Braided Lemon Bread
My dad has taught me a lot over the years. He taught me how to drive stick and made me drive from a full stop up a hill, over and over until I didn’t stall. He educated me in the rules of NFL football, quizzed me about team names, coaches, and quarterbacks, and taught me to love the Niners (in good times and bad). And, he taught me how to be resourceful in the kitchen.
In my dad’s kitchen, nothing is wasted. Food ingredient OR time. Leftover odds and ends of onions, peppers, and last night’s pork chops go into Sunday morning omelettes. Prep dishes are washed as the meal is being cooked or dessert is being baked, so that after you’ve finished eating or baking, all that is left are the dishes you ate off of. These are practices that I’ve happily brought into my own kitchen, and just one of the infinite ways that my dad has shaped and influenced my life. Thanks Dad, I hope you had a fantastic day!
So remember that lemon curd? We didn’t come close to finishing it off with the pavlovas, but I used the rest in this tasty breakfast “brastry” (bread pastry? no??)! A soft sweet dough is filled with a cream cheese and lemon curd filling, and when baked, will fill your kitchen with the most lovely smell; you’ll be able to close your eyes and imagine that you’ve opened that little coffee pastry shop you’ve always dreamed of.
Oatmeal Sandwich Bread and Meyer Lemon Blood Orange Marmalade
I finally had the opportunity to slooooooowww down this weekend and so I was happy to take advantage: I caught up on trashy reality tv, filled the apartment with the warmth and aroma of freshly baked whole wheat oatmeal bread (I wish I could bottle it!), and attempted to make jam for the very first time.
This bread is so good that I have actually been looking forward to waking up every morning for a toasted slice! It’s perfect with just a pat of butter, and even better with a bit of jam. It is earthy from the whole wheat and oatmeal, sweet from a touch of molasses, with a soft and tender crumb.
I’ve been eating this bread with a generous helping of home-made meyer lemon and blood orange marmalade. I was intrigued by the unique combination of Meyer lemon (a lemon-tangerine hybrid) and blood oranges and it certainly did not disappoint. It is a perfect balance of tart and sweet, like a little jolt of sunshine to break me out of my winter blues. Because both Meyer lemons and blood oranges are sweeter and less acidic than their lemon and orange relatives, the jam is not as mouth-puckering as one might expect from a fresh marmalade- the citrus is still a bit tart, but subtly so.
Making the jam was actually very easy, especially because I did not bother with canning the jam (trusting that I would succeed in eating the jam within a month, which, at the rate I am going through this jam, will not pose a problem!). Slices of fruit are cooked down until the pith and peel are soft and tender, then white sugar (for sweet) and raw demerara sugar (for slightly carmamelized flavor) are added until the mixture cooks down and sets into a sweet jammy goop. For next time, I would cut the slices into smaller segments, because although the cooking process renders the pith and peel into soft citrus candy, it is a bit difficult to spread these long tendrils on toast. I also think adding a bit of crystallized ginger might be heavenly. And I would love to learn to can, so I could make huge batches and enjoy all year round!
Pumpkin Walnut Cranberry Bread
For some unknown reason, my face has decided to relive my youthful teenage years this week, which is a nice way of saying pimples of gargantuous proportions and intense redness have unapologetically assumed residence on my face. Not quite sure why my face has decided to punish me; it could be the stress, it could be the junk food, or it could be that my face is now predicting snow storms in the Northeast (by size and intensity of color)- in which case the one right between my eyebrows represents the 12 inches last week, the one to the right of my nose was the 6 inches this week… and the one next to that predicts a few inches next week!
The pimples have nothing to do with this quickbread, though “pimples” and “pumpkin” both start with the same letter, so I could say that this post is brought to you by the Letter P. I could also remark how the fresh red cranberries that stud each slice of bread are very reminiscent of the recent unwanted topological additions to my face. But seriously, enough about my face already- let’s talk pumpkin, cranberries, and walnuts with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg! This bread is very moist and flavorful, from to the pumpkin goodness and spices and unexpected addition of orange zest. I really enjoyed the tart cranberries, and from another cranberry quickbread, learned the benefits of using both fresh cranberries and sweeter dried cranberries. The flavors are deliciously Fall, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it for breakfast almost every day of this very wintery week- toasted, with a little pat of butter, and a smile on my face.
Grilled Apple-and-Cheese Sandwich with Sage Hazelnut Pesto
Since it’s soup weather, I’ve been hankering for grilled cheese(s?) to eat with my soup. And if Fall could be a sandwich… it would be THIS ONE.
We start with a sage hazelnut pesto. Nothing really says fall like sage. Warm and earthy- it kinda smells like brown and yellow leaves on the ground, doesn’t it?
Smells really good. Just trust me.
Then grab your favorite bread and slice it up.
MMm… bread… I have been known to devour little loaves like this in one sitting… PLAIN.
The pesto is pretty potent… but quite awesome, so awesomeness on BOTH sides.
Pick a favorite apple. Do you have one? There are so many varieties, it’s hard to pick one favorite. I think this was a Honeycrisp. It was sweet and lovely.
Oh, and cheese. Duh. I used a sharp white cheddar. I also tried tart Granny Smiths with Brie. All good.
Grill it.
I am totally starting to fall in love with Fall.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pecan Loaf
While we’re on the subject of off-season produce and baked goodness, let me tell you about this strawberry rhubarb pecan loaf so that you can mentally tuck away some of next year’s strawberry and rhubarb bounty for this gem of a quickbread.
This year was the first year I baked with rhubarb and I was SO excited that I bought some extra, chopped it up, and froze it for that day in the dead of winter when seasonal affected disorder has taken its toll. I thought that being able to bake something spring/summer-y would bring a bit of sunshine and be just the thing to snap me out of the inevitable winter funk.
Except that I baked my little stash of rhubarb two weeks ago.
Before the leaves even really started to turn to brilliant reds and yellows. Before the first frost-worthy temperatures of last weekend. The temperature will be dropping another 30 degrees (at LEAST) before the next rhubarb season! And I am without rhubarb! How am I going to make it through the winter now?!
But this would have really been theperfect-with-a-hot-mug-of-coffee/tea/hot-chocolate treat to whip together on a dark and bitterly cold day in order to perk up one’s mood. The cake itself is light and moist, and made with whole-wheat flour and brown sugar to bring it back down to earth. The strawberry and rhubarb chunks bake down into sweet and tart jammy pockets, while the pecans provide that crunchy textural contrast that I’m such a fan of. There is also an optional streusel-y topping (yum) that I didn’t really miss, but that I’m SURE would only enhance this sweet little cake.
It is abundantly clear that next year, I will have to freeze a whole lot more rhubarb.
Bagels
I didn’t know there was such thing as a bad bagel until I moved to Boston.
I know Dunkin Donuts thinks that “America runs on Dunkin” but I am one American (and I highly doubt that I am alone) who DOES NOT. Having spent the majority of my life in sunny California, I had heard of Dunkin Donuts but never seen one in real life, and since the name just sounded too perfect (it’s alliterated for goodness sake!), I thought that it was some fictitious brand from popular television, in the same vein as Duff Beer from the Simpsons, the ACME brand products that were utilized by those looney toons, or Cheesy Poofs of South Park. (To be completely honest, I also thought White Castle and Sonic were also fake food establishments. Oops.) But once I moved to Boston, I found that it’s just as easy to find a Dunkin Donuts as it is Starbucks- in fact there is a Dunkin within a 10 minute walk of WHEREVER YOU ARE on MIT campus, and they not only serve mediocre donuts and weak coffee, but also muffins, breakfast sandwiches, and bagels. Yes, I am sure you have put two and two together at this point, and have deduced that it is these bagels that I alluded to at the beginning of this post. (Go you!)
Now, not being from New York City, I won’t be presumptuous and claim to know the epitome of bagel-ness, however I can confidently say that the bagel-shaped pieces of tasteless bread posing as bagels under the Dunkin Donuts trademark must be at the lesser end of the bagel spectrum. Where is the crispy crackling crust? The soft yet chewy interior with a developed yeast-y flavor?
I won’t tell you that I completely abstain from Dunkin Donut bagels as a consequence of my high bagel expectations, because I don’t. When they are brought around for our weekly lab meetings, I WILL have one (or a muffin) with a side of donut holes. But I was curious to see if making them at home would yield something better.
The recipe (Peter Reinhart’s, as executed and heroically transcribed! by Smitten Kitchen) has a lot of steps, but overall, not a particularly painful process. There is a lengthy kneading process which yields one of the most satin-y, soft, beautiful doughs I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, a slow overnight rise in the fridge to develop a deeper yeast flavor, and a boiling step which results in the tough outer crust in addition to the baking. Now that I know these delicious breads can come from my own kitchen, I may try a bit harder to cut Dunkin Donut bagels out of my diet, free bagel during lab meeting or not!
Also, meet my new obsession which I’ve enjoyed as breakfast/lunch/dinner over the last week (and the fate of half my bagels!):
toasted bagel (or bread) with (sometimes I added a melty cheese or cream cheese) sliced avocado, smoked salmon, a bit of fresh dill, and poached egg.
Yum.
Romesco Potatoes
I was dying to try this recipe the moment I saw it on Smitten Kitchen. I had the pleasure of first tasting romesco sauce as an accompaniment to grilled octopus about one year ago at a romantic anniversary dinner at No. 9 Park. I honestly can’t remember what else was on the plate (more seafood I think?)- but I DO remember the romesco- a tangy and rich, almost buttery, and seemingly tomato-based sauce that complimented the grilled octopus perfectly. As soon as I got home, I grabbed my computer to find out what was IN the romesco that made it so goshdarn tasty, and was pleasantly surprised that the ingredients included roasted hazelnuts and/or almonds and toasted bread. No wonder I loved it. Fast forward to the day when Smitten Kitchen posted it, and I just KNEW I had to try it. Of course, as with all the recipes I bookmark in my “Recipes To Try” bookmark folder, it often takes me awhile to actually get around to TRYING it. But here it is, and I’m so glad that I finally did!
The recipe calls for 5 dried ancho chilies- and with me being a total chili-tard (having NO IDEA what ancho looks like or how spicy it is), I spent a good 20 minutes scouring the entire produce section of Whole Foods for ANCHO chilies. It turns out that “ancho” is the name for dried POBLANO peppers (I also would have no idea what a poblano looks like); as if it weren’t confusing enough for a chili-tard like myself for there to be a million different kinds of chiles out there (and like 10 at the Whole Foods I was at), but the DRIED ones potentially had different names than their non-dried counterparts??!! Ai-ya. In the end, I couldn’t find ancho chiles, and so left with pasilla chiles, which are apparently often incorrectly used to describe poblanos, so I figured with some luck, I may ACTUALLY have ended up with the correct chile!
The other issue with being a chili-tard is that because I had no clue what the pasillas would read on the spicy-o-meter that is my tongue, I was afraid of ending up with an inedible sauce that would burn all tasting ability out of my tastebuds. I ended up using 4 pasillas instead of the recipe’s 5 anchos, and found that the addition of the chiles added more tangy flavorfulness than heat. This sauce had the same richness of the romesco I remembered from No. 9 Park, which I now realize comes from the roasted hazelnuts and bread. The No. 9 Park sauce was certainly creamier and had additional flavors, which I suspect may be due to a higher proportion of tomatoes and the addition of roasted bell peppers, whereas this sauce was a little chunky and did “break” over time (separate between solids and olive oil, though with a brisk stir, it did return to a more homogeneous texture).
While I was searching high and low for those chiles, I also found a bag of assorted new potatoes, which included small reds, yukons, and these beautifully purple antioxidant-rich potatoes! I roasted them in our cast iron with garlic, thyme, and a healthy does of olive oil, then finished them on the stove-top to get them just a bit more browned and crusty. In addition to the potatoes, I couldn’t resist trying the sauce atop pan-seared monkfish… delicious. The sauce is bright and punchy- a great combination to the crisp exterior and creamy interior of the roasted potatoes, as well as added flavor to the fish. I can’t wait to make this sauce again, next time with some roasted red bell pepper mixed in.
Romesco Sauce
adapted from Smitten Kitchen, originally from Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Lucques
makes about 1 1/2-2 cups
5 ancho chiles (I used 4 pasilla chiles)
2 tablespoons raw almonds
2 tablespoons blanched hazelnuts (or, you can rub their skins off once they are toasted and cooled)
1 1/4 cups extra-virgin olive oil
1 slice country bread, about 1-inch thick
1/3 cup canned San Marzano tomatoes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 lemon, for juicing
A splash of sherry vinegar (can substitute a mild wine or balsamic vinegar instead)
Kosher salt
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Remove and discard the seeds and stems from the chiles, then soak them in warm water for 15 minutes to soften. Strain the chiles, pat dry with paper towels.
- Spread nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes, until smell nutty and are golden brown.
- Heat a large pan over high heat for 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, let heat, then fry the bread slice on both sides until golden brown. Remove the bread from the pan and let cool. Cut into 1 inch cubes and set aside.
- Return the pan to the stove over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and the chiles, and sauté for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often until the tomato juices have evaporated. Turn off the heat and leave the mixture in the pan.
- In a food processor, pulse together the toasted nuts, garlic and fried bread until the bread and nuts are coarsely ground. Add the chile-tomato mixture and process for 1 minute more. With the machine running, slowly pour 1 cup of olive oil and process until you have a smooth purée. The romesco will “break” (separate into solids and oil)- this is normal. Season to taste with lemon juice, sherry vinegar, and more salt if needed.
** This weekend I discovered that this sauce was also an EXCELLENT substitute for ketchup in a breakfast sandwich (toasted multi-grain, melted fontina cheese, avocado, bacon, and fried egg).
Baked Eggs
Though my family is not religious, we did participate in the tradition of dyeing and decorating eggs for Easter. When we were younger, my mom would boil dozens of eggs as an instant child-proofing measure for the activity, thereby minimizing the mess and collateral damage to the kitchen. When we got older, we adopted a more sophisticated method of poking small holes in the top and bottom of the egg, and blowing out the yolk and white so that the colored and often bedazzled (we had a glitter phase) shells could be kept indefinitely. Even now, my mom still displays an example of my Easter artistic genius in one of her large cabinets of random curios and trinkets; it sits proudly between the carved jade dragon and Buddha souvenirs from China.
I haven’t decorated an egg in years, but I treated myself to a special egg breakfast this Easter instead. I had seen baked eggs here and here, and was curious about the texture of the egg and yolk. I love both the crispyness of a fried egg and the luxurious softness of the yolk of a poached egg, and it seemed that baking eggs may encompass both these attributes.
I started with a base of bread (the stale ends of a loaf finished days before) and a few cherry tomatoes, added some sautéed spinach and mushrooms, and popped 2 eggs on top. After a dusting of salt and pepper, and a healthy handful of both gruyère and parmesan, I baked the dish in the oven for 15 minutes, until the cheese had formed a crispy crust over the eggs, but parts of the yolk maintained a luxurious flow.
It was a tasty breakfast, simple to put together, and felt like a complete meal. The eggs were not crispy enough to rival a fried egg, but the browned cheese did add a nice salty crunch, and the yolk was certainly reminiscent of a poached egg. Next time I would add bacon or sausage, to add more punch of flavor and omit the layer of bread altogether and just serve the eggs with a nice crusty buttered piece of toast.
Baked Eggs
adapted liberally from Smitten Kitchen and Bitchin’ Camero to accomodate what I had in my kitchen so that I didn’t have to change out of my p.j.’s on a Sunday morning to go to the store…
serves 1 hungry person who loves brunch
2 eggs
1 slice of bread (stale is OK)
1 tablespoon cream
4-5 cherry tomatoes
2 big handfuls of baby spinach, probably equivalent to 2 cups
3 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/8 small red onion, finely diced
1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/8 cup of grated cheese, gruyere or parmesan or both or any other melty cheese
salt and pepper
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Cut bread slice into cubes, about 1/2 inch each, and place in bottom of ramekin or small baking dish. Pour the cream over the bread. Cut tomatoes in half and add to the ramekin.
- Heat small skillet on medium high with about 1 tablespoon of oil. Add garlic and onions and cook for 2 minutes until beginning to soften. Add mushrooms and cook for additional 4-5 minutes. Add spinach and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes. Season vegetables with salt and pepper to taste. Add vegetables to the ramekin, on top of the bread and tomatoes.
- Crack two eggs on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with the grated cheese.
- Bake until the egg whites are set, about 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your baking dish.
Breakfast Bread Pudding with Strawberries
Sometimes, I’m just as excited about what to do with leftovers as the initial dish… is that weird? I love having leftover meat and rice so I can make toasty fried rice; salsa and tortillas for melty cheese-y quesadillas; challah bread for rich french toast… and this weekend, it was leftover brioche burger buns for a strawberry bread pudding!
That I ate for breakfast. What?
In my mind, this is no different than having french toast for breakfast. Both have a bread base, soaked in a custard of milk/cream + egg + some sugar and flavoring, then some application of heat to cook the custard and bring it all together. Bread pudding is one of those dishes (like omelettes) where variations of ingredients are endless and presents an opportunity to use leftover, unused, on-the-verge-of-going-bad ingredients that are sitting in your kitchen right now: leftover bread and fruit (fresh, dried, or frozen).
Strawberries have been on sale at my nearby grocery store, and despite it still seeming very early for strawberry season, they have been surprisingly sweet! I can never resist strawberries (the 2 pints sitting in my fridge right now are proof), especially after the winter when I am dying for signs of spring and the coming of warm weather. It’s as if I think that eating spring/summer produce would make those seasons appear faster… And, it seems like I am not the only one who has been buying strawberries recently and incorporating them into baked goods… I think shortcakes may be on the horizon to help me finish off these strawberries!
I made a simple blueberry maple syrup to dress my bread pudding, because I have noticed that I like to suffocate my sweet weekend breakfast foods (i.e. pancakes, french toast, waffles) with the equivalent of a daily portion of fruit. Most likely this is in attempt to trick myself into thinking I’m eating a healthy breakfast. (See, there’s a BUNCH OF FRUIT on the plate.. therefore it is HEALTHY.) This bread pudding is really no different from french toast, except that there is a more custard-y (pudding-like, if you will) texture towards the bottom of the baking dish and a crisped and browned texture towards the top. It is slightly sweet and bright with the fresh strawberries and orange zest in the custard, and a perfect indulgence on a weekend morning.
Bread Pudding with Strawberries
adapted from Food Network
I halved the recipe to account for how much bread I had and I baked the pudding in a loaf pan. I think baking in individual serving-sized ramekins would be great (if I had ramekins) and would prevent funny unappetizing pictures like the one above.
2 1/2 leftover brioche buns, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 2 1/2 cups of cubed bread)
2 large eggs
1 cup of milk
zest from 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup diced strawberries (or other fruit)
- Whisk together eggs, milk, orange zest, vanilla, sugar in a large bowl. Add bread cubes and toss around to coat. Let soak for 10-15 minutes, then mix carefully to avoid breaking up the bread and allowing the other pieces to soak up the custard.
- Meanwhile cut up fruit and grease a 9 x 3 x 5 inch loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Pour half the bread and custard mixture into the loaf pan. Spread half the strawberries onto the bread mixture, then pour the rest of the bread mixture and add the rest of the strawberries.
- Bake for about 25-35 minutes, until the pudding is slightly puffed and browned. Let cool slightly (if you can, I, of course, cannot) before digging in.
Light Brioche Burger Buns and Turkey Burgers
Warm weather = barbecue.
Amazingly enough, I attended more barbecues in my first year living in Boston than in any of my years living in San Diego. Since you are never guaranteed two days of pleasant weather in a row in Boston (for example, yesterday it was awesomely almost 70-flip-flop-degrees, while today I pulled on one of my winter jackets and I’m not even sure we hit 50), the moment it is warm enough to hang out outside for more than 5 minutes without freezing, everyone scrambles outside to barbecue! Unlike in California, where you can always barbecue tomorrow or the next day or the next day (sigh, I miss those days…) In fact, during my first winter here, after months of snow, rain, and slush, everyone was so tired of the extreme cold that the day the temperature jumped 15 degrees for a high of 45 (seriously, it felt warm in comparison to the months before), we barbecued! We spent most of the time huddled as close as possible to the grill and the cooking meat in order to stay warm, but it was certainly memorable.
Yesterday was absolutely lovely, and I craved grilled burgers and lounging in the sunlight. Even though we have a mini-smoker (on the wooden balcony of our 4th floor apartment… can we say fire hazard anyone?), we don’t own a barbecue, so I cooked my turkey burgers in a cast iron skillet instead to get a healthy brown crust on my patties.
Turkey burgers have a reputation as being rather bland and dry (read: absolutely NOT a SUBSTITUTE for beef burgers, but sometimes I like a little variety) so I keep mine flavorful and moist with a lot of fresh onion, parsley, garlic, a beaten egg, and a bit of cumin and paprika.
I also used this opportunity to try this light brioche bun recipe (who craves BURGERS and then BAKES THE BUNS FROM SCRATCH?! Apparently, I do.). Smitten Kitchen claimed that these babies sing. And sing they DID. These were some beautiful buns, people!
The buns were relatively easy to make, besides requiring a long-ish rising time (due to the higher content of fat in the dough). The dough was beautifully silky and soft, and once they started baking in the oven, I immediately knew these buns were something special. I can snap a ton of mouth-watering pictures, but I wish the technology existed so that you guys could SMELL the wonderful aroma of these buns as they baked.. it was seriously like a buttery HUG.
And the fantastic smell only hinted at how awesome they tasted! Slightly sweet and a bit buttery, these buns are a light version of decadent brioche- a French bread enriched with a high content of egg and butter to create a rich tender crumb. Most importantly, they are sturdy enough to stand up to a juicy burger and ketchup, both physically and flavor-wise, unlike their store-bought relatives that disappointingly dissolve, without even a whimper, under the pressure of even a moderately hefty burger. Bring on the warm weather, I am ready with the perfect buns for all future barbecues!!!
Turkey Burgers
1 pound ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 red onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 beaten egg (leftover from the egg wash from the burger buns)
- Combine the ground turkey, garlic, onion, parsley, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper, and egg in a large bowl. Mix together with your hands until homogeneous.
- Divide mixture into 6 relatively equal portions. Gather into a ball and slap back and forth between your hands to even out the patty. Flatten into a patty, pushing a little dimple in the center so that the patties cook flat.
- Warm a cast iron skillet on high heat, or heat your grill. Cook the patties about 3-5 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
Light Brioche Burger Buns
adapted from Smitten Kitchen, originally from the New York Times
makes 8 4-5 inch buns (or 10-12 smaller buns)
3 tablespoons warm milk
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons dry active yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs (1 lightly beaten for the dough, 1 for the egg wash before baking)
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
sesame seeds (optional)
- In a glass measuring cup, combine 1 cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar, and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat 1 egg.
- In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt. Add butter and rub into the flour mixture, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper, or spatula, stir in yeast mixture until a dough forms. Scrape dough onto a clean, floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. The dough will be a bit on the sticky side so it can be a bit messy but keep in mind the more flour you knead in, the tougher the buns will get.
- Shape dough into a ball and return it to a bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-2 hours (mine took 2).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap lightly coated with nonstick spray and let buns rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours (mine took 2).
- Set a large shallow pan of water on the oven floor (oops, just realized I forgot this… don’t think it adversely affected my buns, they were still moist and soft). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with one tablespoon water and brush some on top oft he buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using. (At this point, i re-brushed a 2nd egg wash for happy brown tops!). Bake, turning the sheet halfway through baking, until the tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool completely.
- Toast before serving with your burger!
