Stuffed Hamburger Buns

This is another go to recipe that is always a hit.
I use the KAF Beautiful Burger Bun recipe:

Buns

• 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Topping

• 3 tablespoons melted butter

1) Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a soft, smooth dough.

2) Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball; flatten to about 3" across

 *This is where you stuff the buns. I usually do:

•  hamburger meat, with chunks of cheddar, a little ketchup and mustard to moisten the meat, and a pickle on top 
• pizza sauce, mozzerella, pepperoni 
• or you could egg, sausage, and cheddar for a breakfast one.  

You put a good sized scoop of cooled filling in the flattened out bun, then pull up the edges around the meat and pinch the opening closed. It takes a couple tries to get a hang of this, but you will. Then flip it over and put the pinched side down and continue with the KAF recipe! 

Place the buns on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy.

4) Brush the buns with about half of the melted butter.

5) Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Remove them from the oven, and brush with the remaining melted butter. This will give the buns a satiny, buttery crust.

6) Cool the buns on a rack.

Yield: 8 large buns.

I usually half the recipe and get 4 buns, 2 for dinner 2 for left-over lunch! Enjoy!

 

Pasta alla Carbonara

This is such a easy, fast, few ingredient dish! We probably have it once week. Cus you always have the ingredients on hand. Pasta, eggs, and cheese.  I add a few extras if you have them in fridge.
For 2 ppl:
Cook whatever pasta you have on hand, I like linguine for this dish. 
Saute 2 strips of bacon. Take bacon out when cooked through, to bacon fat add a little onion and 1 garlic clove, hot chilies if you have some.
Right before pasta is done, mix together 1 egg, S & P,  handful of parm. Temper the egg with a scoop of hot pasta water. That is, add the water slowly while you stir so you don't cook the egg but just bring it to temperature, so that when you add it to the hot pasta you don't just get scrambled eggs.
Drain pasta, add to bacon skillet with onions and such, pour egg mixture over pasta on low heat and stir.  Finish with lots of black pepper and a drizzle of good EVOO. You can add anything you like to this dish. Traditionally, it is peas, but sometime I add broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, lemon, arugula, anything to lighten it up a little. What you get is a delicious creamy simple pasta dish! Hope you get a chance to make this! Let me know what you think.