I’m not fucking around with big, empty promises. But I’ve tried brioche buns, regular buns, pretzel buns, whole grain buns and whatnot. These potato burger buns are simply the shit.
They are super soft and fluffy, and quick and easy to make too. Just try them, and you’ll never go back to whatever you used before.
Ingredients
- 20 g flaked potatoes (yes, that nasty stuff some try to pass off as “mashed potatoes”. We use it for texture only)
- 550 g wheat flour
- 15 g sea salt
- 15 g sugar
- 450 g milk
- 2 tbsp neutral oil or melted butter
- 12 g dry yeast
Method
Melt the butter in a pot, pour in the milk and the potato flakes and let sit for a few minutes to warm up the milk and hydrate the potato flakes.
Put a bowl on your scale, measure up everything else and mix just very quickly together with your hands or bench scraper.
Pour the milk mixture into your bowl, mix everything together, no kneading at all, and then just let it sit in a bowl for 20-30 minutes. This rest will fully hydrate the flour and potato flakes and make the dough easier to handle.
Do a few stretch and folds to develop some gluten strength, cover your bowl with a lid and let sit until double in size, around 2h depending on room temperature.
Tip the dough onto your lightly flour dusted work surface, and divide into two equal parts, then each part again, and again. You should now have 12 equal size dough blobs staring back at you, each weighing in at just below 100 grams. Do use a scale to make sure one isn’t 83 grams, while another is 128 grams.
Flour your hands and shape each blob into a nice ball to create surface tension. Make sure the bottom of your ball in closed.
Put the balls on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cover with a well wrung kitchen towel and let rest until double in size, around 1h depending on room temperature.
Preheat oven to 190C
Brush the buns with egg wash, top with sesame seeds or nigella seeds. Bake at 190C for 15-18 minutes until nicely golden brown.
Let cool on a wire rack.
These are best when totally fresh, but store well in a fabric bag or waxed fabric for a day or two. Freezes very well.
