I am no longer a bun virgin! You folks inspired me to try them. I have a bread machine that I used to use many many years ago, back when I had a metabolism. LOL All these posts about yeasts and how forgiving dough is made me brave. I figured I would give it a shot with the recipe in this thread. I used the bread machine to mix the dough. I confess that I never even thought about using the dough cycle, always baked the bread in the machine. I poured the ingredients in, walked away for 1:30 came back and dumped it on the counter and made cute little balls (thanks for the video link). Came back 1 hour later and baked these delicious rolls! Oh yeah, my yeast expired in May, I used it anyway. No problem. We are such city slickers and my Mom and her Mother were not cooks. So the most amusing part of making these rolls is my Mom saying "Wow you can do that? Make hamburger buns at home?" She was pretty funny. After they were done she kept touching them saying "I'll be darned, aren't they beautiful?" Here they are after 5 minutes of hands on. The results How easy was that? I think I'll leave the bread machine out. Thanks for all the encouragement. A special thanks goes to Ann T and Annie for being so encouraging to us novices about bread baking. And Maureen thank you for the recipe. I think next time I will weigh the little balls to get them the same size. Does anyone know how much hamburger sized buns should weigh?

Merry Christmas, Tami, to you and your sweet husband. I'll watch for those pictures, I'll bet they come out great. Annie

Salmon Burgers with Herb Aioli 2 small cloves garlic Kosher salt 1-1/2 cups mayonnaise 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh chives 2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh dill 1-1/2 Tbs. Dijon mustard 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice 1/8 tsp. cayenne Freshly ground black pepper 5 brioche or hamburger buns, 1 cut into large cubes, the other 4 split 1 lb. skinless salmon fillets, preferably wild, pin bones removed, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 cups) 2 oz. (4 Tbs.) unsalted butter Chop the garlic. Using the flat side of a chefÂs knife, mash the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt. Transfer the garlic paste to a small bowl and stir in the mayonnaise, chives, dill, mustard, lemon juice, cayenne, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and salt to taste. Set the aïoli aside. In a food processor, pulse the cubed bun into crumbs. Set aside 1/2 cup of the crumbs and save the rest for another use. Pulse the salmon until coarsely chopped, about 5 pulses. Transfer the salmon to a medium bowl and stir in 3/4 cup of the aïoli, the reserved breadcrumbs, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Shape into four 1-inch-thick patties. Heat 2 Tbs. of the butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When melted and hot (but not smoking or brown), add the patties and cook until they are firm and each side is crisp and golden-brown, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Meanwhile, position a rack 6 inches from the broiler and heat the broiler on high. Melt the remaining 2 Tbs. butter in a microwave or on the stovetop. Brush it on the insides of the split buns. Put the buns on a baking sheet, butter side up, and toast under the broiler until light golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve the burgers on the buns, spread with the remaining aïoli.

This is a smaller, and more manageable version, of 30-Minute Hamburger Buns I used to make from the cookbook "Whole Wheat Cookery - Treasures From the Wheat Bin" by Howard and Anna Ruth Beck (1986). The recipe made a really HUGE amount of dough (so much dough you had to retard it in the refrigerator if you didn't have more than one oven and LOTS of pans to bake the buns on - or you risk over-proofing the buns before you can get them baked). The recipe called for 10-1/2 c. stone ground whole wheat flour and makes at least 4-dozen buns (I would scale the dough to 2.5 to 3-oz. for large buns, 1.5-2-oz. for dinner rolls, and for hot dog buns - make the dough cylinder about the same size - or a little larger - as the hot dogs you are going to use). The rule of thumb: The dough size is about 1/3 the size of the finished product. You allow the dough to rise to "double", and that accounts for 2/3 of the finished size. The oven spring (the amount the dough continues to rise in the oven) accounts for the last 1/3 of the finished size. And yes, you could really make the recipe in 30-minutes, especially if you are an experienced bread and roll maker. The dough is so fast because there is an inordinately large amount of yeast in the recipe (the 30-Minute recipe calls for 6 T. of yeast). It's not a really "great" bread recipe (there's not enough time for the bread to develop really great flavor), but when time is an issue, it's a go-to recipe. ;-) -Grainlady