I really love a good burger. There is one restaurant in particular, that we would frequent in Michigan. It was called Red Knapp’s and they made their burgers with homemade buns. Their burgers were amazing!
Moving to Georgia has really intensified my craving for a good burger. I’ve not really found an equal burger that compares to the Knapp burger. So, I figured I would try my hand at making my own homemade hamburger buns, and try to duplicate the Knapp burger at home.
Since getting a new WonderMill grain mill, I have really stepped out of my comfort zone and pushed myself to try and make more homemade, basic items that my family can eat everyday. One of the main things I make on a regular basis is our bread. I don’t like all the preservatives that are found in store bought bread, so I have been making batches of fresh milled wheat bread. On the weekend, I will typically bake a few loaves and freeze them so I can pull out what we need for the week from the freezer at a moments notice.
The recipe I use for our bread is the same recipe I used to make these homemade hamburger buns. We have a local store called Bread Beckers that sells wheat, baking supplies, beans and a variety of other specialty items for the avid cook. I first heard about this store from a neighbor and since then I buy all of our wheat from them, and then I mill our flour at home for baking and cooking.
I purchased the Bread Beckers cookbook, for $7 at their store. What a great buy! This cookbook has all sorts of unique recipes from bread to homemade maple syrup. The recipe I used for the hamburger buns came from their cookbook.
Basic Dough Recipe (formerly the Zojirushi Auto Bakery Bread Recipe)
1 1/2 C. hot water
1/3 C. oil (I use olive oil)
1/3 C. honey
2 tsp. salt
1 egg (optional)
1 Tbs. rice bran
1 tsp. gluten (optional)
4- 4 1/2 C. fresh milled flour
1/2 C. ground flax seed
1 Tbs. yeast
Now, I use my bread machine to make the dough. I have an old bread machine, nothing fancy, and I set it to the dough setting. I simply put the ingredients in my machine in the order listed above. I omit the flax seed for the hamburger buns, but you can add it as well.
If you aren’t using a bread machine, follow the directions as follows. Combine water, oil, honey, salt, and egg. Add rice bran, gluten, 2 cups of flour, and flax seed. Mix thoroughly. Add yeast and the rest of the flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5-6 minutes). Let rise until double. Shape as desired and let rise again until double. Now, for my hamburger buns I divided the dough into 12 balls. I shaped them and then let them rise on my baking sheet until they doubled. Then bake at 400˚ for 10-12 minutes.
I must say, these homemade buns were good. They were a little bigger than I wanted so I will make the dough balls a tad smaller next time. But, pretty close to the Knapp burger. We grilled up free- range organic beef on the grill and had ourselves a true blue BBQ dinner.
Original recipe adapted from the Bread Beckers Cook Book.
***This is my 4th recipe for the Grain Mill Wagon Challenge***
