Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Homemade Bread . . . and Buns

Speaking of foods that taste particularly good this time of year . . . isn't this just the perfect time to get back into baking homemade bread?

I don't think I made bread even once this summer. Did I? Nope, I sure can't remember it. Fortunately, we have a lady in the area, a fantastic bread baker, who makes and sells loaves of artisan bread so we haven't been too, too deprived in the bread department these past few months.

Making my own bread is something I really enjoy so it feels good to get my hands back into the dough again.

Besides loaves of bread, I like to keep buns on hand for use with hamburgers and hot dogs.

The following recipe isn't my favorite rye bread recipe as it doesn't have a high ratio of rye flour in it. But because rye contains very little gluten (the substance that allows bread to rise) and my best rye bread is fairly heavy and dense, I like to use this recipe for buns.

Yesterday I made half the recipe into hamburger buns and half into one loaf of bread. The original recipe was for rye buns (as in dinner roll buns) but I found it makes a good loaf of bread besides making good hamburger buns.

RYE BUNS

4 to 5 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups rye flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
2 (rounded) tablespoons dry yeast
1/4 cup butter
2 cups warm (115-120 degrees) water
2 eggs, slightly beaten

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups unbleached flour, 2 cups rye flour, sugar, salt, caraway seeds, celery seeds and dry yeast.

In a small saucepan using a thermometer, warm butter and water to 115-120 degrees. Add to flour mixture and partially mix in. Then add the eggs and continue beating until all is incorporated.

Gradually add as much unbleached flour as you need to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Punch down and divide as desired. For each of my burger buns, I use approximately 3 ounces of dough.

I press the dough for the buns quite flat when putting them on the greased cookie sheet because they will rise before baking. Those two little thingies on the right end of the cookie sheet are dinner rolls I made to go with our soup and salad dinner.

The nine burger buns and two dinner rolls took about half of the dough. I made the other half into a traditional loaf of bread.

This was everything cooling after it came out of the oven.

Hubby came in the door just as I was putting the buns and loaf on the racks to cool. He'd been out at our daughter's most of the day and had worked up a bit of an appetite. We all know what fresh, homemade bread smells like. Well, I thought I was going to have to beat him off with a stick until one of the buns cooled enough so he could eat it.

Yup, sure does feel good to be baking bread again. Next summer, no matter how busy I am outside I'm going to decree every rainy day as bread making day.

Would one of you please be responsible for holding me to that??

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh YUM! I made bread all summer, but haven't tried buns yet. Thanks for sharing the recipe, can't wait to try it;)

mtnchild said...

Yummy, looks good. I make bread about every 4-5 days, but I have to use a bread machine due to my arthritis, I just can't knead the dough.

I make different herb breads and a plain sandwich bread - I Loooovvvveeee bread!
Yvette

Erin said...

I'm still making bread, but can't wait to turn over that duty to hubby again. I wish I enjoyed it but I get stressed! Hubby on the other hand is a natural, he really enjoys it, and I enjoy eating it - his is SO much better than anything I make!

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

If you can wait for bread to cool down, well your just super human. My wood bread oven is about 500-700 degrees when I pull the bread out and I still only make it a few minutes. Mouth burns heal real fast :)

The Apple Pie Gal said...

Bread Making is something I vow to get better at! And I love rye!

I keep telling myself to get off my duff and do it! Not sure what I am waiting for!

Susan said...

I don't think there is anything that smells more wonderful than bread right out of the oven. That's a great idea - making half buns and half bread. Rye is my favorite so I will try this recipe. Made your cranberry pumpkin bread and ate an alarmingly large portion of it!

Lorie said...

That bread looks fantastic. Ummmm, the smell of fresh baked bread.

Mama Pea said...

Stephanie - We don't like the great big ol' hunk of tasteless "bread" you get in store bought buns so that's why I resorted to making ours. And you can always use them (split in half) for toast or any kind of sandwich if you run out of loaf bread.

Yvette - Hey, bread machine bread is good!

When my daughter was little if she were given a choice of a cookie or slice of homemade bread, she'd always choose the bread.

Erin - Lucky you! Another reason to miss your hubby on this deployment!

jane - Oh, I'm lusting after your wood bread oven. Bread baked in there is soooo much better!

Apple Pie Gal - Go for it, Girl! I know you can conquer it.

Susan - I know exactly what you mean about that Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. If the truth were known, I think I ate about 2/3 of the whole batch!

Lorie - Just what is it about the aroma of fresh baked, homemade bread? If the "experts" were really smart, they'd make a perfume that smelled like that!

Leigh said...

Well, how many rainy days do you think you'll have? :) Those look so good. DH doesn't like caraway but I love it. I wonder if he'd notice if I ground the seeds!

Mama Pea said...

Leigh - Duh, yeah, I see the potential problem! It would probably be feast or famine. Too dry a summer and we'd have very little bread. A rainy season and I'd have it coming out of our ears!

Would you be happy just leaving the caraway seeds out of a rye recipe? At least you'd still have the rye flavor.