Improving Homemade Burger Buns

[nico_onigiri]

Hello everyone! Recently I've been on a quest to achieve a really good homemade bun but got a bit stuck and I'm not sure how to improve them further.
I've been following Mark Sinclair's recipe and while I've made some decent buns they don't look/taste as good as they should. These are the recipes I've been following: original and this one.
First issue I've ran into is that they don't rise/grow enough when using the amount of yeast the recipe says (Even though I've let them proof for longer). Using 3 times the yeast achieves a bun that's erring on the smaller side, and is even smaller than the ones made in the video with 3 times less yeast.
Second is the fluffiness (gluten structure? how the bread insides look?), while they do feel better than random store bought buns, they don't spring back much when pushed and the insides look a bit squashed.

Details that may influence the outcome:- The potato water I've used was on the warmer side, not room temp
- The milk I've used was from the fridge and thus it wasn't at room temp
- It's summer here so the temp is around 26°C and it's a bit humid
- When covering the buns to proof, I've used both dry and damp kitchen towels (not sure which one is best)
- In one of the cases the egg was double yolk, and I'm not sure if more yolk can cause issues
- I've been using AP flour (which the recipes recommend) but one of the local bakeries which supplies a lot of restaurants uses bread flour (this may help?)
Everything else should be the exact same that's mentioned on the recipes

http://imgur.com/a/jf93L5e

Sorry if the questions are rather elementary, I'm pretty new to this. Any ideas?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hello everyone! Recently I've been on a quest to achieve a really good homemade bun but got a bit stuck and I'm not sure how to improve them further.
I've been following Mark Sinclair's recipe and while I've made some decent buns they don't look/taste as good as they should. These are the recipes I've been following: original and this one.
First issue I've ran into is that they don't rise/grow enough when using the amount of yeast the recipe says (Even though I've let them proof for longer). Using 3 times the yeast achieves a bun that's erring on the smaller side, and is even smaller than the ones made in the video with 3 times less yeast.
Second is the fluffiness (gluten structure? how the bread insides look?), while they do feel better than random store bought buns, they don't spring back much when pushed and the insides look a bit squashed.

Details that may influence the outcome:- The potato water I've used was on the warmer side, not room temp
- The milk I've used was from the fridge and thus it wasn't at room temp
- It's summer here so the temp is around 26°C and it's a bit humid
- When covering the buns to proof, I've used both dry and damp kitchen towels (not sure which one is best)
- In one of the cases the egg was double yolk, and I'm not sure if more yolk can cause issues
- I've been using AP flour (which the recipes recommend) but one of the local bakeries which supplies a lot of restaurants uses bread flour (this may help?)
Everything else should be the exact same that's mentioned on the recipes

http://imgur.com/a/jf93L5e

Sorry if the questions are rather elementary, I'm pretty new to this. Any ideas?

Are you in the New Zealand? If so then your problems have everything to do with the ingredients. This is an American recipe and the ingredients in other countries do not translate properly.

1. American all purpose flour has a protein content of 10% - 11.7%. Some of your plain flour has a protein content as low as 9%, which is equivalent to a pastry flour. It is simply not strong enough to produce a good bread. So the first thing is you need to find out the protein content of the flour you are using. Look for a flour with a protein content around 11% - 12%.

2. The European Union, Australia, Canada, most Asian countries banned bleached flour. But it is still used in the US. It is not clear in the recipe whether or not bleached flour was used. But if you are in a county that has banned bleached flour, then know that unbleached flour will never rise as well as bleached flour.

3. American and Canadians grade their eggs differently than Europeans. Our large eggs are equivalent to European medium eggs. See chart below.

United States
Size	Minimum mass per egg
Jumbo	70.9 g	2.5 oz
Extra-Large (XL)	63.8 g	2.25 oz.
Large (L)	56.7 g	2 oz.
Medium (M)	49.6 g	1.75 oz.
Small (S)	42.5 g	1.5 oz.
Peewee	35.4 g	1.25 oz.
Canada
Size	Minimum mass per egg
Jumbo	70 g
Extra Large	63 g
Large	56 g
Medium	49 g
Europe
Size	Minimum mass per egg
Extra large (XL)	73 g
Large (L)	63 g
Medium (M)	53 g
Small (S)	Less than 53 g

And just an aside imperial measurement and US measurement are different as well.

US 1 Tablespoons = 14.78 mL

closest to 100mL in US TBSP is 6 3/4 TBSP (99.76mL) or 7 TBSP (103.46mL) and not 8 TBSP (118.2mL0


US 1 oz = 29.57mL
UK 1 oz = 28.41mL


US N/A
UK 1 gill = 5 oz = 142.07mL


US 1 cup = 8 oz = 236mL
UK N/A


US 1 pint = 16 oz = 473.18mL
UK 1 pint = 20 oz = 568.28mL


US 1 quart = 32 oz = 946.36mL
UK 1 quart = 40 oz = 1.137L


US 1 gallon = 128 oz = 3.785L
UK 1 gallon = 160 oz = 4.546L

 

[BobW]

Wow. How ca Norcal know all this stuff?!

Cheers,
--Bob