Paleo Hamburger Buns and Biscuits

Ahhhhh Spring!!!!



Apple Blossoms



This week marked the official first day of Spring! The fruit trees were blooming, the weather was warm and bright and you could hear lawnmowers around the neighborhood. Of course, this is in West Texas. Where Stacey is in CT they got 10 inches of snow. I do have to say tho that the trees were early and as usual, we suffered a killing freeze last night. I doubt there will be apples on the sad little apple tree in my yard this summer.

But Spring! Living outside, planning my vegetable garden, Spring cleaning (well, second trimester nesting actually) and Hamburgers fresh off my husbands grill. My man and his grill could have a blog all of his own, but he doesn't like attention. Usually, when we are eating Paleo we just grab a nice fresh piece of Romaine lettuce and build our burgers in that. No bun, and it's very good! Even our vegetable challenged son eats them with excitement. But then there are times, when you just want a bun. A nice, soft hunk of bread to hold all the veggies and pickles on top of your slab of perfectly grilled meat.

Last summer when we were in New Mexico, My husband one day asked if it was possible to use my biscuit recipe, make them bigger and use them as a hamburger bun? Why, yes. Yes I think I can do that easily!
So the hamburger buns, are the same basic recipe and technique as biscuits. With only 2 minor adjustments.

Ingredients;
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 glob of chilled coconut oil. It's about a heaping TBSP
4 eggs
1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
For Buns only;
1/2 - 1 cup coconut milk (or milk of your choice)

First, put all the dry ingredients and the coconut oil in a medium sized bowl, add the coconut flour and cut it in. Basically, you're squishing the coconut oil into the flour over and over until it becomes a course meal, or pea sized clumps. When that's done, add the eggs and stir it up well. Add the Apple Cider vinegar now. It will be very moist, and you'll think "Do I REALLY need to add the milk?" The answer for biscuits, is, "No."
If you're making biscuits, stop here and let the batter rest as explained below.

If you want hamburger buns, you absolutely want the milk. Your batter will be thin. Thinner than a good pancake batter. I use a different amount of milk each time, depending on what it looks like. So start with 1/2 a cup and if it looks right, go with it. But add more if its not runny enough. This is not an exact science, coconut flour is forgiving and will adapt.

After you've mixed in the coconut milk, walk away. Go fold a load of laundry, change a diaper, drink a small glass of wine. Leave it be for about 10 minutes and when you return, that odd phenomenon of coconut flour has happened. The coconut flour has expanded and that ridiculously runny batter you left is now thick, more like a thick pancake or waffle batter.

Next you'll use your table spoon from your silverware drawer, you know the ones that are too big to eat with and too small to use as serving spoons? Yes my friends, they actually have a useful purpose. Each bun "half" will use about 1 of those spoonfulls of batter, spread just a bit thin on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can grease it if you want to, they stick some. But I've found they stick no matter what I do so I don't bother. If you have a Sil-pat, or silicone baking mat, they would not stick at all.

For biscuits, a pie-dish works better. Spoon the batter in like you would old fashioned drop biscuits, and then squish them into a biscuit shape with your spoon. I get about 10 biscuits.



Biscuits, fresh from the oven.



When your batter is all spooned out, you should have about 12 buns, which is enough for 6 burgers. The beauty of these is how quickly they cook up. 10 minutes in a pre-heated 400* oven should do it. They'll be slightly brown around the edges and on top. Make sure and let them cool a little before removing them from the cookie sheet. Tip; use a stiff or metal spatula to remove these. A flimsy plastic turning apparatus will NOT work. You'll end up mad and looking for that glass of wine you didn't finish while waiting for the batter to thicken as your beautiful buns turned into bread crumbs.



Hamburger buns, ready for the oven.
I was in a hurry and my clumps after cutting in the coconut oil were a touch bigger than normal,
but did not affect the final buns.



That's it! Quick, easy hamburger buns. From start to finish this takes about half an hour, including letting the batter thicken and cooking time. So start them BEFORE your hamburger patties are cooking, or you'll get cold burgers on warm buns.

Enjoy Spring,
~Jamie