Friday, June 17, 2011

Burger Buns

This week I’ve been grandpa-sitting. Boy’s Mom and Dad took my oldest with them on a road trip to Houston to visit family. To show my appreciation I agreed to keep on eye on Grandpa and help Grandma should she need anything. (Grandma and Grandpa live in the mother-in-law suite that was recently added onto my husband’s parent’s home.)

It’s been a fairly laid back week. I’ve been testing out some recipes (none of which are ready to share) and trying to get caught up at work, sew some birthday gifts, bake and decorate a cake and plan a party for a soon to be 6-year old (the latter is easy when you decide to just go to Chuck E Cheeses – go head judge away).

Since I’ve been living out of two homes this week I’ve been relying on my freezer to feed the family at dinnertime. Before you go all “Heaven Forbid” on me, I just have to say, most of the meals in my freezer are meals I’ve made and frozen ahead of time. (except for the corn dogs and frozen pizza…and raviolis) But I don’t really mean meals, I mean, meal components…like burger buns.


Some of you know that I grew up eating some variation of burgers just about every Saturday night. To some this may sound absolutely horrible but I loved it and have come to appreciate it even more in my adulthood. Do you know how nice it is not to have to wonder what’s for dinner? Most Saturday’s we hit the ground running and we don’t stop until dinner. It’s nice to know that come 4:30, the buns come out of the freezer to thaw, the potatoes get washed and the grill gets prepped – Rain or shine, warm or cold. Burger night is a good thing.

It’s also no secret that I love bread. I love to bake it. I love to eat it. Everything is made better if homemade bread is included, so naturally, in order to make burger night a GREAT thing, I began looking for the worlds best burger bun. 


Whoa Nelly! There are a lot of bun recipes out there. 


But more than any other, the burger with the tag "Comme Ca" kept on popping up in my browser over and over again. What is Comme Ca? Roughly it means – “like this” in French but you’ll notice it’s in caps so that makes it a proper noun or name for something  (I am so smart S.M.R.T) 




Comme Ca is the name of a restaurant I’ve never been to but apparently they are the home of the worlds best burger buns.

The best? Really. Now I’m not as gullible as Buddy the Elf and just because someone posts a sign doesn’t mean I’m going to believe it....




...But I will try it and then make my own recommendation. 


Well... 
wouldn’cha know it! 
The sign out front is true. 

Comme Ca’s burger buns may very well be “The Worlds Greatest Burger Bun”. Way to go! And a special thanks to all the bloggers out there who cleared the path and posted their findings to make it easier for me (and now you) to have buns as good as your burger.


Soon I’ll be posting my 100% whole-wheat vegan version of this - I’ve almost got it perfected – I’ve just got to figure out how to get my sesame seeds to stay on without an egg wash or super glue- suggestions welcome.

Burger Buns

Makes: 8 buns
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. warm milk

1 cup warm water

2 tsp. active dry yeast

2½ tbsp. sugar

1½ tsp. salt

1 large egg

3 cups bread flour

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2½ tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

For topping:

1 large egg beaten with 1 tbsp. water, for egg wash

Sesame seeds

Directions:
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Once frothy, briefly mix in the milk, salt and egg until combined. Add the flours to the bowl, and mix until incorporated.  Switch to the dough hook and Mix in the butter.  Switch to the dough hook, turn mixer on low and add in the butter. Once butter is included, continue to knead (6-10 minutes on low) until dough is ready. The dough will be somewhat tacky, but you want to avoid adding too much extra flour, which will create tough buns.
  2. Shape the dough into a round and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl.  Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1-2 hours. Gently deflate the dough and reshape it into a round.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat then using a long serrated knife or a dough scraper,  cut the dough, like a pizza, into 8 equal sections. Gently shape each section into a round, then press the dough to shape it into a disk. Place each slightly flattened round on the baking sheet, 2-3 inches apart.  Cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise again, (1-2 hours), until puffed up and nearly doubled.
  4. Set a 9 x 13 metal cake pan filled with water onto the lowest rack of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 400˚ F with a rack in the center position.  Brush the tops of the buns lightly with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake the buns about 15 minutes (rotating halfway through baking if they are browning unevenly), until the tops are golden brown.  Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Notes:
If you have unused buns, go ahead and put them in a zip bag and toss them in the freezer. They freeze VERY well and can easily be brought out to thaw or nuked in the microwave if you need to speed along the thawing time.

Source: Slightly adapted from Annie’s eats, originally from Comme Ca via The New York Times
Gwenevere

18 comments:

Kim Bee said...

Beautiful buns and Buddy the Elf. Oh how I love this post!

The Harried Cook said...

Wow... Those burger buns look incredibly good! I cannot wait to try this recipe! I really appreciate you sharing this one... Nice post! Thank you

Anonymous said...

I have not been asked to test this beautiful culinary accomplishment but would be very willing if asked. By the way what are you doing up so late? .

Apron Appeal said...

To anonymous...I'm up posting and baking birthday cake.

Trac said...

These are going on my list of things to try.

Baking Serendipity said...

I love the idea of a burger night. In our house, Friday is pizza night (creative, right?). It's nice not to have to rush home from work and think about making dinner. My husband loves to make homemade pizza and give me the night off :)

Apron Appeal said...

Trac...you won't be disappointed, but I thought you had a good bun recipe?

Baking Serendipity...I wonder what % of the nation celebrates Friday night with pizza. I usually like to make up a big batch of dough in my Bosch and then freeze the dough. I ran out of dough about 1 month ago so I've had to resort to frozen...or at least my family does, I can't eat pizza just yet.

Trac said...

I sure do have a recipe that we use and love, but yours just looks too good to pass up. Julie gave me a recipe they use and love too. It's just fun.

Sue said...

These buns look perfectly beautiful! I bet they elevate a great burger to the next level!

Torviewtoronto said...

buns look fabulous
lovely site

A SPICY PERSPECTIVE said...

Wow...bowing down in reverence! It has never occured to me to make my own hambruger buns.

Myrna said...

Burger night is awesome!!! We have a few during the month. My favorite meal night is, of course, "helpie selfie" night. My family doesn't share the same sentiment=D Spotted you on Tastespotting! Excellent!!! BTW...homemade burger buns? I'm not worthy.

Kate from Scratch said...

haa! Love this post. Those buns look so light and fluffy! Gorgeous and funny.

Unknown said...

I would just eat these without anything else! They look so good :) By the way, I left you an award on my blog: http://deelicioussweets.blogspot.com/2011/06/awards.html

Roxana GreenGirl said...

I have been trying so many burger buns recipes but none was with a happy ending. They just weren't soft enough. Yours look like the one!
Thanks for sharing Gwen.

p.s. instead of egg wash you can brush them with little warm water and immediately sprinkle the sesame seeds on top

Marty said...

I have seriously been trying to make good burger buns for years, and every recipe I have tried has turned out way too dense. These were fantastic!

There are my new go-to buns. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Great thoughts you got there, believe I may possibly try just some of it throughout my daily life such kinds of burger buns......

Bakery Equipment

Faizan Shaikh said...

مواد غذائية بالجملة Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with extra information? It is extremely helpful for me.

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...