Buns

Michael Ruhlman has issued a challenge: Make a BLT from scratch. This includes curing your own bacon, growing your own tomatoes and lettuce, and baking your own bread. The flour may be purchased, but I have a feeling that this concession was made only grudgingly.

Yes, I have a lot of time on my hands, but have neither the skill set nor patience for such a task. I read the major cooking magazines and blogs, and I usually select things to make based on three criteria, listed in order of importance: (1) ease--both of obtaining quality, inexpensive ingredients and of executing the recipe (2) perceived deliciousness, primarily for my palate, secondarily for my husband's, and (3) impressiveness. Call me vain, but there is surely a delicate balance here. If a recipe is too easy, it cannot impress and often falls short in deliciousness. To wit.

This recipe, while not technically difficult, does require two two-hour rising periods. Throw in mixing, cutting, and baking time, and you’re at 5+ hours. Pick a rainy day off and make sure you have a good book to read. The result, though, is delicious. Also, while buns are not impressive in themselves, once people realize you made them from scratch, they are generally impressed.

So, yes: At some point during this whole operation, I remembered that I could get perfectly adequate buns from the Publix bakery at a reasonable cost. Less satisfactory, but still serviceable, buns are currently 10-for-$10 at Kroger. Nevertheless, this is satisfying in a thrill-inducing, primal way. It is still magical to me that you can add yeast to flour and water producing whatever risen carb your heart desires: sandwich bread, pizza, rolls, brioche… Some people garden. Others bake. The truly enlightened can do both, but I try not to be jealous from my clean, air-conditioned kitchen.

The hardest part was getting the dough to come together. The recipe calls for five cups (note to Gourmet: please use weight measurements!), but I added nearly another cup to get the darn thing to make a ball in my mixer. The recipe says the dough will be wet, but I don’t think it means a batter. I was stumped, but not for long.

I closed my eyes and imagined a Gourmet recipe tester in a New England commercial kitchen in the dead of winter, humidity close to zero. Rejoining the present, I saw that this day was pregnant with the threat of an afternoon thundershower, hot as all heck, with a dew point through the roof. I grabbed a spoon and the flour container.

Once I had my dough ball, it was mostly a matter of waiting. Two hours for the first rise, then cut half the dough into hamburger buns (I made 13 because of all the extra flour I’d added) and roll the other half into hot dog buns (8 gigantic). Once your buns are trayed up and loosely covered with oiled plastic wrap, you must let them rise another two hours.

Brats are in my future... yeeesss...

Patience is rewarded!