Yummmmm. Don’t you wish your screen was scratch ‘n sniff? But guess what? You could make these for real, in your own kitchen, by yourself. It’s super easy, especially if you pull out your….breadmaker. Who has one? Raise your hand. Is it buried in your basement? Lurking in the back of a corner cupboard?
Get it out!
And don’t use it to make bread. The bread comes out in a crazy shape with huge holes gouged in the bottom from the breadmaker. Have they even fixed that about breadmakers yet?
Instead, make buns. 'Cuz it's the weekend, or you're at the cottage, and you just wanna barbeque, and who wants to run to the store to buy squishy nutrition-less buns, and then have some left over because they don't sell them in the right quantities? And these are mostly completely almost entirely homemade. Except for the kneading part which you don't want to do.
Okay now I said the word buns in the title and I said it again and be warned I’m going to say it lots more times here and after that I promise I won’t say it anymore. Probably.
Set the breadmaker to the dough setting. It’s better.
Take any kind of breadmaker recipe, pop all your ingredients into the machine, but just set it to the dough setting. I have a genius friend and a genius mother-in-law who both use their breadmakers like this, and I copy. If you like whole grain, go for it. If you like gluten free then do it. I've used a sweet dough recipe for making hot-cross buns that might get posted here some Easter. And hopefully you've at least used yours to make pizza dough, right? We put beer in ours. Just sayin'
Just one thing. Some breadmakers have a warming cycle at the beginning, and some require you to start with warmed up liquids. Make sure you know which kind of machine you have.
And then put that thing back in the basement or at least in another room and press start, 'cuz it's a bit loud and annoying. And carry on with your weekend stuff.
Then you’ll get this. It's okay. Don't be scared.
Take a big knife and carve that lump up into pieces. If you'll have some littles at the table then carve some little ones. If you like your hamburgers ginormous, then make them ginormous. See how you have control? It's great, right?
Now this is the hardest part, and it's not even hard. You need to tuck the cut edges of each piece underneath all the way around. So then it will look like this on the bottom. And when you flip them over and line them all up on a baking sheet, either oiled or with parchment, then they look like this.
Are you feeling professional yet?
And that was the hard part. Now just cover them up with something like a tea towel and let them rise for about an hour. If it's cool or air-conditioned then maybe leave them in a slightly warmed oven that you've turned off, otherwise just on the counter is fine.
Hey look, there's that awesome ombré tea-towel that I DIY-ed by dipping it into neon yellow fabric dye.
After they've risen about this much you'll uncover them and stick them in the oven at 375° for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your buns and until they're lightly browned. This information I found in my vintage Canadian Cook Book...an obvious source for something so domestic and awesome as baking your own hamburger buns. And also the source for an amazing banana cake recipe. Have you tried that one yet?
By now you will be loving the smell of fresh-baked bread in your house. Or you can try scratching and sniffing the screen again.
With the smell of fresh-baked bread in the house everyone will be drooling by dinner time. You don't need anything fancy on the table when you've got that going on. Get your burgers off the grill, pile on the condiments and dive in.
But by the way I am obsessed with this strawberry mango guacamole from Angela Liddon's Oh She Glows cookbook, if you wanted something fancy on the side. Have you tried it? If you invite me over for dinner this is what I'm bringing. The recipe's not on her blog (which is fabulous) so you'll have to buy the book. And her photo of the guacamole is WAY better than mine. But that's okay, 'cuz we're all about the buns here today. Kind of mostly almost completely homemade.
If your breadmaker came with a recipe book you could try the recipes from it. Use the same ingredients but set the machine to the dough setting. Or google some. Here's the recipe just using the ingredients for white bread from the cookbook that came with my breadmaker, which is a Black & Decker that doesn't have the beginning warming cycle.
Almost Homemade Hamburger Buns
2 cups heated water + 4 tbsp dry milk powder - (or substitute 2 cups heated milk) - 4 tbsp margarine or butter, cubed - 2 1/4 tsp salt - 1 tbsp sugar - 5 1/2 cups all-purpose (or bread machine) flour - 1 1/4 tsp yeast
Add ingredients to the machine in the order listed and select the Dough setting. When cycle is complete, tip the dough out onto a floured board and cut into pieces. Shape each piece into a roll by tucking under the cut edges. Place them onto an oiled or parchment lined pan, cover, and allow to rise for about an hour in a warm place. Uncover and bake for 15-20 minutes at 375° . Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy, sit back and wait for the compliments. You're welcome.
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