Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Mixing the ingredients
- In the bowl of the standing mixer, add the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Using the paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients together.
- With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the lukewarm water and olive oil. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Once everything has come together, increase the speed to medium and beat the dough (still with the paddle attachment) for 8 minutes. During this time, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl and the paddle as needed. At the end of the 8 minutes the dough will be wet, but should come together.
Rise the dough
- Lightly oil a large bowl. Scrape the dough from the mixing bowl into the oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm location for about 1 hour. If you are using a proofer, the proofer box should be set to about 72 degrees.
Form the rolls
- After 1 hour, the dough should be double in size. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface. A large cutting or pastry board works well here and helps with this next step. Again, if you are using a board, you'll want to flour the board. Have some extra flour handy.
- This dough makes anywhere from 15 small to 7 large rolls. The image for the rolls shows 7 rather large rolls. In this step, we're going to make anywhere from 7 to 15 balls. Once you have the number of dough balls you want, let the balls rest, covered with a tea towel for 10 minutes (to let the gluten rest).
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Then, one ball at a time, using a rolling pin, roll the ball into the shape of a hamburger or hotdog bun. It should take only a couple of swipes with the rolling pin. Place the bun on the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Cover the baking sheets with oiled plastic wrap. It's important to oil the plastic wrap or the wrap will stick to the buns. It will stick a bit anyway, but the oil helps. Let the buns now rise again in a warm location for about 1 hour.
Bake the buns
- Close to the end of the rising time, set the oven racks to the lower and middle location in the oven. Set the oven temperature to 450 degrees.
- When the buns are puffy, bake for 5 minutes. While the buns are baking, beat the egg in a small dish. After 5 minutes, gently (and really gently!) brush the buns with the egg wash. Bake for another 5 to 7 minutes longer.
- After the buns have finished baking, let them cool are racks. Enjoy!
Optional whole wheat
- For the bread flour, you can substitute some whole wheat flour. I used 4 ounces (or about 1 cup) of whole wheat flour. In that case, you will have 12 ounces of bread flour plus 4 ounces whole wheat (or 2 1/2 cups bread flour and 1 cup of whole wheat.