We had a guest this weekend, so my room mates planned a cookout for the four of us. One room mate decided to grill hamburgers, so I volunteered home made hamburger buns. I found a recipe, submitted by bwraith, at my favorite bread site, The Fresh Loaf.
I used:
•AP flour , 650 grams
•Water, 290 grams
•Whole milk, 200 grams
•Olive oil, 30 grams
•Sea salt, 13 grams
•1 package, active dry yeast
These buns were fun and easy to make, and took less than four hours. I wish I had made them bigger, but I wasn’t sure how much they’d rise in the oven, so I stuck to the instructions and divided the dough into 10 pieces. I can see doing 8 pieces next time. I left out the sesame seeds because one of us doesn’t like them but I’d like to use them next time just to get that “look.”
As far as the taste, I was a little worried at first- I thought they tasted a little bitter, being unsweetened. I didn’t dislike them myself, but worried that the others would. Turns out everyone liked them! I froze the ones we didn’t need in a ziplock bag.
A NOTE ABOUT FOLLOWING INTERNET RECIPES
Although this one turned out well, I find that some recipes contain errors or are poorly written. I now read the comments left about the recipe to see if anyone found a mistake or made adjustments to compensate for problems.
Sometimes after thoroughly reading a recipe I’ll rewrite it for myself so that it fits my style of baking. First, I list everything I’ll need, in the order that I’ll need it (including tools); this makes mise en place preparation a snap. I don’t spring any surprises on myself; if something should be added to the dough separately from other ingredients, I leave a space in my ingredients list to indicate this. I like to add time estimates so that I know how much of my day will be devoted to actual labor. Eventually I will convert recipes I find into baker’s percentages and add approximate dough weights.
The recipe for these buns can be found at TheFreshLoaf.com.
