Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

One of my new year's resolutions is to cut back even more on processed foods in our household. I think I do a fairly decent job of cooking things from scratch, but I want to improve this year and be even more diligent in the ingredients I use to cook with this year. One of my first recipes this new year were making homemade wheat hamburger buns. I figured it couldn't be that difficult and I know they are far healthier because I know exactly what ingredients are in them. These hamburger buns were extremely delicious and I was very proud of the outcome. They were served with BBQ Jalapeno Turkey burgers and some sweet potato tator tots (recipe to come soon). YUM!

There are two ways you can do these buns. The first way is that you can prepare the dough and then freeze the buns until you are ready to bake and eat them or the second way you can do these are to bake the buns and then use what you need and freeze the remaining for a later date. My preference is to cook them completely and cool and then freeze in a freezer bag.

I used a breadmaker to make my dough, but you are more than welcome to make these without a breadmaker. The website I got this recipe from shows how you will make these without a breadmaker. I just find that a breadmaker makes it more time efficient for me.

One more thing, you could roll the dough into hot dog bun shapes and use this recipe for hot dog buns.

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
Serves: Serving size depends on the size of the buns you make (I got 10 buns but I made them smaller)Adapted by: http://breadbaking.about.com/od/burgerandsandwichbuns/r/Light-Wheat-Hamburger-Buns.htm

Ingredients:
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk, room temperature (just set out about 20 minutes before you are making the dough)
2 tablespoons brown sugar OR 1 tablespoon pure local honey - I used honey
3/4 teaspoon lite salt
1 tablespoon soft light butter or margarine
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
Egg wash - consists of 1 beaten egg and a splash of water

Directions:
-In your breadmaker pan, add all liquid ingredients first, which is your water, milk, honey, and butter.
-Now add to the breadmaker pan all of the dry ingredients, except for the yeast. This is your salt and flours.
-Make a small dent in the top of the ingredients and pour your yeast in the hole you created.
-Set your breadmaker to the dough setting and press start. The process takes 1 1/2 hours on my breadmaker.
-Once dough is done, remove from breadmaker pan and separate dough into smaller pieces (however many buns you wish to make). Roll each separate piece into a ball and place each on a nonstick baking sheet.
-Once all rolls are on the baking sheet, cover with a cloth and let rise for 45 to 60 minutes. They will double in size.
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked completely. My oven only took 11 minutes to cook these buns.
-Cool on a baking rack and serve or store in freezer for later

Enjoy! :)