One of Bug’s (and mine!) favorite snack is a granola bar… “granilla bar” if you ask him. Like a lot of moms, I love the idea of feeding my children preservative free, healthy foods all the time. Bake at 400′ for about 15 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. Beat the remaining egg with a tablespoon of warm water and gently wash over buns. Place a shallow pan with water in the bottom of the oven and preheat to 400′. I usually cover rising dough with a kitchen towel, but plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray works fine, too.

I have 9 rolls, because I split one in two to make smaller buns for Bug 2. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and let rise again, covered and in a warm place, for another hour or so… again until doubled. Then, divide dough into 8 equal parts and gently roll into balls. Return dough to the bowl, loosely cover and let rest in a warm place for one to two hours… until doubled in size. The dough will still be a little sticky… and remember that the more flour you add, the tougher the buns will be. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface and knead 8-10 minutes (until smooth and elastic) picking it up and slapping it onto the counter every minute or so. Using a dough scraper, mix in yeast mixture and egg until a sticky dough forms.

Work the butter into the flour with your fingers, making fine crumbs (see photo above). In a large bowl, beat flours together with the salt. Stir just a bit, but then let it sit for about 5 minutes… until it’s foamy.

In a glass bowl, mix water, milk, yeast and sugar. 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened.2 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast.Here’s what you need: (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen) Next time, I’ll add sesame seeds and a little more egg wash. The best utensils reside at the ends of our arms. This is one of those awesome recipes that requires you to remove your rings and get your hands dirty. Like a classic brioche, they aren’t super moist or dense, but just enough so that they don’t crumble under the pressure of housing juicy ground beef. They would be perfect for sandwiches or as dinner bread. I ate two by themselves before even putting a hamburger patty on one. If Deb thinks it’s good, then it must be good. This Light Brioche Burger Bun recipe popped up on my Google search from Smitten Kitchen. Being me, I decided that instead of piling children back into the car, I would just make buns. You see, one night a few weeks ago we were having hamburgers for dinner. This just might be a recipe that makes it into that file. Like, an old school file in a filing cabinet… not a newfangled file on my computer. When I make something that I think might fit into that ‘future restaurant product’ category I tuck it away into a file. Running a restaurant currently, I completely realize how unrealistic that is, but nonetheless I want to try. When that happens, I’d like to make just about everything from scratch. One day, we’d like to open our own restaurant.

Minimalist baker pumpkin pie