Recipes by Chef Ruben Gomez

This is one of the dough recipes that I have used for a number of years. It is perfect for hamburger buns. When you decide the size of your buns, it is best to bake off a tester; the buns for the Grilling demo were scaled off at 1 ounce apiece. Once you have the buns weighed off and shaped you can freeze them for up to 1 month on a cookie sheet and break some off, allow them to rise, and shamwow! You are in the burger business. This recipe has been scaled down from my recipe. I also use a scale for baked items for accuracy.

Milk dough buns

2       cup milk

½      tsp sugar

1½    ounce dry yeast

1¾    pound A P flour

2-3    ounces soft butter

½      tsp salt

Warm milk in a small pot to below boiling, allow to cool until it is slightly warmer than body temperature. Place milk, yeast, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and stir until yeast has dissolved. Once yeast has begun to bloom(bubbles and smells sweet), mix in the flour and knead until well incorporated at least 5-6 minutes. Add salt and knead in until completely incorporated at least 4-5 minutes. Slowly knead in butter at least 8-10 minutes. This is where you will really notice the difference if you do not spend time kneading the dough to develop the texture, and body of the dough. It is always fine to use a mixer or processor with dough attachments if you have them. Now that you have a beautiful ball of dough place it into a large bowl and let it rise once about 45 minutes to an hour. After allowing the dough to rise punch down the dough. This is when you will decide how big your buns could be, I use 1 to 1.5 ounce buns for min buns and 4 to 5 ounce buns for regular and larger burgers.  Form buns into small balls and place 1 inch apart on a baking sheet allow buns to rise to one and a half to double their size. Paint all the buns with egg wash and dust with sesame seeds. Bake at 375 degrees F. until golden brown about 20-30 minutes turning baking sheets once. 

If you find that you do not want to bake off all your buns, place on a baking sheet wrap in plastic and freeze until you like. On the day you decide to bake them off remove from freezer, spread on baking sheet 1-2 inches apart and place in a warm spot in your kitchen to rise for a couple of hours until about 1 ½  to double their size then bake off at 375.