Hamburger buns and fries

Whoa... what is this? Two posts in a row? And with my hand still awkwardly bandaged?
I hadn't planned on writing up another post so soon, but, hubby decided he wanted hamburgers and fries tonight. We didn't have any bun on hand in the house, and no lettuce to do wraps, so it was up to me to make buns. I've not actually done that before.  I certainly know the logistics of it all, but we've never actually bothered to do it. So, tonight we did.

I will start by saying that I totally cheated. I used Gluten Free Pantry's french bread and pizza mix and tossed it all in the bread maker on the dough cycle. I prefer to "cheat" as much as possible when it comes to breads, and, well, I'm going to use my poor bandaged hand as further excuse if need be. :)

So, feel free to use your favorite bread recipe. Bring it to the dough stage where it'd normally be ready to bake, then  you will divide it up into individual "bun mounds."  I did 6 here, but I probably should have gone ahead and done 8 or maybe even 12, but, like I said, it was my first time at this. I wound up with 6 rather large buns as they spread out a bit more then I had expected. Only 3 of us for dinner tonight, so we'll just have big burgers and call it good.
I used an egg yolk that I had left over from the bread, with a little bit of water added to thin it out, to make an egg wash over the buns before they went in. I also added some cracked pepper and sesame seeds to two of the buns. Everyone else wanted them plain, but I figured why not play a bit.

 Pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes or so until they are done. For this type of product, I test for doneness by flipping one over and giving it a tap on the bottom side. It should sound a bit hollow.  Allow to cool then cut in half and set aside until needed.

We're also doing french fries. Normally I'd use our bottled fries, but it appears we are out of those (that, or i rearranged the pantry, moved them and have hidden them from myself.. that sort of thing has been known to happen once or twice....) so we're doing "fresh" potatoes.  I cut the potatoes into fries and have placed them in a bowl of water. You can add sugar to this water if you wish. Doing so will supposedly add in browning. But you do want to soak them for 20-30 minutes if possible. This will draw out some of the potato starch and that will definitely result in better fries. Just make sure they are well and thoroughly dried before going into the oil.

Heat your oil and fry in batches.










Pretty sure most people can figure out how to form a hamburger patty (or you can always buy them pre-formed and frozen..) Cook up your patties to your liking then get to building your burgers!

Here you can see the inside of the cut bun. Nice and dense. These held up very well and didn't crumble to bits like a lot of GF buns do. We have 3 of them left over, so we will be seeing how they  hold up tomorrow. I know the bread when I've used this mix has held up fairly well, but we will most likely toast them for tomorrow as hubby generally likes his buns toasted anyway.

And here's my burger. It's pretty simple as it's winter and good tasting tomatoes and non wilted lettuce are hard to come by up here, plus Hubby's still waiting to hear back on the jobs he's applied for, so we're not buying anything more then we have to right now so mostly sticking to what's in the larder these days. We had some assorted cheeses, pickles and the usual condiments. We also had some turkey bacon, but by the time I sat down to eat, I'd forgotten about it, and, honestly, I'm not sure I could have taken the addition. Hubby would have preferred pork bacon, but we didn't have any of that, so had to make due.
Either way, it was delish. Hubby and the teenager enjoyed their dinners and were very full afterwards, which is always a good thing :)