Today I’m ditching the whole wheat flour for a soft and fluffy Homemade Hamburger Bun made with unbleached bread flour (King Arthur’s brand). Let’s be honest here… the two are just not the same!
I’ve been experimenting a lot with baking breads lately and I’ve come to realize that using all whole wheat flour will NOT yield the same result as using bread flour. I used to think I could just sub whole wheat flour in for anything. The more and more I experiment the more I’m coming to see that making that substitution has been causing me to think I’m just not good at baking breads. I’ve been longing for a perfect result…and have come up short time and time again.
I’ve known bread flour was a completely different animal for years, after all I did spend $25,000 on Baking and Pastry School. You see, bread flour has a higher protein content which makes it better for gluten development. This is going to give you a nicer rise and a fluffier product. I’ve seen people making substitutions between all purpose and bread flour, however I strongly recommend using bread flour for this recipe because I promise….it is just perfect!
I know yeast breads are scary… and believe me… I know why. With all of my experimentations lately I fully understand the complete letdown you feel when you’ve dedicated time, energy, and money into something that just doesn’t produce the results you were looking for. Today I’m taking the “scary” out of Homemade Hamburger Buns because if you follow this recipe I promise you will get the same results pictured. All of my Hamburger Buns were perfect, and far superior to those processed, shelf stable buns you buy at the supermarket that NEVER mold!
A few other notes about these Buns:
- Do not skip the egg wash! Egg wash is simply an egg + a bit of water brushed onto your buns before you bake them to give them that nice golden brown color. I have tried to cut corners by skipping the egg wash on yeast breads over and over again and every time I end up thinking “Gee I wish I would have used that egg wash” when my product isn’t nice and golden brown like I hoped it would be.
- Temperature matters. Temperature is a crucial part of baking yeast breads. You can actually kill the yeast if your water is too hot, so be careful. I never take the temperature of the water with a thermometer, but when my water feels ever so slightly warmer then lukewarm, that’s what I go with. Obviously, that’s not the “professional” method of figuring out water temperature but it has never failed me. How quickly your dough rises also depends upon the temperature of the room your dough is in. My kitchen is always a little warmer then the rest of the house, which is great for rising dough. In the winter I turn my oven on and sit the dough on top of the oven. Again, nothing “professional” about this, just my own experience.
- This dough can be turned into a number of things: Hamburger Buns, breadsticks, garlic bread, hoagie rolls…. you name it. I adapted the recipe from this Almost Famous Breadsticks recipe from Food Network. It is definitely my new favorite dough!
Equipment I Used
