white whole wheat burger buns

Whole wheat flour can be tricky on many levels. It takes a bit more effort when used in baked goods, trying to adapt white flour recipes to whole grain can result in disappointing brick-like efforts, and the very healthful properties of whole wheat make it spoil faster than its nutritionally-stripped white cousin.

When flour is on sale I tend to stock up, but I don’t want my King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour sitting around too long before I use it. (KAF has no idea who I am, I just love their stuff) Between my weekly loaf of 100% whole wheat bread and other projects I go through the stuff at a decent rate. However, I was running low last time I stopped at the store and they were out! Figuring it was better than nothing I grabbed a bag of unbleached white whole wheat flour instead.

Even though these pillowy burger buns look like little starch grenades, they are actually made with whole wheat flour. Sneaky, huh? If you’re looking for ways to incorporate more whole grains into your diet but don’t love the heartiness of regular “brown” flour, this is a simple transition. It’s not bleached, it’s just made from white wheat (as opposed to red wheat).

These are great with veggie burgers, would make lovely sandwich rolls, and make a fantastic base for the BBQ seitan recipe I’m posting next. I’ve also submitted this post to YeastSpotting, the excellent weekly bread roundup at Wild Yeast.

White Wheat Burger Buns

Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Yields 8 buns

It’s pretty close to the original. Based on some comments I reduced the sugar, and it originally called for all-purpose flour which would also be just fine.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) lukewarm water (no warmer than wrist-temperature)
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter, softened
• 2-3 tablespoons (1 ounce) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups (14.75 ounces) white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Directions:

1. Pour water in a mixing bowl (preferably in a stand mixer) and sprinkle yeast on top. Add butter, sugar, egg, flour, and salt (do not add salt directly after yeast).
2. Mix with a sturdy spoon or with a dough hook until the dough forms a ball. Knead by hand or with the dough hook until dough is smooth and elastic. If there is flour that is not absorbing or dough seems too stiff, dribble in a little more water until softened.
3. Cover the dough and let rise until doubled, approximately one hour.
4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or grease lightly. Deflate the dough gently and divide it into 8 pieces. The easiest way I have found to do this is to weigh the dough ball, then divide by 8 and weigh each piece of dough, adjusting as necessary.
5. Shape each piece into a disk about 1-inch thick and 3-inches across. Place buns on prepared baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel, and let rise about an hour until very puffy.
6. Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly brush buns with melted butter if desired. Bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

Tagged as: baking, bread, buns