What's a burger without a bun?
November 23, 2006 at 4:04 PM
by Ashleigh
Last summer I started making burgers from my own recipe every time we wanted to barbecue. The kids became accustomed to my recipe and when presented with a cooked-from-frozen store bought burger they weren't impressed. Up until now I had always bought burger buns from the supermarket, with my burger making skills being limited to the mixing of breadcrumbs, meat, egg and herbs.
Enter Linda Collister's Bread: From Sourdough to Rye and on page 20, under 'The Americas' appears a beautiful looking recipe for hamburger buns and hot dog rolls. I have only ever produced a product akin to stone when trying to make hamburger rolls so when I started this yesterday morning I didn't have high hopes.
Surprisingly, they were fantastic! They rose beautifully, they have a soft crust and crumb and the salt and milk glaze gives them a lovely colour. I was rather alarmed at the amount of salt in the recipe, but upon tasting one of the buns I realised that hotdog rolls and hamburger buns do have a sweetly salty taste. I didn't adapt the recipe much.
Linda Collister's Hamburger Buns
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 4 cups white flour, 1/2 cup wholewheat)
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
7g active dry yeast
1 2/3 cups tepid milk (I used 1 cup milk, 2/3 cup water)
1 large egg, beaten
sesame seeds to sprinkle
to glaze
3 tablespoons milk
a good pinch of salt
- Mix the flour, salt and sugar and active dry yeast in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in with the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Make a well in the centre.
- Pour the egg and milk mixture into the well. Gradually work the flour into the liquid to make a soft, but not sticky dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for ten minutes.
- Return to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave until doubled in size, about 1 hour (mine took 2)
- Punch down, and leave to rise a second time. (This is not in the original recipe - I added this step, as I like a double rise).
- Punch down after an hour or so and shape into rolls. The recipe says you will get 18 hamburger rolls from this mixture. I like big rolls so I made 8. In retrospect they should have been smaller. Super-sizing them did our tums no favours.
- Shape into rolls, set on a greased baking tray and cover with plastic to rise again.
- When doubled brush with the milk and salt mixture, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake at 200C (400F) for about 15 minutes or until gold brown and firm.
- To keep the crusts soft cool on a wire rack covered with a dry cloth.
- Can be frozen for one month. Best eaten within 24 hours.
I also tried her recipe on page 77 for Extra-spicy Hot Cross Buns under 'Northern and Eastern Europe', but I fear I didn't knead the mixture long enough or otherwise our home is too cold for the rising. Let's just say they were flavourful stones :)
Next up on my list are the Floury Baps, Challah and Swedish Saffron Bread which I will make for 13 December (Saint Lucia Day)
Comments
Wow, Ash, these look amazing! :) Your culinary successes are inspiring.
How are you feeling these days?
These are truly goooood buns! Looking awfully tasty, wish I was at your dinnertable tonight (we had chinese take-out which was good but nothing beats home-made and -as usual- a few hours later I'm hungry).
I'm licking my lips right this very second just thinking of them...
Homemade buns with that yummy burger recipe. Wow - I'm ready for a bbq next summer. How ambitious and delicious!
HI Ash,
Hey, those buns look terrific. What oook book is it that you are using? I love baking bread, and have done it for years. I borrowed your recipe ...and will give it a try. I too have never made hamburger or hotdog buns and I'd make them thinner than the conventional ones as DH is not fond of a lot of bread for any sandwich, so I dig out the centers a little so he doesn't ahve too much bread if I buy store baked breads. When I bake bread, I always alter the size of the rolls so that they are a good size for my DH. It's fun to experiment with recipes. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the baking and the recipe too.
Cathy C
November 24, 2006 5:36 AM