With this weekend being a whole three days long, and you cooking out on the grill, oh come on you know you are, it's the unofficial start to summer and it is predetermined that all households must make burgers on the grill, might I suggest making your own buns. Sure this might seem like a daunting task and buns are like 99¢ at the store, but hear me out. These buns will elevate your burgers to legendary status. Your neighbors will all be talking over the fence about how "jane made her buns can you believe it?" "yeah, like from scratch" "and they were good, like better than peppridge farm good"
This recipe was adapted from a great cookbook called The Homemade Pantry 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making by Alana Chernila and I highly reccomend it. Her writing is delightful and engaging and recipes are easy to follow and produce great results.
Hamburger Buns
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons whole milk
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (this is equal to a packet if thats your style)
2 tablespoons sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups all purpouse flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
optional - seeds for sprinkling on top like sesame, poppy or artisan seed blend
(1) Combine warm water, milk, yeast and sugar in a liquid measuring cup and set aside until foamy, this should take about 5 minutes. In a small bowl beat 2 eggs.
(2) In a large bowl, whisk together both flours and salt. Stir in the butter, followed by the yeast mixture and beaten eggs. Continue to stir until the ingredients start to come together. I find using a dough whisk helps a great deal with this.
(3) Turn dough out onto a floured surface and kneed until smooth, this will take about 8 minutes or so. Shape the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl to rise. Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
(4) Line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat. Divide dough into 8 equal portions and roll each gently into a ball. Place them on the baking sheet about 2-3 inches apart. Cover loosely with the tea towel and allow to rise again for 1-2 hours.
(5) Preheat your oven to 400° with the rack in the center of the oven. On the bottom shelf place a METAL pan with about 1 inch of water. This will create steam, be sure you use a metal pan so that if the water should all evaporate you won't end up with exploding glass if you need to add more water later.
(6) In a small bowl whisk the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water to make a glaze. With a pastry brush coat each roll and sprinkle seed mixture on top as well as a sprinkling or course salt. Bake for 20 minutes rotating the pan halfway through for even browning. Transfer to rack for cooling and enjoy.