TwD: White Loaves

The members of the online baking group Tuesdays with Dorie have just finished baking their way through all the recipes from Dorie Greenspan's amazing book "Baking from My Home to Yours" and this year, the founding members, Laurie and Jules (who has the recipe for this bread posted on her blog), have decided to bake through another one of Dorie's fascinating cookbooks, "Baking with Julia."  This book contains over 400 pages of delicious recipes (both sweet and savory) as well as a ton of information about baking that would be especially helpful to the novice baker.  Browsing though its pages and seeing the variety of baked goods that we are to make twice a month is making me really excited to start this adventure!  I am quite certain that we will stumble upon recipes that will be new favorites in our households.

After proofing, I brushed the buns with egg wash and sprinkled them with sesame seeds

The buns puffed up beautifully in the oven

I'm glad the group is starting this project with bread, particularly the White Loaves recipe on page 81 as I've been baking a lot of bread lately and have just bought a bread machine as well.  Needless to say that I was feeling really up to the task when I made these yesterday! Since I was going to make hamburgers for dinner last night, I decided to turn the dough into hamburger buns instead of a loaf.  I only made half the recipe (only using my BM to knead the dough) and after dividing it into 4 ounces for each bun, I was able to make 7 buns and a small roll which I then placed on top of a silicone-lined sheet pan and then covered with oiled plastic wrap and proofed for about an hour.  After proofing, I brushed each bun with egg wash (for even browning and a little shine) and sprinkled the tops with sesame seeds prior to sliding them inside the oven.

The egg wash gave the buns a lovely crust

It took about 40 minutes (or maybe a little less) for the buns to bake, rotating the tray halfway through the baking time.  They smelled so wonderful!  I couldn't wait to try it out on our burger.

So soft and chewy and perfect for the burgers

Our dinner last night

VERDICT: This bread was really good and complemented the burgers so well.  As a hamburger bun, it's not as light and fluffy as the ones I get from the bakery but it definitely tastes better!  This will surely be made again and next time, I'll make it into a loaf.


Note:  If you want to join our lovely group, go on over to the TWD website and sign up!