Bread Basket Pt.3 Egg whites in soft doughs

This is a test of two identical soft bun doughs. The only difference between the two is that one has egg whites substituted for the water. The white is around 90% water by weight anyway, so this substitution doesn't require much manipulation of the rest of the recipe.
Bun #1
100g bread flour
18g butter, room temperature
3g salt
3g yeast
40g water, at 40F
18g egg yolk
Bun #2

100g bread flour

18g butter, room temperature

3g salt

3g yeast

42g egg whites

18g egg yolk

Method for both buns:

Mix the salt, yeast, egg, water, and butter together in a bowl. Add the flour all at once and knead until the dough is uniform. Ferment at room temperature for 3 hours, or once the dough doubles in size. Shape into buns and proof for 1 hour. Bake at 400F for 9 minutes, or until lightly brown, egg washing after 3 minutes.

The results were closer in texture than I would have expected. The top bun in this picture has no egg whites.

Even though there wasn't a huge difference, I definitely preferred the bun without the whites. The whites make the crumb chewier, kind of waxy.

Plate it up!

Butter poached lamb flap with cilantro mayo, purslane, pickled daikon, pickled carrot, and chicken liver mousse on a soft, egg yolk only, bun.

There may  be too much fat in these, so much it is preventing the interior from being fluffy. I'll be looking for a lighter, fluffier sandwich bun.

Forcefully,

Adam

Gram Hot Dog Buns

The texture of these is not exactly like that of store bought. They will remind you of the packaged stuff, but then, hopefully, make you think twice about buying them. This recipe can make three small buns.
Ingredients:
200g bread flour
3g salt
3g yeast
15g sugar
40g water, room temp
30g milk
22g butter, melted
10g egg wash
Method:
Combine everything in a bowl and mix with a spoon until it starts to form a dough and gets hard to stir. Once it is difficult to stir, mix the dough by hand until it is evenly mixed(do a thorough job of getting it mixed, you do not need to knead this dough for more than a minute, but evenness is important). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour, or until the dough doubles in size. Fold the dough over and portion into how many buns you want to make. Form each portion into a tight ball and then roll into a cylinder the length of your dog. Place the cylinders so close together that they are almost touching and let rise, covered, for 45 minutes, or until they double again in size. Coat with egg wash and sprinkle with whatever you want, or nothing at all. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes with steam(I talk about how I steam in my oven at home here), rotate the tray and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Take out of the oven and cool on a rack.

For pictures of how to space and proof these buns check out this site.
Here is a picture of two buns being separated after cooling:

Spacing the buns so they rise into each other is important for the final texture and shape of the bun.

Here is the crumb:

Soft, and creamy. Probably perfect for hamburgers as well.

Indubitably,

Adam