Homemade Hamburger Buns

I have a friend in Colorado who bakes bread for her family several times a week. She bakes bread for sandwiches and also makes her own homemade hamburger buns. What a luxury! It has never occurred to me to put in the amount of time to make my own buns for hamburgers, even though I love buns, rolls and other small breads.

When I was a kid, I loved eating dry hard rolls for a snack and I usually followed my own ritual: I'd bite off one end of the roll, take my fingers to dig out and eat the soft, chewy inside of the roll before munching the crust.

In any case, today we were planning buffalo burgers for dinner and with enough time on my hands, I thought I'd give making my own hamburger buns a try. As always, I let the breadmaker do the messy part of kneading and letting the dough rise once for me. The rest was a cinch and we all agreed when eating our burgers that these were the tastiest buns we've ever had.

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups bread flour

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

1 Tbsp. butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup hot water (120˚–130˚F)

Preparation:

Add all ingredients to the pan of a breadmaker, in the order suggested by the breadmaker manufacturer, and process on the dough setting. When the dough is done, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface, divide into 6 pieces and shape them into balls. Put them onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat, cover with wax paper and let rest for about 5 minutes. Flatten each ball with the palm of your hand and let rest for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400˚F. Brush buns with a little milk and sprinkle either sesame or poppy seeds on top, if so desired. Then bake the buns on a center rack in the oven for about 20 minutes. They are done when nicely browned. Cool buns on a rack and serve.

Buttermilk Scones

I've been going to an ongoing Bible study at a nearby church for many years, actually since my older daughter was about 1 1/2 years old. I started going for a number of reasons:

1. I felt the need for talking with other adults at least once a week after having been a stay-at-home mom for a while.

2. I thought Bible study would enrich my life and help me get to know God better.

3. The group of people I joined had lifted me up and prayed for me when pregnant with my first daughter.

The other day, I volunteered to bring a little something to nibble on for fellowship time and picked a recipe for scones that I found in my present church's cookbook. So here it is. Adapted from the cookbook, "Real Lutherans Cooking":

Buttermilk Scones

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup butter

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsp. orange zest

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

1 cup dried blueberries (or other dried fruit), optional

white sugar to sprinkle on top

Preparation:

Drop tablespoonfuls of the batter onto a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle white sugar on top before baking. Bake at 400˚F for about 15 minutes. This is a great recipe served with lemon curd, jam and/or clotted cream (or just plain whipped cream in lieu of clotted cream!).

Variation:

Instead of making the scones with walnuts and dried blueberries, try dried cherries, or craisins and white chocolate chips. It's so good!

Homemade Oatmeal Bread

I have one daughter who loves Brownberry's Oatnut Bread for sandwiches and toast, and another daughter who will not eat a sandwich to save her life, unless it's made with homemade bread.

So, tonight I attempted to make a new oatmeal bread recipe that I hope my dear daughter will like. I've made breads with kamut, spelt and quinoa flours before and she's liked them, but this recipe uses none of the ancient grains. I just took the loaf out of the oven and it smells wonderful, but I'll have to wait and see what my daughter says. In any case, here's the recipe I made tonight. It's slightly adapted, but pretty much the way I found it in "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison. As usual, I used the bread machine to mix the dough and let it rise and then baked the loaf in the oven.

Homemade Oatmeal Bread

Add to the pan of a bread machine:

1 1/4 cups water

2 Tbsp. canola oil

1/4 cup raw honey

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup wheat bran

2 cups all-purpose white flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

Process on the dough setting and let rise. Remove from the bread machine when dough cycle is done, remove dough, shape and roll in a mixture of wheat bran and oats, grease a 9x5 loaf pan and put loaf inside. Let loaf rise for about 30 minutes, then bake at 375˚F for about 45 minutes.

Inauguration Day Sticky Buns

I just read in the NY Times that each presidency is marked by "firsts," this being the inauguration of the first black president of the U.S. Well, there's a first happening in our house right now, too, while watching everything that's going on in Washington, D.C. I'm making sticky buns for the first time completely from scratch, using the bread machine to get through the messy part of mixing the dough and letting it rise. Just like the inaugural, the buns are still evolving, and I will update this entry as I'm working along. 

The recipe that I usually make–"usually" meaning once or twice a year–, calls for frozen rolls from the grocery store. It's not a healthy recipe, unfortunately, but it's very easy to make and most people enjoy eating it. This recipe was given to me by a good friend. I believe almost everyone in our extended family has a similar recipe on hand:

Caramel Nut Rolls

Ingredients:

about 15 frozen bread rolls

1 small package butterscotch pudding (the kind you cook, NOT the instant kind)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans (if desired)

Preparation:

The evening before baking, place the frozen rolls in a greased Bundt pan. Sprinkle pudding mix over the top. Melt butter, mix in brown sugar, and pour mixture over the rolls. Add nuts if desired. Put the pan with prepared rolls into the cold oven overnight and let the rolls rise. In the morning, remove the rolls from the oven. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Bake the rolls for 25 min. (they will get golden on top). Let cool a bit in the pan and flip over onto a plate. Enjoy!

This morning, however, I didn't have frozen rolls or butterscotch pudding in the house, so I searched for a recipe to make the rolls from scratch. Here's what I tried:

Sticky Buns

Add to the pan of the bread machine and process on the dough setting:

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs

2 cups bread flour

1 1/4 tsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. sugar

Roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 18 inches long, spread about 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup golden raisins on top and roll lengthwise. Cut the resulting roll into about 18 pieces. Heavily butter a 9x13 pan, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar and drizzle a little honey on top, then spread another 1/2 cup of chopped pecans on top of that if desired. Place the rolls flat side down on top and bake in the oven at 350˚F for about 20-25 minutes. When done, invert rolls onto a serving plate.

I was not very happy with the result. My husband thought the dough of the rolls tasted a lot better than the store-bought frozen rolls and I agree. Neither of us liked the honey flavor, though, it just seemed too pervasive. Also, the rolls were quite small, about the size of a half-cup muffin tin, and instead of just letting the rolls rise for 30 minutes before baking, they may have required a couple of hours. With the help of our neighbors and kids they were all consumed, but I will have to keep looking for a better recipe. Since I don't bake sweet rolls very often, it may take me years to find one. :)

Oh la la baguette!

There's nothing quite like a fresh loaf of baguette with it's crisp crust and soft, chewy inside. It's delicious all by itself, but magically transformed into something even better with a little pat of butter. With a good baguette in my hands, I often relive fond memories of a summer spent in France as a student, and find it almost irresistible to keep eating until the whole loaf is gone. Alas, those who know how it is made also know there's very little of nutritional value in baguette. So I seldom make it, but when I do, it is something special to me.

The summer I spent in France, I lived with a family in the Pyrénées near the French-Spanish border. They served baguette with lunch and dinner. Usually, a couple of whole loaves sat in the center of the dining table and everyone broke off a piece of baguette for themselves. It was the best baguette I've ever had… but maybe I'm just getting a little nostalgic here because I've certainly had some very good baguette outside of France, and the recipe I use is nothing to scoff at, either.

I've made baguette for years, experimenting with different flours and baking temperatures at times, but the best baguette is still just made with simple white flour, water, salt and yeast. Trying to make it "healthier" doesn't necessarily make it better. When something tastes good, people are happy, and, in my unscholarly opinion, I'm sure feelings of happiness increase our serotonin levels, lower stress and contribute to better physical health and longevity. I'd bet if researched, my opinion could be supported. : )

Here's the recipe for baguette that I've used for years. It is from one of my favorite cookbooks, called Rustic European Breads from your Bread Machine:

Pain Ordinaire

1 1/4 cup water

3 cups flour (I like bread flour)

2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 tsp. salt (kosher or handcrafted sea salt have a nice flavor)

Put all the ingredients in a breadmaker and process on the dough setting. Afterwards, shape the loaves, let them rest for about 30 minutes, brush the tops with egg wash (1 egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp. water), cut three slits into the top and bake at 450 degrees F for about 20 to 25 minutes. Baguette is best eaten fresh. I like mine almost fresh from the oven. Enjoy!