So, originally this post was supposed to be a pie…but it turned into a swamp of sour cherries and melted crumble topping, despite the perfect, flaky crust. I mean, we still ate it…but, I couldn’t bring myself to share that fugly mess.
So, I made these tender buns (haha, tender buns…I’m 5). Soft, little buns perfect for post-Thanksgiving sandwicher-y and flavored with Autumn’s ever-present flavor, pumpkin. I made these buns in advance for next Thursday’s turkey burger-ing. I think I may have mentioned before that we are not doing it up Thanksgiving-style this year, but instead making an abbreviated turkey-full dinner and then going to see Catching Fire because I REALLY want to (even though I suspect Sean is lukewarm about it, he’s also nice).
Anyway, I’m going to build these burgers, that taste like thanksgiving in a few bites, on these here buns. I’m excited about it.
Back-to-back bread posts must mean it’s a CARB-PARTY.
- ¾ cup warm milk (about 100˚F)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons yeast
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup pumpkin puree (not pie mix)
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3¼ cups flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 teaspoon salt
- egg wash: 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon cream
- black sesame seeds for sprinkling
- Stir together the warm milk, honey, and yeast. Set aside until foamy.
- Whisk the egg with the pumpkin and cooled, melted butter in a small bowl.
- In a mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour with the yeast + milk mixture, and the pumkin mixture. Turn the mixture on medium and mix for 8 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, we want it this way.
- On a well-floured surface turn out the dough and knead it about 5-10 times, adding flour as needed to handle. The less flour you add the more tender and soft the buns will be. Place the dough ball in a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic. Allow to rise until doubled in size, at least 1 hour.
- Prep two baking sheets by lining with parchment.
- Punch down the dough and divide it into equal pieces—I use a scale for this and go for 2.5 ounce buns. Roll each dough piece into a ball and set on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover the buns with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. Brush the tops of the buns with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Preheat the oven to 400˚F and bake 1 pan at a time for about 15 minutes, or until the buns sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving or freezing.
Tender buns! I just giggled like a preteen 🙂 These look sooo amazing. The perfect vehicle for carb overloading awesomeness!
These look beyond delicious!
What a great idea!
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Pumkin sandwich buns??! I’m sold. These sound like a fabulous companion to thanksgiving leftovers. Although we’re doing turkey enchiladas as our main dish, so that might mean I’ll be stacking an enchilada on a sandwich bun…too weird?
I find that with buns like this, you can also split them and stick a square of parchment in between the halves before freezing, and then toast them up directly from the freezer.
Thanks for sharing these!
I made some soft pumpkin dinner rolls a couple months ago but didnt use any adorable little seeds like you did. They just pop! So pretty Cindy – pinned.
These are so cool!!! Love it!!
What a great idea! I love that you’re having an untraditional Thabksging this year, sounds really nice! I do hope will be sharing your burgers too!!
Tee hee…tender buns. Pretty sure my coworkers are wondering why I just snort-laughed from my cubicle. These look so delicious for a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich!
Oh pies, why on earth do they have to be so challenging some times!
Oh well, I like your buns! 🙂
Really though, these look awesome, soft an fluffy!And I love the black sesame seeds!
I am the drunk girl at the carb party, who loves the carbs A LITTLE too much. Fine with it.
These look delightful and would be perfect for leftovers!
Cindy, these buns are slaying me and I will definitely have to give these a try! Beautiful snaps.
There must be a pie grinch going around and ruining pies – the same thing happened to me.
Stupid pie grinch.
I loveeee how you used black sesame seeds on the…tender buns…(heheh) – PRETTAY!!
These looks fantastic! Sorry to hear about your pie – recipe flubs are the worst! I’m glad, however, that it led to these buns. What a great post-Thanksgiving sammy idea.
These are beautiful!
And Catching Fire was awesome. Enjoy!
I tried this recipe for a Halloween Dinner party at home last October and fogot to come back here to say these burger buns are AWESOME! They turn out so soft and so tasty!
This has actually become my go ot burger buns recipe. When I don’t want pumpkin flavor I just substitute the pumpkin for potatos or yuka puree and the result is the same!
Thank you for coming back to comment, Leticia!! I love these buns and am so glad you do too. Love your substitutions, too!