Hamburger Buns

 Original Recipe The Homesteading Housewife

For once this is not a recipe I created, but I have to feature it for you because of the story behind them. For those of you who know me well, you know that I absolutely HATE shopping. I know, I should have my girl card revoked for that statement. But shopping, especially with a toddler is not my idea of a fun day, even if it's just running to the store for one item, I will go out of my way to make sure that NEVER happens (do you know how difficult it is to put socks and shoes on a 2 1/2 year old?!?). Well... when I decided to make the BBQ Beef Sammies a few weeks ago, I quickly realized after throwing my creation into the crock pot that I did not have any buns or rolls of any sort in the house. After about 5 minutes of searching the web I found this recipe for Hamburger buns made in the bread machine! Well that right there told me pretty much all I needed to know. But honestly the story doesn't end there... haha!

Background for ya, I spent pretty much that whole day cooking, I did get some laundry and other things done, but cooking and doing dishes was the largest part of my day. My house smelled amazing, with the beef cooking, and the rolls baking, I swear my husband was salivating by the time he walked up the driveway. But then, he came inside and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "Hi babe, dinner's almost ready!! Doesn't it smell good?"
Hubby: "Hey, yeah it looks great. Where'd you get the rolls?"
Me: "Oh, I made them. I was too lazy to go to the store."
Hubby: "Wait... what? You were too LAZY to go to the store to buy pre made rolls... so instead you spent all day making them from scratch?!?!?!"
Me: "Um... Yeah... I'm awesome like that!"
Hubby: "That's one way to say you're incredibly weird..."

Haha! I kid you not, that conversation then proceeded to make it's way to my Hubby's family out on the farm, his co-workers, my family, and then even onto Facebook (my SIL made sure the world knew how insane I was lol!) and now the blog. I've had people text and tell me how silly I am for being "Lazy", and that I need to change my definition of lazy, and all of this in just the last 2 weeks. It's been quite interesting, I've apparently become a legend for my "laziness" and I'm ok with that, because you know what?!? These rolls were worth the effort. I may never buy pre-made rolls again, and I think these would even be incredible dinner rolls too. Ok, now who's going to go posting about the crazy Farmer's Wife who needs to re-evaluate what being lazy means? Bahahaha!!!

Ingredients:

3 3/4 Cups Bread Flour
1 1/4 Cups Milk, Slightly Warmed (I used 1%)
1/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Beaten Egg
2 Tablespoons Butter, cut into cubes
1 1/4 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
3/4 Teaspoon Salt

Directions:
Place all ingredients into your bread machine, according to your manufacturer's instructions. Set on Dough setting, and let it do all the hard work. Once done, lightly flour your counter and turn out the dough. Cut in half, and then roll 1 half out about 1 inch thick circle. Using a 3-4 inch round cutter or glass, cut out rolls. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Once finished, brush the tops with melted butter and cover with clean towels. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled, about 1 hour *Tip* Turn your oven on to 200 degrees F for 1-2 minutes, then shut off and place the cookie sheets in there, remove before preheating to bake them.* Once risen, remove towels and bake at 350 degrees F for 9 minutes, or more. Until golden brown. To make hot dog buns, shape into logs.

Review:
Honestly, though I may need to seriously re-evaluate my life, I have to say these were pretty simple and easy. And though not as easy as buying the pre-made ones, they tasted SO much better and were definitely worth the effort! 5 Stars.