These buns are great for a morning breakfast treat, "as is" or with the filling of your choice. The buns are only a little sweet, and they taste of orange. The chia seeds provide extra nutrition and a slight crunch. The seeds also help to keep the buns moist for days. White whole-wheat flour gives the buns extra flavor and fiber. You can bake he buns immediately or let them rise a little before baking them for extra lift. I make the buns in the air fryer to save on electricity, but you can make the buns in the regular oven, if you'd prefer. Just bake the buns at 350 for about 20 minutes. Enjoy!
Sourdough Orange-Chia Seed Buns -- Makes about 9
1/2 cup of starter/discard
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 large egg
1/4 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of grated orange zest
3 tablespoons of chia seeds
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of orange extract
1/2 cup of white whole-wheat flour
In a large bowl mix well the starter/discard, oil, egg, milk, orange zest, chia seeds, and extract. Stir in the flour until well blended. Loosely cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour (or longer, if you'd prefer--I often let my mixture sit for 4-5 hours). When you're ready, add:
1/2 cup of white whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Mix the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder into the first mixture and stir everything well. You don't have to knead the dough, just make sure everything is well mixed. Cut small pieces of baking parchment to fit your air fryer basket. Drop 2-4 portions of dough--each about 1/4 cup--onto each piece of parchment, spacing the dough mounds at least an inch and a half apart. With damp hands, shape the dough mounds a little to neaten them up into rounds. Put one dough topped piece of parchment into your air fryer basket, put the basket into the air fryer, and air fry the dough at 320 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until the buns are a deep golden brown. Remove the buns from the air fryer to cool and repeat the cooking process with the remaining dough. Alternatively, you can let the unbaked dough sit on the parchment for an hour or two to rise a little before air frying the dough.
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