How to bake burger buns so that they expand horizontally instead of expanding vertically?
We are trying to bake burger buns and we usually play the rounded individual dough on the baking tray and use another baking tray to press it down to flatten it.
Now our hands are so sore after months of doing it. The only reason why we did that in the first place is because our the dough (imagine just a circular ball dough) will expand upwards more than going sideways, making it not wide enough to be a burger bun.
How else can we fix this? Temperature? The way we roll our buns?
Best Answer
Your buns are likely sticking to the bottom of the tray. If they stick, they will expand vertically because they can't expand horizontally. They're stuck.
Dust the trays with semolina flour, rice flour, and/or fine corn meal. You can even lightly dust them with white or rye flour, but the aforementioned flours are preferable.
If you're retarding the buns, consider placing parchment paper on the tray, lightly dusting the parchment with the aforementioned flours, and then panning the buns.
You could also use non-stick Silpats or silicone mats, but that's expensive if you have to buy a lot of them.
I don't know the composition of your dough, how you are shaping them, how much you are working the dough, etc. These could contribute the problem as well. Buns are usually enriched dough (they have butter, milk, etc.) made with low-protein AP flour. They don't need a lot of gluten development or shaping. If you develop the dough too much, it'll hold something close to the original shape (in this case, of a ball of dough instead of a disc).
Pictures about "How to bake burger buns so that they expand horizontally instead of expanding vertically?"
How do you shape hamburger buns in the oven?
If you have over proofed your buns, they will probably deflate while egg washing them. Then, over proofed dough doesn't do much in the oven as there is no gas to rise the bread. They should still taste fine they might just be a bit saggy.Why are my burger buns flat?
The buns deflate after steamingIf the dough has risen too far, it will expand then collapse during cooking.Do buns expand when cooked?
If you had the same problem with different recipes, it's probably caused by technique. The key to round buns is surface tension. If the skin is taut, the expanding gas will cause the bun to expand like a balloon instead of "flowing" sideways.How To Make The Best Burger Buns Of All Time
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Answer 2
Flatten the individual balls of dough for each bun into a disk prior to letting them do their final proof on the baking sheet. Usually you would just do this with your hand, a rolling pin, or with the bottom of a floured flat bottomed glass or something similar.
Joe Pastry has a nice blog entry with photos showing the process for hamburger and hot dog buns, using a rolling pin.
Here is a link to a fairly ubiquitous video that shows the process in detail for hand shaping mini-buns (as for sliders) rather than full sized buns. The idea is the same.
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Images: Polina Tankilevitch, Karolina Grabowska, Karolina Grabowska, Lucas Andrade