I made hamburgers. I know what you are thinking, hamburgers, big deal, everybody can make those and you are right but what is exciting is that I made my own buns and added just the right stuff to the beef to make it succulent.
I found the bun recipe, called Jiffy Hamburger Buns, in the cookbook Whole Foods For The Whole Family edited by Roberta Bishop Johnson. The buns took an hour to make, if not less--counting the baking time too. Truly.
I'd put the recipe here but I didn't change a thing and can't call it my own. Just go buy the book :)
For the buns, you just mix the ingredients together, let rest 10 minutes after the knead, then roll, cut into rounds and let rise 20 minutes. The fastest bread I've ever made (I am not counting the pizza dough I make, there's no rise time at all with that one). I had too much dough for my needs so made 8 buns and shaped the rest into a small loaf. The loaf sat in the fridge while the buns rose for 20 minutes and then baked for 12-14 minutes.
My one deterrent to making bread on a regular basis is the rise times and how they can vary depending on temperature, humidity and flour freshness; starting it is no problem but when that bread needs to be loved (punched down and shaped), it can't wait. Having kids has given me a new perspective on bread making and a new thing I can anthropomorphize.
For instance, I have a new pet, it's name is Oliver and he lives in my fridge and has to be fed weekly. I simply have to pull him out, mix in some flour and water and leave him until he starts to burp freely. Then it's back into stasis again. This sourdough is a true home-made-can't-get-more-home-made-than-this sourdough. A friend made it by fermenting her own home-grown grapes, mixed flour in and let it magically become sourdough (she's my hero. I made one once out of a potato, flour and water years ago-- pre-kids, back when I didn't realize I had oodles of time. It was good) But I digress.
You'll have to go buy a copy of this cookbook, it's full of good recipes. Go to the La Leche League's page: http://www.lllc.ca/ and click on their link to amazon.ca and then do a search for the book. In this way you can buy a good cookbook and benefit the La Leche League by going through their website to buy amazon books. They appreciate every and any donation to help them in their loving support of all breastfeeding moms.
Here are some photos of the buns. I didn't have my usual camera so relied on my ipod touch to snap these. (which explains a bit, no? Fluorescent light makes it tricky to get good colour and no matter how bright I feel the kitchen is, the ipod says differently; I didn't use my sweet, little, simple, easy Canon Elph because my husband took it to work that day)
I used whole spelt flour.
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| These are the buns rising |
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| Buns baked and cut in half. The little loaf I made with the extra dough. Makes a good bread too; nice and dense. |
For the burgers, I pulled out a pound of ground from my freezer and let it thaw --Once a year I buy an 1/8th of a naturally raised cow, as close to organically raised as it can get without it being certified. The best beef I've ever tasted. I got it from this farmer: http://www.littledownfarm.ca/
In a bowl I mixed together:
1 egg
2 Tbs Ketchup
2 Tbs cream
1 minced garlic
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp hickory smoke BBQ sauce
1 tsp sesame dressing (any dressing would do, even plain vinegar)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
I added:
2-3 slices of dry toasted bread crumbled into the egg mixture (I heat the oven at 350F or put on the broil and toast the bread until done, being careful not to burn so flip often and watch closely)
Mix it all well and add the beef and mix until well blended. Form into patties. The size I chose to make gave us 6 burgers.
I fried them in a pan but if I had a BBQ, I'd have done them that way since everything tastes better cooked on a BBQ.
The following photos were taken with my ipod touch as well so ignore the quality.
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| We always add cheese to our burgers. |
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| This is what my son left behind. |
