Monday, June 4, 2012

Making Buns



Hubs and I have a local eatery that we like to visit usually when we go for our big grocery shopping trip for the month, and Gram and Papa have the kids for the evening. It's part sports bar and part pub. They make some of the best hamburgers.

My favorite is the Patty Melt, which comes on pumpernickel bread with sauteed onions and Swiss. My mouth is watering just typing about it. Hubby gets "The Manhattan," which also comes on pumpernickel, with sauteed onions and topped off with a few slices of delicious pastrami. Lots of meat for my cowboy.

We get the cravings for these, but don't get the chance to get to town to enjoy them that often, so I decided it was time to hop on the Internet and do some searching for a good recipe for pumpernickel bread. I turned to one of my favorite food blogs, Mennonite Girls Can Cook, and came up with their recipe to try. The first time I made this I made it in two large loaves, but this time around I decided to give making some hamburger buns a try. Now, I can make bread, and I've made buns before, but they didn't come out so pretty looking. I know, I know, it's all about taste, but a girl wants her buns to look good doesn't she? So as I'm making my dough and wondering what I was going to do to make these look at little more presentable, a light bulb clicked on in my head. Heck, I'm gonna cheat and roll out the dough and use a large biscuit cutter to make these all the same size and shape.

It worked! I rolled the dough about 1/2 to 3/4 thick and used my largest biscuit cutter, let them rise again, and popped them in the oven at 350* for 15 minutes. Look at those glorious buns up there! All nice and uniform and perfect burger size. Here's the recipe. Give it a try.

*Their recipe directions seemed to leave out when they added a few ingredients so I placed a star in the directions when I added them in.

Pumpernickel Bread from Mennonite Girls Can Cook

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup molasses
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons caraway seed..optional
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
Approx 3 cups white flour


Pour water, beaten eggs, molasses, oil, sugar, and salt in mixing bowl and mix well.**Add in cocoa, and caraway seed(I didn't use). Stir in rye flour, whole wheat flour, and yeast. Add white flour 1 cup at a time and knead till smooth and slightly sticky but not sticky enough to cling to the bowl. Place in a greased bowl, cover and set in a warm place to rise.


Allow to rise till doubled, approx 2 hours. Punch down the dough and form into 2 round loaves and place them on a large greased cookie sheet. Let rise for 30 minutes and bake at 375º for 35 minutes. If you want a chewier crust brush the bread with water the last 10 minutes of baking.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

I love making homemade buns! I just might try this recipe!

Thanks for sharing!

Gumbo Lily said...

I really like the idea of cutting your buns with a biscuit cutter! You're so smart! Good looking buns there Jaimi!