Cheese Burger Buns

By Foodiewife

I am a big fan of King Arthur flour products and their recipes. Homemade hamburger buns have a much better texture, and flavor, than store bought. Unless, of course, you splurge and buy buns at a bakery. This recipe is super easy to make. I liked the idea of flavoring the bread with cheese. Truly, these buns can be ready in just a little over an hour! Super easy to make, and I used a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer with a dough hook! These had a beautiful "crumb" texture.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/3 cup Vermont cheese powder OR 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese or the finely grated cheese of your choice
• 3/4 to 1 1/4 teaspoons salt*
• 1 teaspoon onion powder, optional but good
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (I used Rapid-Rise Yeast)
• butter for brushing on top
• Use 3/4 teaspoon salt if you use cheese powder, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt if you use grated fresh cheese

Details

Servings 8
Cooking time 75mins
Adapted from foodiewife-kitchen.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

To make the dough: Combine all of the dough ingredients, and mix and knead them — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a soft, somewhat tacky dough.
NOTE: Since I used Rapid-Rise yeast, instead of instant, I mixed the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast and let it sit until foamy-- about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or other container large enough to allow it to at least double in bulk, cover, and let it rise for about 60 to 70 minutes, till it's just about doubled.
NOTE: Because I used rapid-rise yeast, the dough doubled in about an hour

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into 8 pieces.

Round each piece into a smooth ball, and place on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Gently flatten the balls to about 3" diameter. NOTE: I used King Arthur Flour's Hamburger Bun Pan, that I purchased online.

Cover the buns and let them rise till they've expanded nicely, about 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Brush each bun with melted butter.

Bake the buns till they're a light, golden brown, about 18 minutes.

Remove the buns from the oven, and brush them with butter again. Place them on a rack to cool.

Yield: 8 big buns.