Obama Buns
In part of my work for the Elizabeth Warren senatorial campaign, I needed to go to a nifty neighborhood BBQ that our friends in the Obama campaign were throwing. I wanted to bring something — bad to come empty-handed — but of course we’re fellow-travelers and mustn’t upstage the main course.
So I made the potato-bread hamburger buns from the current issue of Cooks Illustrated. They were nifty!
It’s an odd recipe. Usually, bread is five parts flour and three parts water, plus salt and yeast. This bread is 3 parts flour, 4 parts mashed potato, and just a little (5T) of the mashed potato cooking water. Also ½part egg, a little butter. Makes a terrific hamburger bun.
Another nice thing is that, while it's a finicky recipe – you have to make the mashed potatoes, and I had to titrate lots of extra flour because I used red bliss potatoes and the recipe anticipated russets — the dough rises very quickly. First rise is 30 minutes, second rise is 20, 18 minutes in the oven.