Quick and Easy Hamburger Buns

Without owning a hamburger bun pan, I have been unable to make perfectly round hamburger buns.  The other day I accidentally figured out how to make perfect buns.  Not only did they have perfectly round bottoms but they have perfect tops too.  The process will work with almost any bread dough, but it worked great with these quick and easy hamburger buns.  All you need is a rolling pin and a round cookie cutter.  Could not be easier.

Quick and Easy Hamburger Buns – (Adapted From Allrecipes.com)

• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tbs butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 3/4 cups bread flour
• 1 1/14 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbs melted butter for brushing the top

In the bowl of your mixer add the milk, sugar and yeast and let sit until foamy, roughly 5 minutes.

Next add the egg, butter, salt and bread flour to the mixture.  Combine the ingredients with a dough hook.  This dough will be a little stickier that normal.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it for a couple minutes.  Then place the dough in a greased bowl and let double in size, roughly 1 hour.

This is where I screwed up.  I was going to roll the dough out to about 3/4 of an inch thick but instead rolled it out too thin.  However, this ended up making the perfect buns.

Turn the dough back out onto a floured surface.  Roll the dough out until it is a little thicker than 1/3 inch.  Using a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter or cookie cutter cut the dough into rounds.

Place the round on a greased cookie sheet.  Then top each of the rounds with another of the rounds.

Brush the tops with the melted butter.  You could also brush the tops with a little egg wash and then top with sesame seeds.  I tried using sesame seeds with the melted butter and they failed to stick.

Cover with a towel and let rise for 45-60 minutes.  During this time preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the buns in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

As you can see stacking the rounds ended up giving me the perfect hamburger bun.  You get the perfect round bottom and a nice domed top. They also had a defined line where you could cut them in half.  Overall these were some of the easiest and best hamburger buns that I have ever made.