Hamburger Buns from Home?? Well, of Course!!

 Even if you've never made anything with yeast before, you have to try these!

Just out of the oven, sorry you can't smell them!

I've been making bread for almost 25 years now and I wish I would have had this recipe back when I started, because if I did, I would have made thousands of these buns!!

Over the years I've tried a few hamburger bun recipes and they haven't been as good as I would like.  I don't like to settle for "good".  I want something to be great(!), if at all possible.  And the buns that I've made in the past were either too heavy or too strong in flavor so the taste of the hamburgers would be lost in a sea of bread dough.  

The bun is just the carrier of the meat and the toppings, so it should be light and have a subtle taste.  Not being able to obtain what I was looking for, I gave up (not my true character).

But!! good things come to those who persevere!!

Buns rising and soon to be baked!

Rural living has it's challenges, but not something that we cannot over come.  One of those challenges is not being prepared when it's meal time.  

We needed hamburger buns for dinner.  And a drive to town is about 25 minutes one way.  It didn't make any sense to drive to town just for buns.  So what were we to do?  Well, we only had two options.  Either don't make hamburgers for dinner or try and make some buns.  I thought it was best to try again to make some buns.  So that's what we did.

In the back of my mind, I wasn't too confident, but not willing to give up, we gave it another try.  I did a quick search online to see if we could find a new recipe.

After putting two recipes in My Pocket, I let Esther decide which one she wanted to make and she choose these.  They looked like the easiest of the two and had the least ingredients.

They came from the Taste of Home magazine.

40-Minute Hamburger Buns Recipe
       
Total Time: 

Prep: 20 min. + resting Bake: 10 min.

YIELD:12 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
3. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 1 dozen.

My Notes for the Recipe:

I'm not crazy about the amount of yeast in these buns, so each time we make them, we're going to slowly decrease the amount of yeast to see at what point it has an effect on the buns and then we'll stop at that point. 

Resting time:  We let ours rest longer then the 10 minutes, maybe 20 or 30 minutes or up to an hour.  We were looking for size more than anything.  But remember, they will always get larger in the oven too.  Conditions change, so times will vary, just don't let them rest too long.   

For sandwich buns, just brush on some beaten egg whites before you put them in the oven and sprinkle with salt and pepper, caraway, poppy seed, dried onions, or whatever spices you like.  It's easier to add your toppings just after you form them otherwise you risk deflating them with your brush.

We're planning on using these for hotdog buns also, we'll just have to change the shape.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You can make these buns faster then you can get in the car and drive to the store and they are sooooo much better!  Plus, planning to be home more often gives you more time to get beyond the things that you need to do, so you can have more time to do the things you want to do.  It opens up more time to be creative!!

I had to share even though I had a protestor. :) 

September 2016

Sandy