recipe: sesame seed burger buns

I made these buns before, but I was disappointed in how they turned out. The original recipe called for brushing melted butter on the buns before baking, which ended up making them too hard for my taste. This time, I skipped the melted butter topping and ended up with fluffy burger buns. Much better.

Sesame Seed Burger Buns

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. When oven comes to temperature, turn off.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

In mixer bowl with a dough hook, combine flour, sugar, salt, butter and egg. Add yeast mixture. Knead until dough is smooth.

Put dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in warm oven for 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and divide into 8 pieces. Shape into balls, and flatten. Place buns on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and let rise 30 minutes.

Brush a small amount of water on each of the buns, which will help the sesame seeds stick. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds on each of the buns.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

recipe: white bread

Last Christmas, Santa Claus brought me a stand mixer. I'm in love with it. I spent all last winter using the dough hook to making all different kinds of breads.

I've made a lot of great loafs of white breads, and one of my favorites came from the Joy of Cooking.

I made this recipe last Sunday, and we've been eating this bread all week. Here's a piece I sliced for myself right after it came out of the oven and slathered with butter. Warm homemade bread fresh out of the oven -- that's one of the best things about life.

White Bread

Adapted from Joy of Cooking

 

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 package (1 tablespoon) yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon shortening
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 6 1/2 cups flour

Heat oven to 200 degrees. When it comes to temperature, turn oven off.

In a mixer bowl, combine 1/4 cup warm water and yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes.

In a saucepan, scald milk until edges start to boil. Off heat, add 1 cup water, shortening, butter, sugar and salt. Add milk mixture to mixer bowl.

Attach dough hook to mixer. On speed 2, add flour, 1/2 cup at a time. After dough comes together, continue to knead for a few minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl and cover. Place in warm oven and let rise for 1 hour.

When dough has risen, punch down and let rise for another hour if time permits.

After second rising, divide dough in half. Roll each half into a large rectangle with smallest side about 9 inches wide. With your hands, roll up the dough into a 9-inch-long loaf. Fold the ends over, so the end spirals aren't showing.

Grease two loaf pans, and place dough in them, seam side down. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes two loaves.

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From the archives:

recipe: pull-apart rolls

recipe: english muffins

Saturday morning, Tony and I had brunch at our house with Ben and Mandy. Tony suggested we have breakfast sandwiches, which I thought was a great idea. I wanted to make the sandwiches on some sort of homemade bread, and after a little Googling, I learned that homemade English muffins are pretty easy to make.

(That's a photo of one of the leftover muffins, which Tony ate with butter. During brunch, I got so caught up in trying my sandwich that I forgot to take a photo until it was half gone. Oops. They were delicious.)

I like this recipe, which I adapted from this blog, because you make the dough the night before. Then in the morning, all you have to do is cook the muffins.

English Muffins

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon (1 packet) yeast
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• cornmeal

Heat the milk to almost boiling. Remove from heat and stir in butter and sugar. Add yeast and let sit 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix flour and salt in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer.

When yeast mixture is bubbly, add to the flour and mix. I used the dough hook on my stand mixer.

Let sit for 15 minutes and then stir in salt.

Transfer dough to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit on the counter overnight.

In the morning, use your hands to form six muffin-shaped patties. Drop muffins into a small bowl of cornmeal, then place in an ungreased skillet. I cooked two of the muffins in my small cast iron skillet and the rest in a teflon pan, and they all turned out great.

Cook muffins on the stovetop in the skillet over low heat for 10-20 minutes per side until browned.

Let muffins cool completely on a cooling rack. Split the muffins with a fork, not a knife. Toast before serving.

Makes 6 muffins.

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The breakfast sandwiches were very easy to put together in the morning. Each sandwich got two eggs, and on the table I put out white cheddar, lettuce, tomato and mayo. (By the way, this was Dec. 1, and the lettuce and tomato are from my garden ... how awesome is that to be eating garden tomatoes so late in the year?)

Oh, and I also put out French's onions for the sandwiches ... to keep it classy. 

On the side: roasted rosemary mini potatoes. And to drink: Bloody Marys. Yum all around.

dining out: spring mill bread co.

I have a new favorite neighborhood coffee shop! Spring Mill Bread Co. on Barracks Row.

It's been open for about a year, but it wasn't until earlier this month that Tony and I tried it. We woke up a couple of Sundays ago and decided we wanted to go out for an easy breakfast. And it ended up being a nice, laid back spot to grab breakfast, chat with my husband and do some people watching on 8th Street.

As the name indicates, this place is all about the bread, so we ordered breakfast sandwiches on homemade bread. There are few things better than homemade bread.

Also delicious: the rocky road brownie that we shared for dessert. (Is dessert for breakfast a thing?) Anyway, it also was tasty.

It's a small restaurant inside, but there's also patio seating when the weather's nice. Next time, I think we'll go back for lunch because the menu had several veggie sandwiches that I'd like to try.

Spring Mill, I'll be back. It's at Eight Street and G Street Southeast.