Another busy fall weekend

Keith Bryant Recipe of the Week
By: 
Keith Bryant
 As the air gets crisp and the night comes on a little earlier, the list of things to do is getting longer day by day.  
 This weekend after the caramel apple onslaught (I am making about 315 apples a week right now), I put together a catering for 40 people at the candy shop and photographed a wedding out at Lazy Bear Ranch.  
 I had a great time, with very nice people for the joyous occasion.   While I was there Tim and I had a conversation about upping our food game at the ranch for hunting season.  
 Now you can buy almost anything, but having an item that is homemade and sourced locally adds a special touch to any meal. With that thought in mind I went to work on improving what we do for the lunches at the ranch.  
 With hamburgers being one of the choices, I looked for nuances that would make the meal stand out. The type of bread that you get with a burger can be one of those things that we take for granted.  
 I set out to make a bun that would be unique and yet look amazing.  Have them freshly baked the day of the hunt would also be something unexpected. So, I headed into my test kitchen (that is what Sharon calls it when I make a mess) and produced a soft on the inside and slightly crusty on the outside Brioche hamburger bun. 
 Brioche is a pastry of French origin that is similar to a highly enriched bread, and whose high egg and butter content give it a rich and tender crumb.  
 I think it took longer to make the aluminum foil rings than to make the bread.  So, you need about 14.25 inches of foil to produce a 4.5-inch bun. Once you roll up the foil to about three quarters of an inch you staple the ends together.  These are reusable for other recipes to keep your bun from spreading during the proofing stage.  
 Here is the recipe I used from the King Arthur flour website.  I love that website for everything bread making. 
Brioche Buns
Ingredients
Dough
2¾ cups King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup Baker’s Special dry milk or nonfat dry milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk, white reserved for wash (below)
¼ cup lukewarm water
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
Egg Wash
1 large egg white (reserved from above) lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
Seeds of your choice, optional
Directions
 Mix and knead the dough ingredients – in a mixer or bread machine – to make a smooth, shiny dough. It starts out sticky and takes 15 to 20 minutes of kneading in a stand mixer to develop, so it is not recommended to knead this by hand.
 Form the dough into a ball, place it in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1 hour.
 Refrigerate the covered dough overnight, to slow its rise and make it easier to shape.
 The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator, and divide it into six pieces.
 Shape each piece into a flattened ball, and place into the lightly greased cups of an individual pie and burger bun pan. Or place the buns on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches to 3 inches between them.
 Cover the buns and let them rise until they’re quite puffy. This may take as little as 1 hour; or up to 2 to 3 hours, depending on how warm your rising environment, and how cold the dough. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
 Brush the buns with egg wash and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 14 to 18 minutes, tenting with foil after 10 minutes if they appear to be browning too quickly. The finished buns will register at least 190 degrees F on a digital thermometer inserted into the center.
 Remove the buns from the oven, and cool on a rack.
 
 
 

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