caraway seeds. Although there are disputes about the origins of these buns, the ones made from a recipe dating back to 1679 are still available in the town of Bath,”

That means the recipe we use today must have been modified 150 years ago from one using sourdough starter from 340 years ago. Yet I cannot locate such a recipe, for that reason the one below is adapted from Eastoe’s book and other sources to give you a genuine sourdough Bath bun.

Image courtesy of Russell at LondonEats

Sourdough Bath Buns

Serving Size:
9 buns
Time:
8–12 hours
Difficulty:
Moderate

Dough Ingredients

  • 1 cup / 226 g active sourdough starter
  • 1¼ scant cups / 345 g White bread flour
  • ⅓ cup /85 ml evaporated milk (OR ⅓ cup powdered milk+⅓ cup water)
  • 1 tsp / 5g salt
  • ¼ cup / 50g sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3½ Tbls / 50g butter, melted and cooled
  • ¾ cup / 170g sultanas, currants, dried cranberries, and/ or raisins
  • ⅛ cup / 25g mixed peel (OR zest from and orange and lemon)

Topping Ingredients

  • Beaten egg
  • Sugar
  • 50g currants (optional)

Directions

  1. Mix the sourdough starter, milk, and flour together and leave in a warm place for 30 min.
  2. Then mix in the salt, sugar, eggs, butter, dried fruit, and mixed peel.
  3. This soft wet dough will need need to be stretched and folded every 30 minutes until smooth (usually three sets 30 minutes apart).
  4. Put the dough into a bowl and cover it with plastic to rise overnight, until doubled in size (8-12 hours).
  5. Then place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets and tent them with plastic bags, ensuring the plastic isn’t touching the dough. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
  6. Preheat the oven to 375°F /190°C
  7. When the buns have risen, brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar, (and optionally dot with currants).
  8. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a light golden brown.
  9. Cool on a wire rack then split and serve buttered.