Hamburger Buns or Dinner Rolls???

Okay, so I forgot to flatten these out and they turned out like dinner rolls.  That's okay, they tasted great as a roll.

Here's what you need to make them.

 

Ingredients:

1 1/4C Milk (heated to 110F)

2T Butter

1 1/4t Yeast

1/4C Sugar

3 3/4C Flour

3/4t Salt

1 Egg (Optional:  Use one extra if you want to brush the tops with it)

Optional: poppy seeds or sesame seeds

Pour milk into small pot.  Add in butter.  Heat on low.  You are just

trying to warm it up, so watch it carefully.

Remove from heat.

Check temperature to make sure it's somewhere between 110 and 115F.

Yeast dies at 120F, so be particular about this.  

Add in sugar and yeast.

Give a good stir.  Walk away for 10 minutes or so.

Here's what you'll end up with.  Doesn't quite look like it 

normally does for some reason, but it worked out fine.

Pour into the pan of your bread maker.

Add in flour and salt.

I just put the egg on top because I worried about it curdling

if I put it in the warm milk below.

Select the dough option on your machine and hit start.

An hour and a half later, you are ready to go.  

 Turn dough out onto a floured surface.  I just used my 

hands to form into a somewhat rectangular shape.

Using a pizza cutter, cut your dough into 16 pieces.

Take the 4 rounded corner off and put them in some plastic wrap,

then refrigerate. Set aside to make pigs in a blanket another day.  Recipe HERE.

Here's what you're left with.  Twelve somewhat-even pieces with

which to make your hamburger buns (turned dinner rolls).

Fold squares over to create a round ball.  I kinda pinch mine in my fist.

 

Place on a parch-lined baking sheet that you used for hot dog buns 

earlier in the day.  By the way, this is the point where you would 

gently press down on the little balls to flatten them into something

that resembles a hamburger bun.  I forgot this part!!!

 Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for 1/2 hour in a warm place.

 If you choose to do an egg glaze, take your extra egg and whip it.

Gently brush over the tops of your rolls.

This uses maybe a Tablespoon of the egg. Save the rest in a ramekin

for tomorrow's breakfast!  

Sprinkle tops of buns with sesame or poppy seeds if desired.

Bake in a 350F oven for 9 to 11 minutes.

Notes:

These taste good as dinner rolls, too, if you forget to flatten them like I did.

These came out a little smaller than I had imagined.  Next time, I may make 12 with a full batch rather than the 16 that this would have made had I not set some aside for pigs in a blanket. 

I do have another recipe for hot dog buns that you can make hamburger buns out of.  I think I actually prefer that one, but these are pretty good, too.

Made as a whole batch of 16, this whole recipe comes to $1.01, or 6 cents per roll!  So much cheaper than the grocery store!

Recipe courtesy of Craving Comfort. 

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Pretzel Roll Experiment

Back in the days when we dined out frequently, I would occasionally have a burger at Ruby Tuesdays that came on this totally awesome pretzel roll.  I looked online and found a recipe, and while it's not quite the same, it was verrrry tasty and chewy!  This is what my 2nd batch looked like.  The recipe was photographed from my first try.

And here are your Ingredients:

Ingredients:

3/4C Warm Water (110F)

1 1/4t Active Dry Yeast

1t Sugar*

2 1/4C Flour

1t Salt**

2T Unsalted Butter, Melted

1/4C Baking Soda

1 Egg, Beaten

Sea Salt***

First, put get your water the correct temperature.  I did this right
from the tap and tested it with a candy thermometer.
Add your yeast and your sugar to this.

Stir and let it sit about 5 minutes.  It will foam up and look like this...

Give it a good stir, then dump into the pan of your bread machine.

Add your flour, salt and melted butter.  Select the Dough setting

on your bread machine and hit Start. 

Wait for it to finish the cycle,

approximately an hour and a half.

When it's done, place your dough on a floured surface.

In my case, I use a flexible cutting board that I only 

use for vegetables.  Makes for easy clean up.

Pat into as round a shape as you can muster...

Using a pizza cutter, cut into six incredibly UNeven pieces!

Take each piece and fold it back behind itself, creating a little

ball.  You're basically pinching it in the back, kinda like a 

little dumpling from Kung Foo Panda.  :)   Funny, the picture

of my couch is much sharper than the dough ball!  Harumph!
I blame my husband...he took the picture!

This is what the backside of your dough ball will look like...pinchy, eh?

Finish the rest of your dough balls and place them on the parch

you used earlier in the day to make hot dog buns (opposite side, that is).

All the while noting that you have 2 small,

2 medium and 2 large dough balls. You're a genius!

Take a paper towel and wet it.  Squeeze out all the water you can
and cover your dough balls. Let them rise another 1/2 hour in a warm
spot.  I probably should have put a kitchen towel over this for more

warmth.  I keep turning the A/C warmer to save money, but

it still seems really cold in the house lately.  This is really odd, because

it got to 97 deg. here today.  And here I am baking!  Duh!

After they have risen, set 2 quarts of water to 'boilin.

Add in your 1/4C of baking soda now.  See all those little

white spots around the rim of my pot?  That baking soda

makes a nice little mess of everything that comes into 

contact with it.  Even my stove top had a nice little ring!

 

Using a slotted spoon, slowly and carefully lower your

dough ball into the boiling pit of death.  I sacrificed three 

at a time.  I was surprised at how they poofed up!

After a 30 seconds, flip them over.  You can safely do this by pushing

down on one edge of the dough ball with your spoon. 

Boil for another 30 seconds on the other side.

See how they got puffy and a little darker?

Remove your dough balls from the boiling water with your 

slotted spoon and place on a clean kitchen towel.

I patted the tops off, too.

Space your rolls evenly on your (recycled) parch-lined baking sheet.

Brush the tops with the beaten egg.

 Using a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut an X in the center of each.

By the way, can you tell which rolls I accidentally got too 

aggressive with while patting dry?  Heh-heh.
They still baked up like the other non-beaten-into-submission ones.

Sprinkle each roll with a little Sea Salt.  

I used a cheapo little salt grinder I got at Aldi's for 99c!

Place in a preheated 425F oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

These get really dark brown just like a pretzel.  And boy, does

that recycled parch sure take a beating!  Looks like someone
got murdered! But it works great!

My theory is, if it doesn't go up in flames, I'll reuse it!

(Wellllll, I wouldn't use it from a day/week/month before, but from the
same day, sure!  Why not?  It is the other side.  Don't be judgy!)

Update:  Here's what my second batch looked like.  I used the kitchen
scissors to cut the X and they came out much nicer looking. 
The one on the left is how they will look if you do not boil them.
The one on the right has been boiled and I prefer the texture much more.

Here's what a yummy chicken salad sandwich looks like with these!
It was soooo awesome!  I liked that I could pull the extra dough out
of the center of the roll and had a little shell to tuck the salad into!

Notes and What I learned:

*Sugar...I felt it could use some more sugar.  Next time, I'll probably add 2t to 1T of sugar because I like things sweet, like me.  Ah-hem.

**Table Salt...I know these are pretzel rolls, so I shouldn't complain, but I just found these to be too salty.  Next time, I'd probably put 1/4t salt in maximum.

***Sea Salt...IF you are making these as a smaller appetizer, I would encourage you to use the Sea Salt on top.  If you want to make dinner rolls or hamburger buns, I would say leave it off.  That just took the saltiness to a whole other level that I didn't care for...and I used the sea salt very sparingly.

While these look burned, they're actually not.  They do have a nice chewy texture and the bottom is crispy.  My son ate one right away as a snack.  He's a pretzel-lovin' fool if there ever was one!

I'm assuming my little X's didn't open up all purty like the top picture because
a) it was too cold in my house for the rolls to rise properly and
b) because all of my stupid knives are dull, darn it all to helicopter!
I used the kitchen scissors the next time and they came out lovely.

These are VERY economical to make.  The whole batch of six only cost $1.01 to make.
That makes them under .17c per roll!  You could never buy rolls that cheap anywhere...
not even Aldi's!  And I LOVE me some Aldi's, people!

These were VERY easy to make, too.  I thought at first I wouldn't like them as a roll because they were just too much like a big pretzel, but once I had a hamburger and some chicken salad (not at the same time, lol), they were awesome!!!  I pan fried the burger and seasoned as usual.  I chopped and browned an onion and dump a huge pile of it on top, then put a slice of Meunster cheese and a glob of ketchup.  I can truly say this was one of the best burgers I've ever had and it was so easy.  The roll had so much to do with that.  I couldn't wait to make another batch.  I did leave the salt off the top the 2nd time.  Just didn't need it.  The texture is what I love the best!

If you make these, let me know how yours turned out!

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Even BETTER hot dog/hamburger buns!

I made another batch of hot dog buns today and they turned out much softer and lighter than my last batch!  Let me share it with you!  Here's what you'll need...

Ingredients:
1C Milk
1/2C Water
1/4C Butter
1 Egg
4 1/2C A/P Flour
2 1/4t Active Dry Yeast
2T White Sugar
1 1/2t Salt

Place ingredients in the pan of your bread machine in the order they are listed in the recipe above.

Select the Dough setting on your bread machine.  Hit Start!

After an hour and a half, you'll have a beautiful, BIG dough ball!

You'll have to forgive me because I totally forgot to take pix of the following steps!  I don't know where my brain is today!  Next, you will lay the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times.  Spread it out as best you can in the shape of a rectangle about an inch or so thick.  Cut that rectangle in half both ways.

You now have four pieces.  Cut those pieces into 4 long pieces/strips.  They kinda look like a fat bread stick.

I did some shaping, but I really think you could even just leave them as they are and they'd be fine.  What I did was to pinch the edges of the dough under to round the edges. I didn't bother with the sides. (You could also shape them into hamburger buns at this point) I laid them on a parch-lined pan and covered with a slightly wet paper towel.  I let them rise for another 1/2 hour.  I popped them in a 400 degree oven and baked them for about 14 minutes.  Note: your oven is different than mine and may take more or less time, so please start your timer at about 8-10 minutes, then check them.

When I popped them out of the oven, they looked like this:

They're not perfect looking, but they have an awesome texture!  

They a little firm on the outside (not much), but they are really nice and 

soft on the inside, like a hot dog bun should be!  But it doesn't have

that cheap, airy taste that the store bought ones do!

Notes and What I Learned:

It really pays to look around and try different recipes!  I'm really happy with this one and think it will become our new standby.  

I can't believe I forgot to take several pix of several important steps!  Of course, I'm new at this, but still...

I'll remember next time I make them.

As with my regular hot dog buns, I allow them to cool completely, place in a large zip top bag and freeze.  I take two or three out at a time and put them in a smaller zip top bag to thaw in the fridge.  You'd never know they were frozen!

You can always shape these into little rounds and make hamburger buns, too.

According to my calculations, the whole batch comes out to $1.32 for 16 buns!!!  That's only  8.25c each!
Amazing!

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