Just in time for July 4th, I wanted to share how easy and fun it is to make dinner rolls/hamburger buns. After my experience making these, I genuinely do not plan to buy a hamburger bun or dinner roll again. Also, I’m combining these two projects into one since they’re so similar!
Quick project summary: The first time I made both of these recipes, it stemmed from necessity so I was not messing around with any buns requiring a long rise. For this reason, I used a 30 minute dinner roll recipe to make small peel-apart rolls for pulled pork sliders and a 40 minute hamburger bun recipe.
Both recipes were easy to follow and the process of making rolls in general, was much simpler than expected. That said, both of these recipes over-estimated the number of rolls/buns you would get out of them. For me, the dinner roll recipe indicated it could make up to 18 rolls – more realistically, I think 12-15 rolls yielded solid slider-sized rolls. For the hamburger buns, instead of 12, I made 6 buns and they are big but delicious – to get a size similar to something from a grocery store I would probably make 8 buns.
Things I loved about this project: These rolls taste so much better than store bought. And, they’re ridiculously easy. Most of all, they require little advance planning so I was able to make them in a hustle when we realized we had burger but no buns for Memorial Day or unexpectedly wanted some pork sliders.
What I would do differently: For the dinner rolls, I think they turn out best when you make them in a container where they can puff up, and join together. I would definitely make them in a bit of a tighter pan versus the larger 9 by 13 which I used. For the hamburger buns, I now add an egg wash on top pre-baking to get a bit more of a golden brown top without burning the bottoms.
Things I also enjoyed while doing this project:
-Eating delicious hamburgers and pork (not made by me)
-Drinking maple whiskey from Cape Charles Distillery
100 Little Projects 