These hamburger buns are really easy to make and take about three hours beginning to end. I originally made these for hamburgers but I discovered that they are perfect lightly toasted for breakfast sandwiches. (The picture to the left is a sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich)
The recipe is based on King Arthur’s Onion Buns, but their version wastes an egg yolk which I hate to do – so I adapted this one a little in order to incorporate it into the dough.
Put all of this into a large glass bowl, in the following order. I place the bowl on the kitchen scale, zero out the weight of the bowl, and measure everything into the bowl that way.
6oz warm water
1/2oz butter
14oz all purpose (plain flour)
2oz white sugar
1/2tbsp salt
1tbsp instant yeast
1 egg
Now separate another egg, add the yolk to the mixture above and keep the white in a separate bowl. If you’re not so good at separating eggs the way they do on cooking shows, the easiest way to do this is to carefully crack an egg into a (washed) hand over a clean bowl, let the white slip through your fingers, catching the yolk. Then put the yolk in with the rest of the ingredients above.
Mix all this thoroughly until the dough comes together as a whole ball, then turn out onto a lightly floured counter top. Adding only as much extra flour as necessary to prevent it sticking to your hands or the counter, knead the dough for about 5-7 minutes until it’s soft and smooth. It will be quite sticky – that’s the way it should be.
Clean out and lightly oil the bowl, and put the dough in. Cover and rise until it’s doubled in size. Because of the amount of yeast in the recipe, this will only take about an hour – watch the dough carefully, because you don’t want to over-rise it.
When the dough has risen, lightly flour the counter top again, punch down the dough and roll it out until it’s about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle the dough with dried minced onion (you can’t use fresh onion – it contains liquid which will ruin the rolls as they bake).
Roll the dough into a log and tuck in the ends so they’re sealed. Using a sharp knife or a bench scraper, cut the dough into eight equal pieces (half the dough, half it again, then half again). Lightly flour each piece, and press with the palm of your hand into a flat disc about 3 inches across.
Place the buns carefully onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches on all sides of each piece – they will swell horizontally a little as they rise and bake. Cover them loosely, and leave them until they’re puffy – this will take about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375°F and mix the reserved egg white with a tablespoon of cold water and, using a silicone brush, paint each bun carefully with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, cracked peppercorns – whatever you like.
Bake these for 22 minutes in the middle rack of the oven – they’ll be golden brown but a little squishy at the sides. Remove from the cookie sheet immediately so as not to overcook the bottom, and cool completely on a rack.
As with most breads, these freeze very well. Place left-over hamburger buns in large zip-top bags and squeeze out as much air as you can. To thaw, place on a wooden board in one layer at room temperature. Cover with a clean tea-towel for about an hour.
