Home Made Hamburger Buns

Today I made up a batch of  Parker House Roll dough to turn into home made buns. I am a big fan of using this roll dough for making homemade buns. The rolls are fluffy and stay fresh for several days.They taste so much better than the store bought kind! It took a couple of tries to get the size and shape right. The first try I cut them out with a biscuit cutter, but when they rose they were still too small for the hamburger patties (Oops!). Not long ago, I was looking through a cookbook and saw a tutorial for shaping rosette rolls. I thought it would work great for shaping hamburger buns. After the dough has risen for the first rise, punch the dough down and divide the dough in half.

1.  Roll the dough out into a rectangle.

2.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into sections.

3.  Divide the dough into eight section.

4.  Cut each of the eight sections into thirds.

5. To make each hamburger bun, lay the three sections side by side

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6. Overlap the three sections to start the braid.

7.  Braid the three sections together like you were braiding hair.

8.  Twist the braid into a circle to form the bun. Pinch the ends of the roll onto the dough to secure.

9.  Place rolls onto a greased cookie sheet, and allow to rise until doubled (about 45 - 60 minutes).  

10. Bake according to the recipe. When they are done baking, you have snazzy looking hamburger buns!

Tonight's rolls accompanied BBQ Chicken, but they are great with grilled hamburgers, sloppy joes, or any BBQ style sandwich. My kid's like to use them to make hoagie sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly for school lunches.