Whole Wheat Onion Buns For Slider-Loving Life Forms

Something has happened to my onion-hating husband. I think he may be a replicant. The other night he brought home some ground beef... so I made burger buns since we haven't had cheeseburgers in an age.

These weren't just any burger buns though. These were Whole Wheat Onion Buns. Now, my good ol' hubster hates onions, and won't hesitate to let that fact be known. The other night as the buns were baking though, this impostor man walks through the kitchen and says to me, "Ooh, something smells really good! What are you making?". 

It's uncanny how much like my husband this alien interloper is. But I guess that's the whole point of replication isn't it.

Transporter Malfunction

Speaking of advanced alien technology, I'd like to get in a time-machine and go back a few decades and check out the size of the burgers back then. It seems like every time I make hamburger buns with an old recipe, they turn out smaller than I expect them to. There are two possibilities. Either portions were smaller in the olden days (which is very possible compared to the current super-sized world we live in), or I'm just not letting the dough rise long enough after I've shaped it. I suppose there may be other reasons, and if anyone has any hints I'd love to hear them. But you know, I remember the 80's, and my buns definitely were smaller back then.

Extra Gluten On The Side

Whole wheat breads seem to give me more trouble across the board than non-whole wheat loaves do. Somewhere I read or heard that adding extra gluten to whole wheat breads will help them rise, or hold their structure, or something like that. Looks like I'm going to have to investigate that further. In the mean time, I'll just have to remember to make fewer but larger buns when using old recipes. Or else it's... "Hey I know, let's make sliders for dinner... again!"

• Whole Wheat Onion Buns from pg. 20 of Sunset Breads: Step-By-Step Techniques (1984)

Notes: The alien husband's approval aside, next time I will mix all of the onion into the dough instead of saving some to smear around on the tops as the recipe directs. It looks nice on the outside, but I keep finding little onion bits around the kitchen and what's the point of doing all that work if it's just going to fall off anyway. As mentioned already, because they're whole wheat, they're pretty dense. I'll keep trying other recipes and also check into adding extra gluten. If you have a favorite recipe for nice, soft, whole wheat burger buns... please clue me in!