Since tomorrow is a big food holiday, I wanted to keep tonight’s dinner simple: veggie burgers and oven fries. But…since I never seem to be able to completely keep things simple, I decided to make my own hamburger buns from scratch. I’m just get so tired of buying packages of 8, using 2 or maybe 4, and throwing the rest out. Sure, the freegans might love me but I still feel guilty over the waste.

I used the first recipe that popped up on a google search for hamburger buns. As usual, I did a couple of things differently. First, I scaled the recipe from 25 servings to 4. The website actually has a handy calculator that lets you scale recipes however you want. The other thing that I did differently was make the dough before work. I left it covered in a bowl in the refrigerator and then, when I came home from work, I formed the balls and let them rise for a couple of hours (instead of the 20 minutes that the recipe calls for.) For some reason, I ended up only getting 2 buns from my dough instead of 4 but that was all I needed anyway.

After 15 minutes in the oven, my buns came out golden and dome-shaped. They were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I think that they were actually the perfect texture; firmer than commercial buns, which can sometimes be way too soft, but softer than a kaiser roll. The flavor was buttery and slightly sweet just like a good hamburger bun should be. These buns were so good, I wish I had paired them with something more interesting than a plain old veggie patty. A grilled portabello mushroom with basil mayonnaise would be ideal (or a juicy hamburger, of course!)