Beyond squishy burger buns

Over the weekend I found myself roaming the bread aisle of the grocery store, hunting hopelessly for a bun that would hold up to the crispy fish sandwiches I planned to make for dinner. There was no dearth of choices. Shelves that towered above me were stuffed with plastic bags full of soft, squishy buns.

But I knew what would happen if I chose one of those bags. The bun would disintegrate under the weight of crispy cod and spicy slaw. You know exactly what I mean; it’s happened to all of us. After digging, I found a bag of challah buns made by a nearby bakery.. And they were fine. Still, I wished I’d made my own.

When I expressed my regret to my friend that night, he seemed scandalized by the idea. “You want to bake your own buns??” Why bake burger buns, he wondered, when grocery store buns are plentiful and cheap? I sat my friend down and lectured him.

First of all (I admit I had a bit of a tone in my voice), bakers don’t need a reason to bake something. We are fully aware that most of the things we bake can be found in one form or another at the grocery store. We bake burger buns because we like the feeling of dough under our hands, because the process gives us joy. Also, we can usually turn out something as good as, or better than, what we can buy.

Furthermore (yup, still had that tone), the bun is a full 50% of the burger experience. If you settle for a subpar bun, you’re sacrificing half the burger to mediocrity. You want me to spend my summer weekends munching on mediocrity?

Life is too short for that. For the rest of summer, I’ll be making David “DT” Turner’s 100% Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns. DT’s goal was to make a whole wheat bun that has the texture of soft, puffy white buns. He smartly calls for a few key ingredients that make that possible: butter, egg, Baker’s Special Dry Milk to make the buns soft, and vital wheat gluten to make the buns high-rising. Crucially, the buns call for our Golden Wheat flour, which is light, sweet, but still 100% whole-grain. All of this makes for a dough that’s great for more than just burger buns. You can shape it into a small pan loaf, or save half of it to turn into cinnamon rolls for the morning after burger night.

Tell me, friend — can your squishy store-bought buns do that?

• We’ve deemed this summer the Summer of Pizza. To kick it off, I wrote about my number one pizza rule.

• Writer Kate Cohen visited our baking school in Vermont and was magically 100% cured of any and all perfectionist tendencies! Well, almost. Her lovely essay explains:

• Hey Jesse Szewczyk — we hate waste as much as you do, and applaud you releasing your perfect marshmallow recipe. Leave nothing on the cutting room floor!