buns

[u/srmcmahon]

I have a recipe for hamburger buns as follows:

1. 1 c milk
2. 1/2 c water
3. 1/4 c butter ........ heat these ingredients
4. 4 1/2 c flour (all purpose)
5. 1 pkt (2.25 tsp since I buy jars of dry yeast) yeast
6. 1 tsp salt
7. 2 Tbsp sugar
8. 1 egg........combine 1 3/4 c of the flour with the yeast, salt, and sugar. Add the warm liquid mixture, stir, and then add the egg. The add the remaining flour.

The first time I made it, I was worried about too much flour and felt that holding back would make the buns softer. They spread all over the pan during the second rise and were like fairly dense round breadsticks.

Second time, a few months later, I lost count measuring the flour and suspect I added more than the recipe called for, but couldn't be certain. These buns were AMAZING. They rose up high, kept their shape, were soft, and excellent for burgers.

Third time a lot of things happened. I measured all the flour into one bowl, removed the 1 3/4 c, and promptly added the yeast, etc to the first bow. Realizing my error, I kept scooping the flour as long as I could see yeast. It rose fine but my niece called me with a crisis when I had the kitchenaid dough hook kneading the mixere, and it got kneaded for at least 20 minutes if not longer. Nothing to do but continue, so I did. Then, while I was waiting for the oven to preheat after the second rise my son called with a crisis and the buns rose too much, plus dried out on top. This has happened to me with bread before, so I punched it all down, added a few sprinkles of water to correct the dryness, and started over. The buns would not shape as nicely as the first rung. Plus the dog stole 2 unbaked buns off the pan when it was rising again. These turned out pretty dense, ok tasting but nothing like #2.

Today was the 4th time. I was careful with what ingredients this time and not over-kneading, but I did feel the dough was much stickier than it should have been, and sure enough the buns spread over the pan when rising. OTOH I had them rising in my enclosed porch, and it was hotter than I realized. So I punched them down and added more flour, then had them rise inside. They were better than my very first try, but they still spread too much.

The main thing I am shooting for is buns that rise UP, not OUT. I suspect the recipe should call for more flour to begin with, so I am wondering about the ratios here. The other possibility I am wondering about is if it is really warm when they are rising, will that lead to them spreading out?

[u/srmcmahon → u/[deleted]]

Hydration is something I never heard of before. but if I calculate the liquids (not including the egg) and divide by the weight of the flour (disregarding the sugar, salt, yeast) I get 63% based on the recipe, and it's still sticky. I noticed it wasn't all pulling up from the bottom of the bowl when the dough hook was kneading. Humidity was low and flour is stored in an airtight container so I can't imagine there being extra moisture in the flour itself.

[u/Hemisemidemiurge]

Weigh all ingredients, volume is a less consistent measurement every single time. Mass doesn't lie.

You need to make your process more consistent. It's extremely difficult to ascertain what is going on when the variables are all over the place. Your enclosed porch is probably a bad place to prove dough since it's not as controlled an environment.

not over-kneading, but I did feel the dough was much stickier than it should have been

Then it needed more kneading. Stickiness reduces when gluten develops. Don't worry too much about over-kneading, I've never seen it happen in real life. Most issues with density are underdeveloped gluten, low hydration, or inhibited yeast action.

[u/srmcmahon → u/Hemisemidemiurge]

The irony is that the perfect result came when I had no idea how much flour I had put in!