Love Those Buns!

Whenever I make a pot roast or pork roast, it is a two-day meal. The first day being the roast with side dishes, then I shred the leftover roast to make pulled pork or bbq beef for the next day's dinner on buns with chips or some other casual accompaniment. Actually, I look forward to day two more than roast day.

A few months back, the pulled pork dinner day was upon us and I had forgotten to purchase buns. ugh! The thought of driving down the hill to the grocery store (24 miles round trip in a vehicle that gets 16 mpg with gas over $4/gallon) really didn't appeal to me - but I dislike eating this type of food on slices of bread. I also knew that the bread recipe that I use for whole wheat sandwich bread would be the wrong texture for buns.

I started perusing recipes and found this one for Whole Wheat Buns. The texture is fantastic, they smell wonderful while baking, and now my family is spoiled and only want homemade buns from now on. Since they freeze spectacularly well, I don't see where this will be a problem.

Also - I make the dough in my bread machine so I can work on other things at the same time. The recipe comes from Bread Machine Magic.

Whole Wheat Buns - Hamburger or Hot Dog

Makes 12 hotdog buns or 8 hamburger buns

• 1 cup water
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons yeast

Place all ingredients in bread pan, select Dough setting, and press Start.

When dough has risen enough, the machine will beep. Remove bread pan, and turn out dough onto a floured counter top. Gently roll and shape the dough into a 12-inch rope.

With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces for hamburger buns or 12 pieces for hot dog buns.

Grease a baking sheet (I use parchment, rather than greasing). Roll pieces of dough into balls and flatten for hamburger buns or shape into 6-inch rolls for hot dog buns. Place on prepared baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm oven 10 to 15 minutes until almost doubled.

Preheat oven to 400°F Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown (be careful mine cook pretty fast). Remove from oven and cool on racks. When ready to use, split buns horizontally.