Perfect Hamburger Buns

We all like hamburgers. If you don’t agree, just don’t argue, most likely you just had bad luck with what you’ve tasted.
What is the main component of a fine burger? Right – a delicious burger patty. But the second, most important, in my opinion, is bun.

The majority of self-respecting places, that cooks burgers, bake them themselves, and we’re as good too, I think.
Looking at all the text below, you’d think, that’s very complicated and not worth it, but, actually, absolutely no.

Of course, you have to work hard a bit, but it’ll take you for about 15-20 minutes if you have some equipment for making dough, and 30 minutes if you don’t.

I don’t really see the point to describe you the result, just take a look at these photos. Do you really think these beauties aren’t worth 30 minutes of your time?

By the way, you can store them easily up to 5 days, but if it’s not enough – you can freeze them and keep there for about a month, sure, if you could resist and not to eat them all in a day.

Okay, let’s get started, while you’re still interested and haven’t changed your mind to cook.

What You Need to Cook Perfect Hamburger Rolls

INGREDIENTS:

• 360 g (12,7 oz)of higher grade wheat flour
• 60 g (2,1 oz) of whole wheat flour (you can take the same amount of regular one)
• 100 ml (6,8 tbsp) of water
• 110 ml (7,4 tbsp) of milk
• 2,5 tbsp of sugar
• 2 tsp of instant yeasts
• 40 g (1,4 oz) of unsalted butter
• 1,5 tsp of salt
• 2 eggs

EQUIPMENT:

• Breadmaker, mixer or blender with specific nozzles for dough (not necessarily)
• For the best and most predictable results, I recommend using a kitchen scale for all baking/bread/dessert recipes.

How to Make Perfect Hamburger Rolls: Step-by-Step Instructions🔪

STEP 1. MIX WATER, MILK, YEAST, SALT AND SUGAR

At first, prepare the liquid components. Mix in the glass or other suitable container 100 ml (6,8 tbsp) of warm water, 110 ml (7,4 tbsp) of milk, 2 tsp of extra yeast, 2,5 tbsp of sugar, and 1,5 tsp of salt.

You can use the same amount of regular dry yeast or 30 g of living yeast, but, this way, it’ll take you a bit more time. Mix and put aside.

---

STEP 2. PREPARE THE FLOUR MIX

Mix in the blender bowl (if you’re using it) or in the big bowl 360 g (12,7 oz) of higher grade wheat flour, 60 g (2,1 oz) of whole wheat flour, and 40 g (1,4 oz) of unsalted butter at room temperature.

Finely mix to combine all the ingredients well.

---

STEP 3. ADD AN EGG AND LIQUIDS TO THE FLOUR, MAKE A DOUGH

Break 1 egg and add to the flour, also add there a liquid mix from step 1. If you’re using a blender – place a hooked nozzle and mix dough.

If you’re making it with hands – do it for about 10-15 minutes, until smooth. The dough shouldn’t be sticky after all if you’re making it long enough but if it’s still sticky, most likely the reason is flour.

It’s either low-quality or too old already. In this case, the best option is to make it as smooth as you can and bake rolls. And you’d better throw this flour away and buy a new one. You can also add some extra flour, but not much.

---

STEP 4. PUT THE DOUGH INTO THE BOWL AND LEAVE FOR 1-2 HOURS.

Grease a big bowl (it should be two-three times bigger than a dough) with oil, put there dough, and cover with a food plastic foil. Leave it in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it becomes bigger 2-2,5 times.

---

STEP 5. DIVIDE THE DOUGH, FORM THE ROLLS AND LEAVE FOR 1,5-2 HOURS.

Take the dough off the bowl, put on the kitchen board with some flour on it, and divide it into 8 even parts. In order to do that you can weigh the dough and then divide the number into 8.

Then tear off a piece and weigh it again, add some dough if not enough or remove some if too much in order to get a needed weight.

If it’s not crucial for you to have some variation in the roll wight, you can choose an easier way. Make a roll and using a knife or spatula divide it in half, then do the same with the resulting 2 rolls. And at the end divide in half the resulting 4 rolls.

After we divide the dough, we should take them a form. The correct name of this process is formation or forming.

Take one of the 8 pieces and flatten it (or roll) to 1 cm thick. Roll the edges to the middle, flip, and take the round form with hands.

It’s easier for me to do it another way. I take a piece of dough and then do the following: with both hands, I make a movement like stroking from the top to the bottom, so the hands are painting a round shape in the air.

When they are at the bottom point, the little fingers touch and pinch a dough, after that, I turn it over in 90 degrees and repeat the procedure. Repeat it until the roll is smooth on top and round-shaped.

After the first roll is done, put it on the baking sheet covered with parchment or silicon rug and splash it a bit with a hand (look on photo: on the top one the rolls are splashed, on the bottom – no). Do the same with the rest of the rolls.

You should leave enough space between them as they’ll increase 1,5 times before baking.

When all the rolls are on the baking sheet, cover them with a food plastic foil, and leave for 1,5-2 hours.

You can speed up this process. Warm up the oven to 50 degrees (it’s a minimal point on my thermostat), turn on the fan regime or just light regime, and leave the dough inside. Be careful, do not overheat the oven, the high temperature will destroy the yeast. The ideal temperature for the dough is 40 degrees. We’ll warm-up to 50 because while our roll will warm-up, the temperature falls to 40 and will go down.

---

STEP 6. WARM-UP THE OVEN TO 200 DEGREES, BAKE THE ROLLS FOR 15 MINUTES.

If you didn’t use the oven for rising the dough, just warm-up the oven to 200 degrees in 30 minutes before baking. And if you did use the oven, take off the rolls and warm it up to 200 degrees.

Meanwhile, break 1 egg into a glass, whip it with a fork, add a couple of spoons of water, and mix.

Grease the rolls from all visible sides using a kitchen brush.

You see how rolls increased in size. While baking, they’ll rise too and become larger in diameter.

In this recipe, I haven’t used sesame or other sprinkles. Nevertheless, on this step, you can add anything you like: sesame, poppy seeds, or spices like oregano and others.

Bake on the top-bottom regime for 12-15 minutes, until it’s golden enough. I baked for 15 minutes and here’s what I’ve got.

Don’t rush to take the rolls off the baking sheet – let them rest for about 5 minutes, and it would be easier to take off the parchment. After that place them on the baking grate and let to cool down completely.

I don’t recommend to cut them or eat while hot: until the rolls are completely cool – they still are cooking. It’s like a meat steak, you should let it rest a bit in order to make the temperature inside even.

After the rolls have cooled down, wrap them into a food plastic foil, they can be stored for 5-7 days.

As I’ve said before, at this point, you can freeze the rolls for later. Wrap them into a food plastic foil and put it to the freezer. It’s preferably to put them into a plastic container additionally in the order they don’t have this “freezer smell”.