Soft and Light Wheat Sandwich Buns

These Soft and Light Wheat Sandwich Buns, enriched with butter and milk, provide the perfect base for a delicious sandwich.   Feel free to sprinkle them with your seeds of choice.

 

I missed baking with the Bread Baking Babes and Friends the past couple of months so when Sara chose these delightful Hamburger Buns, I knew I had to find the time and the right opportunity.

The opportunity came this past weekend when my BF and his eight-year old little buddy and I went to see the laser show at Stone Mountain.  We decided to bring tuna sandwiches for an easy picnic dinner. I’m sure these buns would be good with hamburgers but I thought they would also be good with the tuna salad. Plus, tuna is one of the only things this particular 8-year old eats. And you know, you don’t mess around (too much) with an 8-year old’s palette.

I was told that I should make the rolls with only white flour because he wouldn’t eat anything but white bread.  Well, I don’t always do what I’m told. So, I disguised them by adding just a wee bit of white whole wheat flour.  I also shaped the buns into balls instead of rolling out the dough and making slider buns.

My BF’s buddy never knew the difference. I asked how he liked the buns and he gave me the thumbs up. When I told him that the buns had a little bit of whole wheat in them, he just looked at me.  You know that look…the one that says no you didn’t.  Actually, he’s a good kid so he just kept right on eating and even asked for another one. My BF gave me the thumbs up as well.  Two thumbs up.  That ought to be good for something, don’t you think?

Light Wheat Sandwich Buns

Makes: 12 Buns

You can find the original recipe here. I changed the recipe a bit.  I had the benefit of reading the comments from some of the other Bread Baking Babes so I incorporated their changes and made a couple of my own. My revised recipe is listed below:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) milk
• 8 Tbs (1stick/125 g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 3 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 3 cups (420 g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 cup (130 g) white whole wheat flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 scant tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water
• sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)  I used white sesame seeds, natural sesame seeds and black sesame seeds.

Directions:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk and butter and heat until the butter is melted, about 7 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let cool to 105-155’F (40 to 46’C).

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of white whole wheat flour, the sugar, instant yeast, and salt and stir (or mix on low) until combined.

Add the milk mixture and knead (on low speed) until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove the dough from the bowl, oil the inside of the bowl and return the dough to the bowl.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Divide the dough into 12 pieces (about 90 – 100 g each) and shape them into balls.

Transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing the buns evenly apart, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375’F. Remove the plastic wrap from the baking sheet.  Brush the tops of the buns with the egg mixture.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds if using.  I sprinkled some with white sesame seeds, some with natural sesame seeds, some with black sesame seeds and left some plain because I wasn’t sure if our little buddy would like sesame seeds.  Turns out he liked the ones with the white sesame seeds.  Good choice!

Bake until the buns are golden and an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of a bun registers 190’F (88’C), 14 to 16 minutes.  Transfer the buns to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Cut in half and use as hamburger or sandwich buns.  I didn’t get a photo of the sandwiches, but I’m sure you can picture what these delicious buns would look like filled with tuna.  Scrumptious!

 

I tried one of each kind.  I had one plain before the buns ever made it to the laser show.  Well, I had to test it to make sure it was okay to serve.  Then, I had one with tuna at the laser show.

The next day, I had one for lunch with a fried egg and cheddar cheese. I could eat them here, I could eat them there, I could eat them anywhere.  I do like fried eggs and buns. I do like them…Sam I am. And, you will too!

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy