Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns

Sometimes it's easy to forget that even simple bread is awesome if you make it yourself. I have already written several posts about "fancy" breads, or difficult to execute breads like bagels (Bagels II is in the works, BTW). But a lot of the time, you just want some really good hamburger and hot dog buns. We don't eat much meat anymore, but Adam and I got a cooler full of Omaha steak products for Xmas, so some buns were needed.

I've tried usual white bread recipes to make buns, randomly found on the internet, but they are always lacking flavor and kind of plain. I also tried to make whole wheat buns once but they were so dense, no one wanted to eat them, me included.

I use the Italian bread formula from Bread Baker's Apprentice (honestly, go buy this book! The recipes are all so great!) but I add about 20g of powdered milk to make them a bit more tender, and I shape them into 10 buns per batch. I always forget how good this recipe is until I have a reason to make them again. I like to spray them with water before the final proof and sprinkle the sesame seeds on then, I think they stay on a little better during the cooking process. I'll try to get the formula written up soon, but if you need these buns ASAP you can always just order BBA!

Because the burger patties from Omaha steaks can be a little lackluster, we added blue cheese and sauteed mushrooms from our CSA box. They were delicious!

I know this was a little short, but its been a busy week. I made some ciabatta yesterday that had the same face as E.T. so you can expect some creepy bread baby pictures once I get that written up. Happy MLK Jr. Day!