Making Hamburger Buns

This past weekend, I ate what was perhaps the best burger of my life. Which reminded me that I still haven't shared my bun recipe with you. Which got me thinking about how fabulous you all are, and that you certainly deserve to have me follow through when I make promises. So here we are, and I know what you're going to eat this weekend...

Trust me on this one.

First, make the buns. You need to start at least 2 hours in advance of dinner. Or at least that's how long it takes me and my bread machine to get them made. If you don't have a bread machine and enjoy doing the kneading by hand, more power to you! I like to knead too, but find that I'm much more likely to go with home-made if I can rely on my machine now and then. Besides, this recipe has butter in it, and I haven't quite mastered the ability to knead butter into flour.

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
1 cup warm water
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tbspn. sugar
3 tsp. active dry yeast

Add ingredients to your bread machine hopper in the order they are listed. Turn to the dough setting, and press start. In about an hour and a half, the dough will be ready to handle.

Roll the dough out of the pan onto a floured board. Divide into 8 equal pieces. Form round balls out of each piece, setting them onto an oiled or greased cookie sheet, giving them room to grow. Let them rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes, or until they have doubled in size.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Allow to cool, then slice and start assembling your toppings.

 If you want to duplicate my epiphany from last weekend, make your patties following my go-to late Summer recipe, which was inspired by my exuberantly growing Dill. While the buns and burgers are cooking, caramelize a sliced Walla-Walla sweet onion on your stovetop, preferably in a cast iron pan with lots of butter.

Assemble your burger, placing your toppings on the bottom bun in this order: yellow mustard, burger patty with melted cheese, sliced dill pickles, sliced avocado, and a generous pile of caramelized onions.

Make sure you have a napkin handy, and eat slow! You're going to wish you had room for seconds.