Spelt Burger Buns

Tuesday, June 18, 2013





Making home made burger buns is not something you see the average person doing every day. The idea came to me when my sister and I, made the irrational decision to invite a countless amount of people to a barbecue one Sunday night, not realising that although a barbecue is the ultimate chilled scenario, the hosts of a barbecue are not necessarily so 'chilled'. Readers, remember this next time you dare to host one of these...

We later realised that to have a barbecue, you need to light the barbecue. Two hungover Jewish girls and an unlit barbecue is not a good combination. We even later realised, to have a barbecue, you need food. In our initial panic, we decided to settle on making everyone pasta, the only barbecue aspect of the evening to come, being paper plates and a semi lit (yet empty barbecue). We knew our American mother would be disappointed and ventured out to find some hot dogs.

After finding the hotdogs and defrosting the ingredients for burgers, we realised we had no buns and let's be honest, carb-police aside, a hot dog or burger without the bun, sucks.

I'm sure you can guess the end of the story. I thought to myself, 'we've come this far', and made my first attempt at home-made burger buns, assuming the whole time that this would only end in tears (of exhaustion).

Needless to say, they turned out better than I had thought (or I wouldn't be doing this post)! I've made them three times since and refuse to have floppy, crumbling, white burger buns at home ever again!

These were honestly the easiest things to make and pretty quick too! You can make them a few days in advance or even make them fresh while the barbecue is heating up!




Yields 12 large buns or 24 small.
Total time: approx 40 minutes.

YOU WILL NEED:
2 SACHET DRY YEAST (2 TBSP)
7 CUPS SPELT FLOUR
2 1/4 CUPS WARM WATER
2/3 CUP VEGETABLE OIL
2 EGGS
1/2 CUP RAW SUGAR GRANULES
2 TSP SALT

1 EGG, BEATEN
SESAME SEEDS

Pre-heat oven to 220 Degrees C or 425 F.

Dissolve the yeast in the water (leave approximately 1/4 cup water aside so you the mixture is not too watery, you can add more later). Leave for 5 minutes and add the sugar and vegetable oil. Mix and set aside for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the egg, flour (again leave a little bit of the flour out to add later) and salt and mix until you have formed a dough.

Sprinkle some flour onto a clean surface and knead the dough for around 3 minutes.

Form the dough in to balls (very slightly flattened in the shape of buns) and place on a baking tray with grease proof paper. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes in a warm area of your kitchen.

Brush the buns with the extra beaten egg and sprinkle them with the sesame seeds. You may substitute sesame seeds for any seed of your choice. You can also substitute spelt flour for any other flour of your choice!

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy them immediately or make them in advance!