Order Up! Who Ordered The Cheeseburger?

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baking, beef, bread, brioche, cheeseburger, hamburger

 

Cast iron pan-fried beef mince patty topped with Colby cheese on homemade light brioche bun.

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Handmade Brioche Hamburger Buns

Tags

beef, bread, brioche, hamburger, slap & fold technique

I love hamburgers. Well, cheeseburgers, actually.

Preshaped dough balls are bench rested for 15 minutes.

I also love the smell of fresh baked bread.  I don’t know anybody who doesn’t, do you?

These 100mm egg rings help contain the dough and provide more lift to the finished hamburger buns, or, make them look like big mushrooms. It’s all good. Besides, baking rings are cool.

It’s a perfect match:  Fresh baked hamburger buns for a great homemade hamburger.

Dough balls have doubled in size and now fill the baking rings. Ready to bake!

Well, a cheeseburger is what I have in mind…

A gentle brush of eggwash gives a beautiful golden hue and helps the sesame seeds stick. Sesame seeds are required. I believe there is a law for that…

Did I mention I made this dough by hand?  Yeah, I don’t have a stand mixer.  I used the French slap & fold technique.  Just follow the kneading technique in this video by Richard Bertinet:

Wait.  Mmmm.  Can you smell it?  Yep, fresh baked bread.  Man am I hungry.  They’re just about done…

I pulled these out of the oven after baking for 13 minutes.

While the buns were cooling, I was thinking of hamburger toppings.

Place the buns on a wire rack to cool.  These buns are even better the next day.  Store in plastic bag after completely cooled.

This was the second batch of brioche buns (I’ve been working on a recipe…).  The first batch did not rise, possibly because I used old active dry yeast.  Or, because I am still learning how to knead bread…  I threw that batch of old yeast in the rubbish bin and bought a fresh batch.  Much better.

L to R: Nature’s Fresh Sesame Hamburger Buns (I bought from the local Countdown); the first batch; today’s batch. Which would you rather eat?  Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. 🙂

Resist all temptation to immediately have at these buns.  You must allow them to properly cool, to redistribute the moisture in the crumb.  They are actually better the next day.  I couldn’t wait that long…

Note the proper bun to burger ratio: Top & bottom bun equal the thickness of the burger patty. Also note width of burger patty exactly matches burger bun. Cheeseburger perfection.

Handmade Brioche Hamburger Buns

Note:  It is more accurate to weigh your ingredients, rather than measure by volume, especially for flour, therefore, I have provided the amount of flour in weight, rather than cups.  Make sure you use fresh active dry yeast.  If your active dry yeast is more than six months old, toss it in the rubbish bin and buy some new active dry yeast.

Makes 8 X 105 g hamburger buns

Ingredients

250 ml (1 cup) water at 42°C/108°F

2 ½ tsp (7 g) active dry yeast

2 Tblsp (28 g) granulated sugar

450g unbleached bread flour

2 large eggs (about 100 g in total)

2 tsp (8 g) sea salt/Kosher salt

35 g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, softened, but not melted.

 

Egg wash:  Blend 1 whole egg and one egg yolk.

Sesame seeds

 

Method

 

1. Combine water, active dry yeast, and sugar.  Let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.

 

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.

 

3. Add yeast mixture and 2 eggs to flour mixture and mix with bowl scraper until 

well combined (no dry bits!).  Dough will be a bit wet.  Wash and dry bowl.

 

4. Turn out dough onto bench and knead with French Slap and Fold technique, for about 8-10 minutes, or until the bench is left clean and dough is smooth and elastic (I’m still learning, it took me about 15 minutes…).

 

5.  Spread dough into rough rectangle on bench and place butter onto dough.  Fold dough over butter and continue Slap & Fold technique for about 6-8 minutes, until dough is smooth and springy (I’m still learning… It took me about 10 minutes).  The dough will quickly lose its cohesiveness and become a bit mucky – do not worry, it will come together again pretty quick.

 

6. Form dough into ball, place into clean bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place to rise, until doubled in size, about an hour (mine took 45 minutes today, but it depends on the temperature of the room, etc.  May take longer than 1 hour.).

 

7. When dough has doubled in size, lightly dust the bench and turn out the dough onto the counter, helping the dough out of the bowl with the bowl scraper.

 

8.  Spread the dough into a rough rectangle and gently fold first one long side into the centre and press, then the other long side into the centre.  Then, fold again along the long axis and seal the edge, leaving a long roll.

 

9. Using a scale, portion the dough into 8 X 105 g pieces.

 

10. Form each piece into a ball and tension by rolling the ball on the bench with your fingertips into a tight, round ball.  Repeat for remaining pieces.

 

11. Cover dough balls on bench with a towel or plastic wrap and bench rest for 15 minutes.

 

12. Meanwhile, line a half sheet pan with silicone baking mat or baking paper, butter 8 X 100mm egg mold/english muffin mold and place on half sheet pan. (baking rings are optional, but very cool).

 

13. After dough balls have bench rested for 15 minutes, uncover dough balls, flour very lightly, and reshape dough balls into tight round balls.  Place dough balls into molds and flatten slightly.  Cover dough balls with clean towel or plastic wrap and keep in a warm area until doubled in size.

 

14. Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F.

 

15. Make the eggwash:  In a small bowl, blend together (with stick blender) 1 egg and 1 egg yolk.

 

15. After dough balls have doubled in size, uncover and very gently brush tops with eggwash.  Sprinkle sesame seeds over eggwash.

 

16. Bake until golden brown, about 12-14 minutes.

 

17.  Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack.

 

18.  When cool, slice in half and toast before making hamburgers.

 

When completely cool, you may place them in a plastic bag until ready to use.

 

Enjoy!

 

Umami Tsunami

Tags

cheeseburger, hamburger, the mighty hibachi, umami

How did I end up here?  Well…

I found a beer from Garage Project, a local Wellington brewery.  The beer is called Umami Monster.  Yeah, Umami Monster.  Imagine a beer made with Japanese dashi stock.  Umami flavours in a beer should pair well with grilled meats.

So, we’ve endured cold, wet Southerly conditions here in Wellington for about 7 days in a row, except for today. This morning the wind turned northerly and it was sunny – excellent BBQ weather, even in Winter.

So, I set up The Mighty Hibachi with hardwood charcoal – the good stuff, mind you – great chunks of charcoal, fist sized bits straight from the bag.  I could really use a bigger BBQ, but that’s a different post for a different day…

I figured, as you do, that a grilled umami burger with Umami Monster beer would hit you like an Umami Tsunami.  Oh, never mind.

Back to the umami burger… I made a miso-dijon mustard with dijon mustard, miso paste, and xioxing wine (would have used rice wine, but didn’t have it).  I grilled red onions (heaps of umami there…).  I grilled 200g of beef mince over hardwood charcoal, basting the burger with the miso-dijon mustard as it cooked. I topped the burger with a mixture of grated aged cheddar and Grana Padano cheese and covered the burger on the grill until the cheese melted.

When the burger was cooked medium rare, I took it off the grill and let it rest for a bit while I got the rest of the burger ready.  I spread kewpie mayonnaise on the toasted bottom bun, then topped the bottom bun with cos lettuce, bread & butter pickles, and a couple of tomato slices.  I placed the burger on top of all that, then placed the grilled onions on top of the burger.  On the top bun I spread some miso-dijon mayonnaise, then assembled the burger and plated it.

I served the umami burger with Umami Monster beer…

It was an Umami Tsunami.

Would I do it again?  Probably not, but it was a fun culinary exercise.

The Kitchen Is Open

Tags

beef, cheeseburger, hamburger, lyall bay

 

The first cheeseburger made in the kitchen at our place in Lyall Bay.  It feels good to be cooking in the kitchen again.

Grilled Cheeseburger

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beef, cheeseburger, hamburger, the mighty hibachi

A grilled cheeseburger from The Mighty Hibachi.

 

Chargrilled over hardwood charcoal

Grilled Cheeseburger

Tags

beef, cheeseburger, grilled onions, hamburger, the mighty hibachi

This evening I fired up The Mighty Hibachi and grilled a couple burgers over hardwood charcoal, with grilled onions.

Medium rare. Delicious.

Cheeseburger With Dill Pickles

Tags

beef, dill pickles, hamburger, mayonnaise

The jar of homemade refrigerator dill pickles has been getting happy in the fridge over the last few days. I tasted a couple pickles this morning (purely for quality control, mind you) and decided they were ready to be used.

I made a batch of homemade mayonnaise this morning and noticed a red onion sitting in the basket and fresh beef mince and vintage cheddar cheese in the fridge…

A perfectly good excuse to practice cooking a cheeseburger.

The pickles were great on the burger and balanced the richness of the cheese and burger juices. Delicious.

Cheeseburger

Tags

cast iron, cheese, cheeseburger, hamburger, sandwich

Fried in a cast iron pan until medium rare, then removed to rest and topped with sliced Colby cheese. Whilst the meat rested, the bun was toasted in butter and sliced onions were grilled in the pan juices in the cast iron pan. The meat was slipped under the broiler to melt the cheese, then placed on top of the grilled onions on the bun.

That is all.

No tomato chutney, no plum sauce, no beetroot, no salad. Why must hamburgers be so defiled in New Zealand?

Just a plain cheeseburger. Delicious.

The Mighty Hibachi Burger

Tags

beef, charcoal, cheeseburger, chiles, chiles anaheim, grilled, hamburger, hardwood charcoal, hibachi, tomato, vintage cheddar cheese

270g (before cooking!) Coarsely ground, loosely packed beef grilled medium rare over hardwood charcoal with grilled red onion, fire roasted Anaheim chile, vintage cheddar cheese (aged 24 months), and tomato.

California Burger

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beef, brioche hamburger buns, california burger, chiles jalapeños, fire roasted chiles, hamburger, light brioche hamburger buns, vintage cheddar cheese

The other day I baked a batch of light brioche hamburger buns.

There is only one thing to be done with burger buns: make a cheeseburger.

California Burger: Medium Rare Pan Seared Hamburger with Aged Cheddar, Fire Roasted Jalapeño, and Roasted Pepper Mayonnaise on a Home-Made Light Brioche Hamburger Bun.