burger buns

Every now and then, my husband gets a craving for a burger. His most recent craving occurred on Sunday, and as I had all of the necessary ingredients for bread rolls, I decided to bake some, rather than buying them. The recipe is almost identical to the one I use for a standard white bread loaf, and the main difference is just in the process of making the bread, and adding a glaze before baking.

Our daughter is at a wonderful stage when it comes to food. She is so interested in everything, especially whatever is on our plates, or in our bowls. As you can imagine, finding time to photograph food has become slightly more challenging since having a baby, and I tend to try and wait until she is having a nap before whipping out my camera for a little food photography. Needless to say, this doesn't happen anywhere near as frequently as it used to, but today, I decided to involve her in the photoshoot.

I want Ruby to grow up seeing me do the things I love, and these rolls provided the perfect opportunity for not only Ruby to observe me in my happy place with camera in hand, but for her to try something I have baked. In the time it took me to place the rolls within arms reach of Ruby, then turn around to get my camera, she deftly swiped a roll from the pile, just as I anticipated she would. The next half an hour was spent like this:

The only thing these pictures don't capture are the giggles and happy noises emitted between mouthfuls of bread!

Burger Buns / Bread Rolls
ingredients (makes 12 buns)
500g strong white bread flour
20g unsalted butter at room temperature
7g salt
10g yeast
320ml water
1 egg for glazing

method
1. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and gradually combine, either with your hands, or with the dough hook of a freestanding mixer.
2. Once the ingredients have come together to form a dough, knead the dough for 5 - 10 minutes, until it's glossy and stretchy. If your dough is sticky, put a little bit of oil on your hands. If this does not remove the stickiness, add a little dusting of flour to the dough.
3. Lightly oil a bowl and place the kneaded dough into the bowl. Cover with a tea towel to stop the dough from drying out, and leave in a warm place for an hour to double in size. It is fine to leave the dough for up to three hours if you wish.
4. Once the dough has doubled in size, knock the air out of it by folding it in on itself, then shape into round buns. If you are wanting to be precise and have identically sized buns, weigh out the dough into 70g portions before shaping.
5. Place the dough balls onto two lightly oiled baking sheets. Leave a good sized space between them to allow for expansion, but don't worry if they end up touching each other once they have risen, this is not a problem.
6. Place the trays inside plastic bags (or inside a plastic container with a lid, if you have one that is large enough). Ensure that the plastic from the bag is not actually touching the dough.
7. Leave to prove for one hour.
8. Preheat the oven to 200C / gas mark 5.
9. Once the rolls have risen and doubled in size, remove from the plastic bags, and brush with a little bit of beaten egg.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until golden brown.