Andrea sent us this question about making soft bread – a good one for the picnic season!
I know that crusty bread is all the rage but I sometimes I really just want to make soft burger buns/rolls with no crust. How can I get the perfect golden, sesame seed bun that's soft and light and crust-less? Oh! And not sweet either - the only time I've come close to that is by making a sweeter bun.
You’re totally right, Andrea! Super crusty bread is all fine and good, but there are definitely times when you want something a little softer. There are two ways that you can get bread like this:
The first way is to add fat, dairy, or sugar into the dough itself. All of these ingredients interfere with gluten formation, meaning your bread will end up with a soft, tender crumb. These ingredients also keep the bread fairly moist, so the crust will stay soft instead of getting crispy.
The other way is to brush the surface of your loaf or rolls with milk, melted butter, or a lightly beaten egg just before baking. This coating will also help the crust stay soft. This is a great method to use if you already have a recipe that you like, but just want to get a softer crust. You can also use this method in addition to the dough additions in the first method.
Since you say that you don’t want a particularly sweet bread, try replacing some or all of the liquid in your recipe with milk and also add a few knobs of butter. Then brush the top of the bread with either milk or melted butter. That should do the trick!
There are also a lot of great hamburger bun recipes out there. Here are a few to try:
• Hamburger Buns from King Arthur Flour
• 40-Minute Hamburger Buns from Taste of Home
• Homemade Hamburger Buns from the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook via Serious Eats
Does anyone else have tips or recipe suggestions for Andrea?
Related: Best Burger Toppings
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Last month's Gourmet magazine had a recipe for Hamburger (and hot dog) buns as well.
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/06/hamburgerbuns
view cweingarten's profile
Instead of adding milk and butter to the dough, I add a 1/2-3/4c plain yogurt. The cooked buns come out very tender and soft without a hard crust. Keep the dough on the wetter side when you finish kneading and forming the individual buns. I've had great results adding yogurt to my yeast breads.
view lona's profile
You pretty much covered all the bases there! Excellent advice. I like swapping milk for the water in any bread recipe for a soft crust, without changing the flavor too much. This is a recipe that made really excellent burger buns:
http://www.abreadaday.com/?p=699
Nice and soft, but not too sweet.
Good luck!
http://www.abreadaday.com
view eprewitt's profile
One thing that can also help soften bread is to substitute 1/4-1/2 cup of mashed potato flakes for flour in the recipe. It rankles me to use them for anything, but this trick works very well--and it's quick. I thought about ricing some boiled potatoes for this purpose, but it throws off the liquid ratios and always seems to produce a chunkier bread.
view jamuka's profile
Use all purpose flour, and milk instead of water. Make a really wet dough, so spongy you have to use a hamburger bun pan, like King Arthur sells. Mix it, knead it, divide it into the pan for just one rise. When it's risen, bake it at 325 or 350. As the crusts start to brown, add ice or water to the floor of the oven, or spray the walls with water.
view mxjohnson's profile