Soft Raisins buns

Directions

1. Dissolve 3 1/2 tbsp of the golden Golden granulated sugar in 1 cup of lukewarm water. Soak the raisins in for 1 hour 30 minutes.
2. Drain the raisins out and reserve the liquid. The liquid should be brown and sweet. You don't need to dry the raisins, just rest them wet.
3. Heat the reserving liquid to warm (not boiling). Pour 3/4 cup of liquid in the bowl, add the rest of sugar (1/2 tbsp) and instant dry yeast (to activate the yeast). [Make sure that your liquid is not too hot or it will kill all the yeast] Stir them thoroughly. Let it rest for 10 minutes, you'll see the foamy things in your bowl.
4. Prepare your mixing bowl. Sift the bread flour and put the salt into the bowl. Use the spatula to mix them well and make a small pit in the middle. Pour your yeasty liquid and the butter in. Turn on your stand mixer. Mix it with the slow speed until the flour absorbs all the liquid. After that, mix it with high speed for 20 minutes. You'll get the smooth oily pretty dough. The dough will not stick to the bowl or your hands.
5. Adjust the stand mixer to the lowest speed. Slowly put your wet raisins into the dough. Mix the dough with the raisins at the low speed for 5 minutes. Gradually increase your stand mixer speed to high, mix it for 15 more minutes. The raisins will be beaten and mixed well with your dough.
6. Take out the bowl from the stand mixer. Let the dough rest in your warm kitchen for 1 hour (don't forget to cover the bowl using your kitchen cloth to prevent the dough from drying out). The dough will rise to double in size, beautiful oily and fluffy.
7. Coat your hands with a little amount of butter. Use your hand to split the dough to form a small bun. I normally weight a bun at 50 grams or if you love it to be bigger you can just shape them all to a big loaf. You'll get around a dozen of small buns.
8. After you already got your small buns (or a big loaf), put them on the plate, cover them with your kitchen cloth. Let them rise for another 1 hour.
9. Prepare your baking tray by laying the baking paper on the tray. Gently move your lovely buns from the plate to the tray using a flat spatula (try to keep the air in the dough, DON'T squeeze the air out). Do the egg wash for your buns.
10. Heat the oven to 200c. Bake your buns at 200c for 10 minutes. lower the temperature to 180c and continue baking for 5-10 minutes until your buns turns to a beautiful golden brown.
11. Finish your soft raisins buns with butter to make them look glossy. Enjoy your perfect soft raisins buns!!