How to make my chelsea buns more doughy For enriched dough products, I really enjoy a more doughy, moister, stickier texture. I like hot cross buns which are fluffy and not too springy.
I've been baking my buns from this BBC good food recipe https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chelsea-buns. I've tried increasing the milk content by 5% and then by 10% and whilst its a little closer to what I want, the texture is still a bit dry and crumbly.
I was thinking about reducing the baking time or temperature, but I'm not sure.
Fiddling with the temperature won't help you. Reducing the baking time can help, if you are currently overbaking them, but if you are not overbaking, it will just make them underbaked. So, the question is, are you baking them right, or overbaking currently?
If you are not overbaking now, you should change the ratios, not the baking time. If you want it moist-sticky, you should increase the sugar (and maybe underbake just a tiny bit). If you want it just softer, but without getting much stickier, you should increase the fat. To reduce springiness, you should drop the strong flour and use normal flour (8-9% gluten).