Hamburger Buns

When I told Ben I was planning on making homemade hamburger buns, he got quite a kick out of it.  “Did you know you can buy hamburger buns at the store for less than $1?”  he asked.  Well yes, darling, I did.  But lately I have been really making an effort to stop buying things that I can make myself at home.  I like knowing exactly what goes into our foods, and plus, homemade bread is SO much better than store bought bread.  Thanks to this recipe I haven’t bought sandwich bread in a long time.  So I went ahead and made the buns anyway, and wouldn’t you know it – they were great!  I finally feel like I have a  bun worthy of the fantastic hamburgers we make (to be posted shortly).

As the note in the recipe mentions, this is a very slack dough.  I ended up adding even more flour than the maximum amount the recipe calls for before it was workable for me.  It wasn’t too difficult once I got to the right consistency, but due to this guesswork, I wouldn’t recommend this recipe to someone inexperienced with yeast.  The link to the original recipe includes directions on shaping into hot dog buns.  I didn’t make any this time but I hope to in the future.  I am submitting this recipe to Joelen’s Tasty Tools event for the month of September, featuring bakeware.  I love love love my Pampered Chef pizza stone and am constantly finding new ways to use it in my baking.

Almost finished with their second rise.

All dressed and ready to be baked.

Just out of the oven – gorgeous!

Hamburger Buns

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. sugar

2 ¼ tsp. instant yeast

¼ cup warm water (105°-115°)

1 cup warm milk (105°-115°)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. salt

3 to 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp. cold water

sesame, poppy or caraway seeds, or coarse salt, for topping

 

Directions:

In a bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the sugar and then the yeast in the warm water.  Add the milk, oil, salt and 1 ½ cups of flour to the yeast mixture.  Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.  Gradually add flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Switch to the dough hook and knead until you have a smooth and elastic dough, about 7-9 minutes. 

 

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl.  Turn once to coat the entire ball of dough in oil.  Cover with a tightly-woven dampened towel and let rise until doubled, about one hour. 

 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface.  Working with oiled hands, divide the dough into 9 equal pieces.  Shape each piece into a ball, and flatten into 3 ½ -inch disks.  For soft-sided buns, place them on a well-seasoned baking sheet a half-inch apart so they will grow together when they rise.  For crisper bun, place them three inches apart. 

 

Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes. 

 

15 minutes before you want to bake the buns, preheat the oven to 400°.  Just before baking, brush the tops of the buns lightly with the egg wash and sprinkle with any desired toppings. 

 

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 190°.  When the buns are done, remove them from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack.  This will prevent the crust from becoming soggy.

 

* Note: This particular dough should be quite slack, i.e. very relaxed in order to make soft and tender buns.  So you want to add only enough more flour, past the 3 cup point, to make the dough just kneadable, sprinkling in only enough more to keep it from sticking to you or the work surface.

Source: adapted from King Arthur Flour