While these herb hamburger buns are delicious with beef burgers, I think that these buns taste even better with turkey burgers and soy burgers.
Yield: 10 hamburger buns.
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 12 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup water, room temperature
- 3 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp dried dill
- 1/2 tap dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, about
Preparation:
- In medium bowl, mix water and yeast. Add egg, shortening, sugar, dill, basil, rosemary and salt. Stir. Add 1 cup of flour and mix well. Slowly add in remaining all-purpose flour, enough flour to make a dough that follows the spoon around the bowl. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 4 minutes, adding more flour as needed until the dough is soft and smooth to the touch. Place dough in medium greased bowl. Turn dough over in bowl so that the top is also lightly greased. Cover with clean cloth and let rise in warm, draft-free place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Punch down dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead for 4 minutes or until the bubbles are out of the bread. Divide dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll each dough piece into a ball and flatten it into the shape of a hamburger bun. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise in warm, draft-free place for 20 minutes.
- Bake buns at 400 degrees F for 12 minutes or until the buns are golden brown. Remove buns from sheet and let cool on rack.
Bread Baking Tips:
- To add sesame or poppy seeds onto the bun tops, brush egg white on bun tops and sprinkle with seeds before placing in the oven.
- Use bottled water instead of tap water to make your breads. Water softeners and chlorinated public water can sometimes kill the yeast needed to make your bread dough rise.
- Keep yeast stored in an airtight container and in the refrigerator. Heat, moisture, and air kills the yeast and prevents bread dough from rising.
- You can omit the egg in this recipe and replace it with 1/4 cup water.
- Egg substitute can be used in place of the egg.
- To keep buns soft, store in a plastic bag.
- Spraying buns with water while they bake will produce a crispy crust.
- Brush buns with egg white before baking to produce a shiny crust.
- Brush buns with milk before baking to produce a dark, shiny crust.
- Brush buns with butter immediately after baking to produce a soft crust.
- To freeze, let buns cool completely. Place in plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 4 weeks.
