I use my standard dinner roll recipe usually. But I have used my recipe for pretzels and made buns.....and they are over the top!

I have another recipe that calls itself "onion buns for burgers" but it uses a package of onion soup mix and is waaaay too salty and "boullion cube" tasting for me

Watching!

I rarely order burgers out anymore because of the buns. So many places put them on brioche rolls which is far too substantial for me. Invariably I toss the top aside snd make it a knife and fork meal.

One commercial bun I’ve been meaning to try is Kayem. Don’t know if they’re national. I used to buy their hot dog buns when they were the only top split buns avaiable and IIRC they were a step up from the generic without taking over.

More often than not I’m using English muffins these days.

I haven't tried these yet but they look really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjjJZ0xnTuM

IC, those do look interestingly fluffy and rich. My French isn't good enough for nuance. How much (weight or volume) is ”two” potatoes? It's hard to tell from the mixing bowl. I haven't seen an enriched potato bread recipe before.

FOAS, I haven't seen Kayem, but that diesn't mean much.

Linda, I think your dinner roll idea might be the one. I don't make (or serve) them, but I think that might be the right thing. I think I have a recipe.

Thanks!

These are pretty good, but more often than not I buy the brioche buns from Whole Foods.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/beautiful-burger-buns-recipe

Thanks Sleevendog and Judi for the recipes. Looking at them, and Islay's potato bun recipe, and Sol's dinner roll recipe, and Linda's Mrs. Avery's, I'm beginning to get a sense of what a bun recipe should be like. I'll try some and see what happens. I realized reading them that something I don't like about Dave's, and recipes I've tried, is that they were too sweet. That's an easy fix, but it was trying the Dave's without the smoked cheddar the Killer bread killed, that made me figure it out.

Hm....Or, thinking on what Linda said, I can easily buy really good pretzel buns, so I'm not likely to do that unless I'm actually looking for a project, but I think my pretzel recipe if just baked off as rolls without the pretzelization might make a good bun too!

There's a local restaurant that used to sell really good buns at the grocery stores, but I'm either shopping in the wrong places now, or they've discontinued them. Who knows nowadays. But I can bake my own danged buns if I can get the texture right!

In the essence of time, I usually use my regular bread recipe, making half into a loaf and the other half into hamburger buns, hotdog buns and dinner rolls.

I have made the King Arthur recipe that Judi posted.

These are them.

I discovered that the reason I like the local supermarket bakery buns is because they are a bit sweet......and the reason why I love ( for some things) the Hawiian sandwich buns is that they are very sweet. But frankly you really can't beat a good old New Jersey hard rollw ith a burger....just flour water yeast. But they don't keep worth a darn and are even worse frozen.

Mrs Avery's rolls are sweet, but it's easy enough to cutback on the sugar.

Thinking I may convert my "usual" bread recipe to tangzhong and see what happens. Also wondering if i am experienced enough as a bread baker to just do that by the seat of my pants and judge hydration by the feel of the dough and not do all the calculations.

Thanks! A little sweet is fitting, but I can't hadle a lot. A teaspoon, or even two, per pound of flour, gives the air of sugar without it tasting like pastry. I know sugar makes for a softer crumb, but a little hard is better, for me, than sweeter. And most everyone else who might eat them are heathens and unlikely to notice so long as the bun doesn't fall apart. :)

Thanks for bringing up tangzhong. It might be the solution to softness with less sugar. I think it was 2Many who went into it with both feet. I definitely think you could wing it if you know what texture you're reaching for. Your hands know your bread. I've never done the helatinization, so wouldn't have a clue.

I became interested in finding out about the tangzhong method of making buns and bread. Thought this was an interesting article. I can barely eat whole wheat but have a technique of making rye flour a bit fluffier so may try it with rye flour. They use 50% whole wheat if anyone's interested for their buns.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/10/10/tangzhong-beyond-white-bread

You're welcome to vent, but this is my process. I find a bunch of well regarded recipes and read them to get the foundations in my head, and then either choose one to make or adapt one to better fit my desires. Why must I choose just one recipe when I've been so kindly given several. I know now where I want to go with this, the end product I want, and now I just have to figure out how to get there. It might be the NYT.

It's true, I could have searched a bunch of old threads, but since there wasn't much else going on in the forum, why not ask? One take away from the NYT recipe, though also present in others is the bread flour. I usually don't associate more gluten with fluff, but I daresay that that's what gives it the strength to hold up to the damp sandwich.

I just had homemade blaa rolls at an Irish pub. Really good, very light with a nice, thin but distinct crust. I’ll be looking for recipes.

My point is---every time, you are posting/typing and my bread buns are on their second rise. Never a pic you post and not a post about the subject before moving on to another about fruit toppings etc. It is flour and water...make a bun for crying out loud, 😜

Make a burger bun...any of them. Make one. Good grief, 😂...make three recipes the time it takes to type the paragraph about flour differences. And moisture dough yada.

I bet you will not make a burger bun this month. Not tomorrow or this week....

We will make 2 dozen tomorrow and not think an ounce about it...

Yeah, I'm really bad at taking pictures of just food. I rarely remember, and I don't care enough about them to make them pretty. We've had members who did beautiful food photography, but I don't.

I haven't made buns yet because the store bought ones haven't been used up.

I didn't mention that I made some buns years ago, a couple of different batches, that I didn't particularly like, which was part of my motivation for posting. And, yes, I will think about it, and keep thinking about it, because while we almost never want buns, I came to the realization that if I could develop a likeable recipe I wouldn't have to buy them. I have plenty of flour, yeast and salt, and I even have milk and eggs. The purpose of this thread is that I wanted (and got) help making better than store bought. I could have just whomped out any old thing to have something to eat. I'm trying to improve.

I bake all kinds of bread and stuff, but when I post about a new success I've had changing up the bread, I get slapped down because others have been experimenting many years longer. If I don't bake buns on your timeline, you slap me for not showing results before I even want to make them. I can't win here.

I come to the forum when I need a break. It used to fun chatting with people, learning things and helping out which I can in return. It used to be something to brag on that we were short of trolls.

I do admit, if we had more going on in the forum, I wouldn't have posted about trivia like cake filling, but it was what i was thinking about and I was curious what other people thought. I wasn't actually about to make a layer cake, so no pics. I didn't realize that there was a finite space for threads or that talking about things not currently on the menu was forbidden.

I make a lot of recipes I get from this forum. I use tips and techniques I've gotten here daily. I cook. I bake. And I don't feel required to post evidence of any of that just to prove it to you. I post about what I've made when I think I have something interesting to say. I may be way wrong in my assessment of interesting, but I really have no interest in reporting to you as if you were some gym teacher.

If you don't like my posts, don't read them!

I never think about what I'm going to post, I just go ahead and blab or ask. When something pops into my head I'll write about it, or ask a question. Often I ask when I first think about it because my memory is like a sieve.

Much like my chicken stock request. I've tried making it over the years but I never seem to get a decent depth of flavour, hence the question. Others do it without batting an eyelash, but I seem to stress a bit over it. Should I add some garlic, what spices should I put in it, that type of thing.

plllog, I'm NOT a yeast bread baker and can't vouch for this version. However, I do recall pages of good feedback for the recipe on another site some years back (circa 2005). Could likely be posted here somewhere, too. Looks like this can be done with or without a bread machine.

Moomie's Famous Burger/Sandwich Buns

1 cup water
2 T. butter
1 egg
3-1/4 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 T. instant yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread machine. Select ‘dough’ cycle. Allow cycle to run.

Dump out onto lightly floured surface. Divide into 8 pieces. Slap each piece into a bun shape. Usually 4 or 5 slaps will do it. Place on greased cookie sheets (or bun pans), cover; let rise 30 to 40 minutes.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes until golden. Cool on wire racks.

(You may add a teaspoon of onion powder and about ½ teaspoon dried onion to make the dough. It makes a light onion-y flavor that is wonderful!) For burgers, split and grill if desired.

To make by hand: Simply mix and knead the dough by whatever method you prefer. Let it rise for about an hour before shaping into eight big buns. (Or whatever shapes you prefer; hot dog buns, dinner rolls, etc.)

chloebud, that's the recipe I've tried. First appeared on the King Arthur site.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/beautiful-burger-buns-recipe

That’s the ”beautiful buns” recipe. I’ve made it a few times in the past, at first I liked them but ended up finding they were ”too much” for a burger. Take that for what it’s worth though, remembering that I don’t care for the brioche buns that are so common and apparently popular.

jasdip.....always add garlic to anything that is not dessert......and go throough your dried herb supply and put half at easpoon of each into your stock pot....can't be bad....skip the cinnamon and vanilla but ginger is good.

did you check this link?

"chloebud, that's the recipe I've tried. First appeared on the King Arthur site."

Judi, sorry I missed that!

We have a winner!

I was feeding the starters and planning to bake sourdough the next day when Kim G posted. I rarely check KA because I always have to fix up their recipes to suit me. I liked the way Kim's link read, however, and especially her (his?) comments. So I made buns instead of bread. And fiddled with the recipe. ;j

It called for all purpose flour (KA’s is heavy), which is my instinct for puffy, but some of the other recipes call for bread flour, which I assumed was for strength. It also called for a quarter cup rye or whole wheat flour (or AP if you'd rather). I used whole wheat starter instead (brought it up to 100% hydration which is what their starter recipe calls for), and the quarter cup AP. My milk powder bit it—y’all convinced me not to try saving it—so I looked up substituting buttermilk powder. The article said it would work fine but make for a softer dough, which was great because the whole wheat goes the other way...though a long soak as starter does help soften the ww. Thank goodness during the pantry project, I wrote down which section had what, and after three times through, I found the potato flour! And I did use the tsp. yeast (though ADY, not IDY), following Kim's lead, and wanting not to stay up waiting on the rise.

Armed with acceptable versions of the ingredients, I was happy to throw it all in the mixer then leave it to rise. You're supposed to so a stretch and fold every hour to even out the temperature and degas, but I forgot. After a few hours I had a nicely stretched puff ball that deflated into a proper texture dough ball which was relaxed and easy to handle. I used the scale to divide the dough balls, A couple weren’t perfect rounds, but there's a nice circular crumb, which I think comes from pulling the edges under several times. After an hour and a half in my warm kitchen they had puffed up nicely. The egg yolk wash gives a nice color and sheen, and really grips the poppy seeds.

Just open faced turkey sandwiches on the tester, but there was some juice with condiments that leaked out of the crumb part when I bit into the middle—no dissolution of crumb or damp of crust! This portends very well for proper burgers!

The buns look solid and feel heafty, but thet're fluffy and compressible, exactly as a burger bun should be, with a nice flavor from the whole wheat, nice springiness from the white AP, nice moisture from the potato flour, etc. Only a tablespoon of sugar- I don’t know if that’s enough to add to the softness but it doesn't eat sweet. It just covers whatever sourness may linger from the starter and buttermilk powder. Very pleasant to eat. Nice to lift, with no flopping, but no hardness. Also no carbtastic feeling atfer eating.

Flaws. Noticeably salty. I scanted the salt a little, thinking it was too much and it still tastes salty. Next time I'll use 1/3 less salt. The bottoms overbrowned. Parchment wasn't sufficient to protect them. Next time I'll use a smaller, thinner baking sheet.

I'm thrilled! Thank-you @Kim G!

Sounds perfect to me! Glad you created something you like.

@pillog I am glad it worked out for you! As an FYI I bought the USA Hamburger pan which makes 6 perfectly round buns. I have not had any browning issues. I don’t have to grease the pan either. I do use my CSO oven and have a program that does a final rise and then bake with some steam. Enjoy!

Success!

I like sourdough buns that taste sour instead of sweet, but I've never made them myself, and I also do not buy them, since I really do not make burgers anymore.

If I were having a large party, I might want to make them, however, but I haven't had a large party since my last pizza party, and that was in June 2014 (I had to look it up in my photos).

I do not know enough people in Palm Springs to have a large party here, but perhaps that will change in the near future - at least I hope that it will.

I'm getting further out of touch with my friends in L.A.

FOAS, Substitutions do make changes, but if you want to try this one, you can make some substitutions. You do need the starter, but regular white starter is fine. You can substitute milk for some of the water and dry milk, and potato flakes, if you have them, for the potato flour.

If you have starter, but want whole wheat starter, you can just feed it whole wheat flour for a week or two. Start with 10% ww/ 90% white, and change the ratio to a little more ww each time, over about four feedings. That keeps it from being shocked by new food. If you do it all at once and it goes still and languid, just put it in the fridge for a few days to a week, then feed it again. It'll get over the shock.

Because, they really are pretty perfect buns!

Today was sloppy joe's as a further bun test. The first day, I wrapped them in a birdseye tea towel, then froze half. Yesterday, no one home for meals, I put them in a produce bag (I have a roll). The great side thing about sourdough is that it holds well. Today, the buns had lost some moisture but weren't stale. Heated anyway because who wants hot filling on a cold bun? The juices sank in nicely without turning the bun into mush. Success!

The one thing, is the buns are too much bread. No one wants to eat two sides together. Next time, I'm going to make the same recipe into 8 or 9, instead, and make them flatter. I might try with malted flour, as well, to maintain the poof.

Chefsteps are doing a big push with bread how to mak all sorts of bread - modifying flour, etc. I bet you could spend hours on their site!

I have two recipes I use for homemade hamburger buns.

I actually prefer Kaiser buns.

https://thibeaultstable.com/2016/05/12/home-made-kaiser-buns/

https://thibeaultstable.com/2014/07/04/homemade-burger-and-hot-dog-buns/

Thanks for joining in, Ann!

IC, thanks for the recommendation. I'm really already there and past, but it looks like a good resource for basic recipes. Right now, I'm actually looking to clear out some old flours before they go rancid. The buns got the organic KA, and I used the last of it on the turn out for today's bread. But I don't need to "make" bread flour. While I do have a couple kinds of AP and VWG, I also have a couple kinds of bread flour. :) I can't imagine running out, as they said. The VWG is for reinforcing home milled wheat, which has plenty of the gluten components, but the bran interferes with the rise.

Those Kaiser rolls make my mouth water. Reminds me of delicious breakfasts in Austria.