These amazingly good overnight carrot buns require some planning, but don’t be intimidated by that. Once the planning is in place, the buns themselves are easy to bake.

The secret (and also the thing that needs the planning) behind these delicilosly good carrot buns is a poolish (or sponge). A poolish is made out of water, yeast and flour and it need to rest for 24 h before you can use it. Ok, that might seem like a very long time to wait just to get started, but trust us – it’s worth it. The poolish will give the bread a fantastic crispy crust (and yes – we want that!), make the bread more tasty and give it a longer shelf life. The carrots on the other hand will make the bread extra juicy. So yes – these overnight carrot buns are definitely worth waiting for.

Should there be any buns left you can freeze them, but they will taste like freshly baked buns for a few days if you just toast them lightly before serving.

We simply prefer to serve these tasteful buns with butter, a slice of cheese and some jam (or our rhuburb/strawberry compote). Yummy!

Recipe

You will need:

For the Poolish / Sponge:
200 ml water
• 10 g of yeast
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp honey
• 100 g of spelt wheat flour

• 200 ml  water
• 200 g grated carrots
• 100 g spelt wheat flour
• 350 g sifted rye flour
• 60 g sunflower seeds

How to:

Day 1:

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add salt and honey.
  2. Stir in spelt wheat flour. Cover the bowl and let rest at room temperature for 24h.

Day 2:

  1. Stir water into the poolish.
  2. Add grated carrots and spelt wheat flour.
  3. Add a little sifted rye flour at a time and knead until you get a smooth and elastic but stil a little bit sticky dough (about 6-8 min in machine).
  4. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 hour.
  5. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into 12 balls.
  6. Place the balls on a baking pan covered with baking paper. Cover and let rise for 15 min.
  7. Preheat oven to 225C/440F Bake for 20 min until golden brown.
  8. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool.