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Best hamburger buns to start the grilling season

March 9, 2009 by 6 Comments

We had one of our new favorite meals last night – garlic Parmesan chicken breasts served as a sandwich with croquettes. SO good and super simple. I finally made fresh hamburger buns last week and they turned out awesome. Sometimes they haven’t risen correctly and I end up with tiny buns, but definitely not this time. These buns freeze really well and I usually can’t even tell they’ve been frozen when we eat them. That could have to do with us eating them so quickly after they go into the freezer but they’re just too good not to eat at least one sandwich a week. That’s only 6 weeks of buns which makes me think I may need to make a lot more of these for freezing when summer rolls around! They can also be made into hot dog buns for some killer chili dogs with cheese! Speaking of which, anyone have a really good Coney Island style chili sauce for hot dogs? Especially one that tastes like Sonic Drive-in? I know, fast food cannot be compared to REAL food, but their chili dogs are just SO GOOD.

It seems like a lot of steps because I let the hamburger buns rise twice, but they just seem to turn out best this way. I really don’t find the extra rising step to be that much trouble, you just need an extra hour of time to prepare them.

best burger buns

The Best Hamburger (or Hot Dog) Buns

Ingredients

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg + egg whites of 1 egg
  • Sesame seeds for topping, if desired

Directions

  1. In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and butter until very warm, 120 degrees F (50 degrees C). This was a heat setting of about 3 on my stove.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix milk mixture into flour mixture, and then mix in 1 egg. Stir in the remaining 2 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
  3. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Put dough ball into a greased bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour.
  4. Punch dough down and turn it out onto a floured surface. Cut the dough into 12 pieces, form into balls, place on a greased baking sheet and flatten slightly. Cover and let rise for 1 more hour.
  5. Once rising is complete, brush tops of buns with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired.
  6. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

To make 16 hot dog buns from this recipe, shape each piece into a 6×4 inch rectangle. Starting with the longer side, roll up tightly, and pinch edges and ends to seal. Let rise about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

To make onion rolls from this recipe, add 1 tablespoon dried minced onion and 1/2 teaspoon onion salt to the flour mix (before milk and eggs are added.) After second rising, brush with egg white, sprinkle with dried minced onion and bake as directed above.

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  • http://thequeenofseaford.blogspot.com janet

    My sister makes her own hamburger buns and loves them. I love fresh bread too much!! Have cut out most carbs. I have been wishing for some Hand Kase mit Musik. There used to be a place in Bad Vibel called Zur Zwiebel that had the best Hand Kase mit Musik. Last time we were through BV it was a Balkan restaurant. :^( There are just some things you can’t get here in the USA.

  • http://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/ Tiffany

    When I read there was a great place for handkäse in Bad Vilbel I got so excited – it’s just around the corner from us. But since it’s closed, that just won’t do.

    I LOVE handkäse – there is a place in the Hoechster Markt outside Frankfurt that makes awesome homemade handkäs – and even when they bring what has to be 50 kilos or so of cheese, they still sell out on good days. When I was pregnant it was one of the things I wasn’t allowed to eat. That was not an easy task for me in the middle of the summer when we had a huge party for my husband’s 30th birthday. Tons of handkäs and I wasn’t supposed to eat any. I did have to sneak some, though. Our daughter doesn’t seem to have been harmed by it :)

    I did find a recipe to make your own handkäse – don’t know if that’s something you want to try but it seems rather simple. Would love to give it a try, especially since we have a dairy not too far from here that sells fresh milk. Do you read German? http://www.onkelheinz.de/kaese.htm#Hausmacher

    I would love to give more German recipes a go but i’m just not sure yet…maybe another of my goals to try something German once a week or so.

  • http://www.fitness-badvilbel.de Thomas Heumann

    I live in Bad Vilbel nearly my whole life and my wife was coming here from Karlsruhe 3 years ago. The first thing, she would like to try was Handkäs mit Musik. It was very hard to find a nice place, where you can eat this here in Bad Vilbel. We found a few weeks ago the restaurant “Alte Mühle” and since we’ve been there the first time, it is now our favorite place. So, when you are the next time in Bad Vilbel in summer, look for the “Alte Mühle” (http://www.altemuehle.net) We sent you our best regards from Germany Thomas & Alexandra

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  • Stephanie

    Can you replace sugar with Raw honey? same amount? How do you store them? must be used right away I assume or maybe frozen…its just my Husband and I unless we have company…or maybe have you cut the recipe in half before?

    • Tiffany

      Hi Stephanie,
      Yes, you can substitute sugar for honey but it can be a bit tricky. You’ll want to remove about a teaspoon of water or milk from the recipe since honey has so much water in it (it’s 17% water so for every cup of honey you add you need to remove 8 teaspoons of water). But if you substitute half of the flour for freshly ground whole-grain wheat into the recipe then you don’t need to remove any liquid. The whole wheat soaks up more moisture.

      The rolls will not keep very long on the counter (especially if you use honey in them) but you can absolutely freeze them. We are also a small family and I usually double this recipe and freeze all but the two rolls we’ll be eating at dinner. I made my last batch with half whole wheat flour and they were a bit drier than usual but still absolutely fantastic. They will keep in the freezer for a couple months in a sturdy ziploc bag…unless you eat them faster than that which is usually our problem since they are just so good! I’ve been known to snack on the rolls just because I love their flavor :)