Hello,

I do hog roasts and sell premium burgers at festivals and market shows. I work out of a wagon or a tent - 10 x 22 ft. I use two types of bread roll, made from the same dough, one round for the burgers and one elongated like a fat hot gog bun for the raost pork (see photo above). The buns are made for me by a local baker, but I want to start making them myself, preferably on site at the events and if not at our kitchen before hand. On avaerage I sell 500 a day over a 10 hour day, for four days. There are normally specific times when it,s busy and I have to push out buns at a rate of up to 15o an hour. The buns I use are made from a slightly sweet wholegrain dough and  they are dense but very soft when baked. My baker freezes them and packs them in boxes a few days prior to each event.

I have absolutely no experience of baking so I need to start from scratch. 

Question 1: Is what I want to do is a dumb idea? Should I just get the bread from the baker.

Question 2: Provided that the answer to question 1 is no - Can anyone recomend some compact equipment I should use to try to make buns on site, probably in batches of 60 -100?? I would need to be able to move it all from a truck into a tent each time I set up. There is 3 phase electric available at most events if needed.

Question 3. Does anyone have a recomendations of what process to use - for the dough and the baking 

Thanks

Paddy

I was in a search for the perfect hamburger bun for a long time. When I say "perfect", I mean perfect for my personal taste. I've tried Peter Reinhart recipe from BBA, I've tried different recipes form diferrent sites, I've tried Tangzhong method, all with wonderful results... but not perfect. Recently, I took hamelman's ingredients from page 258 (soft butter rolls) and Susan's pate-fermentee method link here , followed by these modifications: I've decreased the quantity of yeast, taking as refference the quantity given by susan, and I adapted for my quantity of flour, I've used milk instead of water, and remove the dry milk from the ingredients list and I did not used steam when baking. The buns came almost close to perfection. Next step is to use sourdough instead of old dough, but I'm not sure about how to substitute one to another (the old dough can be replaced using the same quantity and hydration by sourdough?? -can it be that simple??)

More pictures and complete recipe (written in romanian, but translator available on the sidebar, although, the automatic translation it's kind of funny) can be found here Apa.Faina.Sare

Codruta

I wanted to have fresh homemade sourdough hamburger buns for a big cook-out last Friday. Problem: the cook-out was at 7pm on a work night, and I'd only get home around 5:45. Timing and fridge space were issues. I wouldn't have time to shape buns and let them rise after work, and don't have room for sheet pans in my fridge (I live with 4 other people). This is what I came up with...

Petite Sourdough Hamburger Buns (makes approx. 20 3'' buns) (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

[UNDER REVIEW]

Night before:

1. Mix together bread flour, starter, water. Let sit for 30 minutes.

2. Beat together milk, eggs, salt, sugar. Combine with flour. Let sit for 15 minutes.

3. Lift/fold dough. Repeat twice more at 15'' intervals.

4. Cover, let dough rise overnight.

UPDATE: Brewboy makes a good point re: the potential riskiness of letting a dough with egg in it stay at room temp overnight. 

Morning of:

1. Divide dough, shape (20 or so) buns.

2. Place in cake pans lined with parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap.

3. Stack cake pans in fridge with cardboard in between to prevent squishing.

Go to work!

Evening of:

1. Remove from fridge, let rise in 100F oven for 30''.

2. Brush buns with egg wash.

3. Crank up the heat to 350, bake for 35 minutes. (Note: no preheating, thus the extended baking time)

The results:

Soft, chewy, tangy hamburger buns! I was happy, as were the guests. I was worried they'd be too small but they were the perfect size for 1/2lb (before cooking) patties made from fatty (70/30) ground beef. One thing I would change was the topping I made for the burger--it was a sweet/sour onion caramelized with bacon fat. The burgers would have been better with a straight sweet caramelized onion, since the bun provided ample tanginess.

I had just come back from a month-long vacation in Asia where I gorged on fresh seafood and vegetables every day, so I was craving for some good old-fashioned hamburger.  Fortunately, Saveur had the hamburger for its Sept. issue focus story.  The sesame seed bun recipe for 12 buns took only 4 hours from start to plate.  The texture was soft without being airy like the commercial kind, and the taste with just a hint of sweetness- perfect with salty blue cheese burgers.

1 package active dry yeast (1/4 oz)

1 1/3 cups milk heated to 115F

1.5 tsp. + 2 tbsp. sugar

4 cups flour

1  1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 lightly beaten egg

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes

3 tsp. sesame seed 

1. Mix yeast, milk and 1.5 tsp sugar; let foam.
2. Stir in remaining sugar, flour, salt and egg. Mix with paddle on low speed until dough forms.
3. Replace paddle with hook and add butter. Knead on medium high speed until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 8 minutes.
4. Let rest in an oiled bowl until doubled, about 2 hrs.
5. After bulk fermentation, divide dough into 12 and shape into tight balls.
6. Let balls rise in parchment-lined sheets, covered with oiled plastic, for about 1.5 hrs.
7. Spray tops with water, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
8. Bake in 400F oven until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes.

Does anyone have a suggestion or technique when rolling out dough for hamburger buns to make the size consistent?  I thought about forming the dough into a baguette and cutting portions to roll into buns.

Thank you.

I made Norm's Onion Rolls back in April and wish I had posted them then. That bunch seemed to be a little more aesthetic. These were great tasting and Norm's Onion Rolls, along with Henry's Scones have made me quite popular with the neighborhood.

Burger with Norm' s Onion Roll and Mr. Stripey tomatoes! Delicious!!

Thanks Norm and Henry!! ehanner's made me covet that onion poppy seed explosion again!

Thanks for making them look so good again!

E

I am new to the group and you all have helped me before with another question. This question is about something different. I have been drooling over the pictures of Susan's hamburger buns and have looked at the recipe and I need help in understanding the ingredient measurements. I do not have a scale to measure with and do not understand metric at all. I need the ingredients in good old fashioned English measurements. Like cups, teaspoons and the like. Is this doable or do I need a scale to make them? Everyone is so much more advanced in their baking and I doubt I will ever reach the point when I understand all the terms you are using. I guess I should state why I am having so much trouble with the recipes-about 8 years ago I had a blood vessel in my brain burst and it has left me with the inability to do some simple things. I appreciate any help that is given and if no one does I will understand that also. Thanks

Hi Bill,

HAMBURGER BUNS HAMBURGER BUNS