Corduroy Orange

For a very long time, I have resisted the idea of grilling hamburgers.  It seemed like ground meat was a waste of my charcoal.  A visit from my parents gave me the nudge I needed to make grilling burgers a worthwhile experience.

My father told me about how he and my mother have been grilling onions to go along with their meat patties.  I figured, why not give it a shot? and added onions into my normal grilling repertoire.  That, plus making some homemade buns (recipe follows the photos) was all the nudge I needed to grill some very worthwhile beef patties.

Then, I stacked it all up on a homemade hamburger bun.

And, believe me, the final product was definitely worth my charcoal!

Here’s the recipe for the buns:

Super-Easy Hamburger Buns

• 4 cups flour (plus up to an additional half cup)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbl cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  
• 2 tablespoons (2 envelopes) active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 4 Tbl butter
  
• 1/2 cup water

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and spices in the bowl of your standing mixer.  Mix them together thoroughly (I recommend using a fork/ your fingers, because the bread hook will leave some of the dry ingredients untouched).
2. Heat the milk, butter, and water in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave until they read 120 F with an instant read thermometer (don’t microwave the thermometer.  Stop the machine periodically and test the temp, remove the thermometer, and continue heating as necessary).
3. With the mixer running on speed 2, slowly pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture.  It should come together into a ball on the dough hook.  Knead for about 5 minutes.  If it’s too sticky 2 1/2 minutes into the kneading process, sprinkle a little bit more fllour in and let it get absorbed.  Repeat until it looks like a dough.  It should cling to the dough hook but not climb up; it should be soft but not sticky.
4. Remove the dough from the bowl.  Wash and dry the bowl; coat the inside with olive oil.  Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a clean dish towel, and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size (about 30 minutes, probably).
5. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Stretch it with your hands into rectangle, about 18″ x 12″ x 1.5-2″.  Cut into 12 equally-sized portions.
7. Shape these into flat discs and put onto 2 cookie sheets.  Let rise briefly (10-15 minutes) then bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown on top and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
8. Slice horizontally and use for your fantabulous grilled hamburgers loaded with grilled veggies!  They’re even better if lightly toasted over the hot coals.

Thanks again to my father for his photography.  See more of his photos at www.mrtoadsride.blogspot.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Cooking Tips, Recipes, Uncategorized, What I Ate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.