The Art of Making Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns

Making bread from scratch is fun! Most people I talk to about bread making assume that it is difficult and time consuming. Some bread can be difficult to make, but most bread is very easy. Making your own hot dog and hamburger buns really is easy and does not take much time at all. You will impress your friends and family while treating your kids to a good time! Children love to help prepare these delicious buns. Caution: once you have had a homemade hamburger or hot dog bun, you will never want to purchase them at the store again!

My children love to make all sorts of bread. They are often involved in the measuring of ingredients, the mixing, proofing and shaping of the bread we make here at our house. It really is an art form. My youngest says he loves the way the dough feels when he squishes it. This past Memorial day, we made hamburger buns and recently made a batch of hot dog buns, too. We use the same basic recipe for both types of buns. I have adapted the recipe for our family. Most recipes call for all purpose flour, but I find we like them better when we use Bread flour. We have substituted whole wheat flour and also have used all purpose flour. The buns turn out nicely with both of these options, but we enjoy the bread flour buns the most. I use a variation of a recipe from King Arthur Flour Company.

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

3 ¼ cups bread flour

¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon yeast

Sesame seeds for topping (optional)

Mix all of the ingredients together and knead by hand or machine. Let dough rise one hour. Shape dough into eight hamburger buns or ten to twelve hot dog buns. For hamburger buns, we shape the dough into round balls and then flatten on the baking sheet. We like to sprinkle the hamburger buns with sesame seeds before this last rise. For hot dog buns, we shape the dough into elongated hot dog bun shapes. Let the dough rise for thirty to forty minutes and bake for fifteen minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.