Easy, Perfect Homemade Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns

I wanted to participate in Bread Baking Day (BBD) this month and a week ago I checked online to find the topic and somehow I got the idea that it was "small breads" (now that I look closer, I see that "small breads" was on the menu for August 2008!). So, I made small breads. That is not necessarily a bad thing ... I have wanted to find a great bun recipe that I could use for sandwiches (or hot dogs or hamburgers, but we don't eat them often) for quite some time. One of the Craving Ellie recipes that I missed is for Lobster Roll, and I wanted to use my own home made rolls for it, so this gave me the incentive to read through a pile of recipes for the "perfect" hamburger/hot dog bun ... and try out this one that, yes, could possibly be the most perfect sandwich bun of all!

I found what I consider (albeit with somewhat limited experience) to be the perfect recipe (after all, that is what the blog title said) at Baking Delights by Marye Audet.

Easy, Perfect Homemade Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 1/2 cups flour (unbleached, whole wheat, or a mix)
1 package instant yeast
1 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, room temperature

Instructions:

Heat the milk, water, honey and butter until butter is melted. Check temperature. Depending on the temperature, let cool to 120F. Carefully beat in egg.
Mix 2 cups of the flour, yeast, and salt. Mix into the milk mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat well after each addition.
When the dough pulls together, (it will form a soft ball) turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. This should take about 5 minutes.
Divide dough into 12 -16 equal pieces. This will depend on the size you want for the finished bun. Shape into smooth balls, flatten slightly, and place on a silpat covered baking sheet.

If you are making hot dog buns, the author found it easiest to roll the dough out into a large rectangle and cut into smaller rectangles. Let rise with sides touching.
You can brush the tops with egg wash



and sprinkle with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse sea salt, or whatever you like. You can add dry onion soup mix for onion rolls. These are very versatile!

Let rise for 30 to 35 minutes. When buns have almost doubled bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes 12-16

I made 6 hamburg style sandwich buns and we almost immediately heated a couple up for sandwiches of turkey ham, tomatoes and cheese ... and they were perfect ... not heavy and hard to chew with the ingredients of the sandwich.

And I made 6 hot dog buns, so I would have some to make the Lobster Roll recipe.

Verdict:

These were definitely the best home made hot dog and hamburg buns that I have tried so far ... so good that my search has ended and I will now be using this recipe for all my sandwich buns needs. I found them light enough to eat with heavy meat fillings. They had a fine grained texture and an excellent "background" flavor to enhance any sandwich filling.