Recipe: Modern Burger Buns (no yeast, Tyler Florence test kitchen recipe)

MODERN BURGER BUNS

"This recipe was one of our big Test Kitchen triumphs-we wanted to be able to make a fresh-baked bun, from scratch, in about the same amount of time it takes to make the burgers themselves. It took a lot of testing, but we had faith it would come together. This bun cooks on the griddle, right next to your burger, The bun holds up well to the burger sauce and juices, which was one of our critical criteria for a great bun. There is no yeast required; instead, we inject carbon dioxide into the batter. Make sure you are using an iSi siphon that makes whipped cream, not a soda siphon. You will need CO2, chargers, not the N02 chargers that come with the iSi gun, which you call get at specialty food stores or hardware stores. It's better to weigh the ingredients for accurate results, but you can also use cup measures if you don't have a scale."



Makes 6 buns

9 ounces bread flour (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons)
18 ounces potato starch (4 cups)
2 teaspoons dry milk powder
4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grapeseed or vegetable oil, for griddle
Sesame seeds
Flaky sea salt
Special equipment: iSi whipped cream siphon, 6 CO2 chargers, 3 ring molds 3-inches wide and 2-inches tall, nonstick cooking spray

Combine the bread flour, potato starch, milk powder, salt, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Fill a large measuring cup with 3 cups of water, add the eggs, whisk together, and pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Whisk to combine. Pour half the batter into the iSi siphon, and charge with 2 carbon dioxide (CO2) cartridges. Give it a gentle shake, and let the batter rest for 10 minutes.



Heat a cast-iron griddle over medium-low heat and add a drizzle of grapeseed oil. When it's hot, lightly spray all of the ring molds with nonstick spray and set on the griddle. Eject the batter from the iSi gun into the ring molds.



Cook for 20 minutes on one side, until browned on the bottom and the sides are set, then spray the bun top with nonstick spray and sprinkle with sesame seeds and sea salt. Using a spatula, carefully flip the buns and cook for one more minute, to brown the other sides.

While the buns are cooking, refill the siphon with the rest of the batter, charge with 2 more CO2 cartridges, gently shake, and let rest for at least 10 minutes.

When the buns are done, allow them to cool for a few minutes. Gently run a knife around the edge of the ring molds to loosen and remove the buns. Spray the ring molds and repeat the cooking procedure as above with the second batch of batter. Allow the second batch to cool, and loosen as above.

Slice in half and serve with burgers.



RECIPE NOTES:

INSTANT BREAD?
"What's more disappointing than to get all ready for a great juicy burger, only to find out that you forgot to buy buns? That was a problem we wanted to make a thing of the past, so we set out to discover a way to make burger buns that didn't take hours for the dough to rise. Ideally, we wanted to make the buns in about the same amount of time as it took to make the burgers. So, we asked ourselves: "Why do we use yeast in bread"! Its main purpose is to raise the dough: when yeast consumes the sugars in flour, it releases carbon dioxide, which puffs the dough up. So why not inject carbon dioxide directly into the dough? For years, we've loved playing with our iSi siphons. Like the squirtable whipped cream canisters you buy in the store, these siphons allow you to instantly aerate a sauce or puree by forcing compressed gas into it. We figured that we could make a batter that would be similar to a bread dough, aerate it using a siphon, and then shoot it out directly onto a griddle where we were also cooking the burgers. We looked at the ingredients in English muffins, crumpets, potato buns, Parker House rolls, and traditional burger buns, and we tested them all with an iSi charger. We played with the ratios, exploring the time it took for the bubbles to form and the bread to come together when cooked on a griddle instead of in an oven. We knew it had to be possible. And not only possible, but also that it had to be great: with a texture somewhere between an English muffin and a Parker House roll, able to stand up to a burger's juices and any sauces, and also just the right size so it didn't steal the spotlight from the burger. At first we had a lot of really dense biscuits; we learned that potato starch would make them lighter. Then some buns were too loose, coming out like pancakes, and some were too bubbly and just plain weird. Finally, we landed on the right formula: our delicious Modern Burger Buns."

Used by permission to Recipelink.com from Clarkson Potter
Source: Inside the Test Kitchen: 120 New Recipes, Perfected by Tyler Florence