Hamburger Buns or Hamburger Rolls

OK, are they buns or rolls?

I think it depends on where you grew up.

We always called them buns but hubby calls them rolls.

I guess it’s like the old soda, pop, coke thing. It’s a coke or soda around here, even if you’re drinking Pepsi, which I do not. We’re a Coke family all the way.

Or tea. In the south when you say you want tea at a restaurant, they’ll bring you sweet tea but go up north and you’d better tell them sweet tea or you’ll be in for a rude surprise.

My Italian friends call spaghetti sauce gravy. Took me forever to realize what they were talking about. Around here gravy is brown or white and is smothering meat or biscuits and you sop it up when you’ve finished so the plate looks like it’s been licked clean.

But whatever you call this single serving bread, suitable for a hamburger or Sloppy Joes or even a good sandwich, this one is soft, light and flavorful. I’m so glad I found and tried this recipe.

It’s a dump everything in kind of recipe, then mix, rise, shape, rise again and bake. I love these kind of recipes.

Hamburger Buns
from King Arthur Flour

3/4 to 1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons softened butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs (1 divided)
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
Sesame seeds or poppy seeds (optional)

King Arthur Flour has a wonderful paragraph about how much water to use based on the area you live in, humidity, temperature, blah, blah, blah. Start with the 3/4 cup water and add more if needed till you get the sticky/doughy consistency you’re looking for.

Place everything into the bowl of your mixer except 1 egg. Separate the 1 egg and set aside the white for an egg wash. Add remaining egg yolk to mixer bowl. Mix on low until everything is blended together.

Now knead dough in blender for about 7 minutes. Or knead by hand for 10 minutes. Dough should be elastic in feel with just a slight stickiness. When you pull it away from the bowl or counter, it will stretch and stick just a bit but come away clean. Hope that makes sense.

Place in a greased bowl, I used my large batter bowl from Pampered Chef. I don’t work for them and I won’t get anything for giving them this plug but I love these bowls.

Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough and remove from bowl. Divide into 8 equal pieces. I gently rolled the dough into a log then cut with a sharp knife. Also I didn’t need to flour my surface, the dough was so easy to work with, just roll, cut, rest, roll.

Shape into rounded balls, taking time to make sure no creases are showing. Place on greased or parchment lined baking sheet.

Press down dough with fingers to flatten. Then cover and let rise again for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375.

Prepare egg wash-add 1 tablespoon water to egg white and whisk till frothy. Brush over rolls and sprinkle with seeds.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden and perfect. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes before using.

We’ll never have to buy buns again!

I’ve linked up at Grateful Belly, Cast Party Wednesday, Wednesday Wowsers, Junk in their Trunk, Rock N Share, Newlywed’s Blog, Taking a Timeout, Recipes for my Boys, Full Plate Thursday, Tastetastic Thursday, Riverton Housewives