All Grain Veggie Burger Quick Sourdough Buns

Let’s be honest, a veggie burger tastes 10x more like a regular hamburger when you can pair it with an outstanding bun and traditional toppings (like pickles and cheese and special sauce). And if you are trying to stay veggie — the cheese can be vegan and the special sauce can be made from tofu instead of mayonnaise without sacrificing much in the process.

But I found myself time fenced in yesterday between a yoga class and church — with only about 3.5 hours to get those buns baked off before we had to leave. And I wanted dinner ready to eat soon after we got home — so I cheated a little bit on the natural rise sourdough.

I had fed a starter earlier in the week twice to wake it up after some inactivity in the fridge. Starting with 100grams starter, I fed it by doubling twice and ended up with 400grams. But this time, instead of rolling right into a large batch of dough and performing a long slow rise to leaven my typical boule for sliced bread during the week — I got busy and decided to leave it out on the counter for an extra 24 hours. This of course allowed it to ferment out completely and produce maximum acidity (the sour in sourdough), but also weakened the leavening power of the yeasts as they tend to go dormant with nothing around to eat for a while.

So rather than feed again and wake them up, and with little time to waste before dinner — I decided to use the sourdough for the flavor only and make a recipe with instant rise yeast for the leavening. Worked like a charm!

• 400g 100% hydration sourdough starter, fermented completely
• 220g water, lukewarm
• 200g hard red winter wheat flour, ground fine
• 100g soft white wheat flour, ground fine
• 100g spelt flour, ground fine
• 8g kosher salt
• 10g instant rise yeast
• 30g olive oil

This recipe comes out at 70% hydration, which is quite low for an all grain bread — but for a bun, we don’t want light and fluffy and uneven crumb on the inside like a baguette. We want a soft crumb, but pretty even and tight so that it holds up to the toppings and moisture in the patty. The olive oil takes care of the softness.

After mixing everything together except the salt with the paddle attachment on a kitchenaid — I let sit for a 30 minute autolyze before adding the salt and kneading with the dough hook for 5 minutes or so. This got a 1.5 hour bulk rise in the oven with the light on (a bit warmer than room temp) and then portioned to 8 dough balls.

Those got rolled in whole wheat germ and bran sifted away from my home ground pierogi dough adventure. Using these siftings instead of bench flour when shaping adds flavor and texture back into an all grain bread without incorporating into the main dough where they can cut gluten strands during the rise. They usually brown a bit deeper than the rest of the crust, so give some visual appeal to the finished product as well. Another one hour proof in the oven with the light on, and a 20 minute bake at 450F did the trick.