Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 oz active dry yeast
for the egg wash
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon water
to sprinkle:
sesame or poppy seeds
Directions:
Stir together the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour and yeast. Pour in the milk mixture and stir until the dough starts to come together, adding more water of the mixture looks dry or more flour if the mixture looks wet. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to mix for about 8 minutes. If not, knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a towel and wait until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and divide into 6* even portions. Make tight balls out of the dough by pulling the dough towards the bottom and gently stretching until a ball with a smooth top forms. Place seam-side down on a baking stone or metal baking sheet. I actually just used my silipat and baking sheet. Allow the rolls to sit for a minute. Flatten each dough ball with your hand or the back of a large spatula until it is about 3 to 4 inches wide. Cover the rolls with the towel again and set aside until they have just about doubled in size, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400. Whisk together the water and yolk to make the egg wash. Brush onto the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle with seeds. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on both the top and the bottom and when tapped, they sound hollow. Allow to cool, then slice.
*If you want extra large rolls, divide into fourths.
Yield: six rolls big enough to each accommodate a large hamburger. The recipe can easily be doubled.
My thoughts:
Why go through the trouble of making delicious sandwiches and burgers when you don’t have a great bun to serve them on? Making your own is a somewhat lengthy process but 95% of the time is completely hands off and you can spend the downtime getting everything else ready. This recipe is a snap to put together; even a yeast novice could handle it. It really is worth the little bit of extra effort to make your own hamburger rolls, they taste so much better than store bought (which are frequently sweetened with HFCS) and while they are light and fluffy inside, they have a sturdy crust that can stand up to the wettest, messiest filling. Not to mention how impressed people will be once you tell them you made your own hamburger buns!
Making sausages or subs? I’ve got a roll for that too.
Those look fabulous!
Man I wish you’d put this up yesterday! I’ve already bought the buns I’m planning on using (though they’re not buns, per-se) Had I seen this I would have whipped up a batch or two!
Thanks for sharing the recipe. I am soon going back North to visit my family. My dad is the bread baker and I will bring this recipe with me. As we are sure to have a cookout.
Those look good. I make them from scratch from time to time, will have to try your recipe.
I just played with these a few weeks ago… vanillabasil.blogspot.com/2008/05/ultimate-burgers.html
I don’t think I ever want to buy hamburger buns again!
I’m actually drooling.
Next time, can you post pictures of the dough etc? That helps sometimes!
Quite ambitious!
I have a question about the baking stone. Did you bake the rolls on it? Did you have the stone in the oven during preheating, or put it in cold with the rolls on it? Thanks!
Anon: as I said, I used a baking sheet & silipat. When I’ve made rolls and things on the baking stone in the past though, I’ve put it in the oven during preheating.
Meghan:
Good idea about the step by step. I was tempted but the recipe and technique (basically just mixing liquids ingredients with dry, leaving it alone then seperating the dough into 6 pieces) is so easy and I was so busy, I just decided not to. Maybe next time!
What a great idea! I never thought about baking my own rolls, but I definitely love it when restaurants serve burgers on their housemade rolls. These ones look great, especially with the egg wash (can’t get that from Sara Lee!) 🙂
Yum! The best veggie burger I ever had was at an Irvine Big Stop. The bun was obviously made fresh and was the best part!
I have these in the oven right now and they smell AMAZING. It’s going to be hard to wait until dinner time to eat them…
My brother makes the hamburgers in our family, and in the interest of making a really good sibling-cooked meal, I made these buns yesterday to go with. Everything tasted fabulous! You’re right, a homemade burger doesn’t live up to its potential on a store-bought, near-stale bun. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the tip! I’ll keep this recipe in mind the next time I have the urge to make my own hamburger buns.
I divided the dough into 16 pieces instead. I flattened 6 of them a bit (these are the bottom part of the buns). And the rest of the 6 makes the top.
Put the bottom then coat it with oil then put the top together and bake it that way. It’s a bun already split 🙂