Hamburger Buns

My husband and I went to the farmer's market and got some local, grass-fed beef burger patties. I haven't been eating much bread these days, and the only bread they had at the market was sweet. I did have some whole wheat flour at home I'd been soaking since the day before and a packet of yeats, so I thought I'd take a stab at it. I have had success with Nourishing Traditions flour recipes, so thought I could cobble together her technique of soaking flour with a recipe for whole wheat buns from Great Whole Grain Breads, by Beatrice Ojakangas. The result was better than I had hoped! The bread is light, even though I had no white flour, even for kneading. Here's pretty much what I did:

• Soak 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour in 1 cup buttermilk at room temperature for 12-24 hours (mine was about 24 hours)
• Proof 1 package yeast in a large bowl with 1/2 cup warm water
• Add soaked flour to yeast, and added 1 egg, 1/4 cup melted butter and 1 tsp salt.
• I added another probably 3 cups whole wheat flour to the bowl to make a stiff but not dry dough. 
• Knead the dough on a floured board for about 5 minutes until elastic and springy
• Wash and oil the bowl, put the dough back in the bowl and turn over to coat with oil. 
• Cover bowl and let rise 1 hour to 1/2 hours
• Punch down dough and cut into 12 pieces for buns. You could also make rolls by cutting it smaller.
• Place of oiled cookie sheet, cover and let rise for another hour.
• Bake at 400 for 13-15 minutes. 

In retrospect, I might have used white flopur to flour the board, but it didn't make it tough. I'd also soak maybe 3 cups flour in buttermilk, but again, why mess with success.

Before Baking

Baked

Inside

Here's a good breakdown of why soaking flour is good.