"THE FORAGING FOX" BEETROOT BURGER BAPS

A yummy bake for you now inspired by another addition from my Flavoury box this month. "The Foraging Fox" are an independent company making a fabulous beetroot ketchup and on their website they advise adding a dollop into bread dough for added flavor. So that's what did with these burger buns I made for some veggie burgers I was making and they worked a treat. The sweetness the beetroot ketchup brings to the buns is a nice twist and a simple way to jazz up the humble burger bap. You'll be baking batches of these bad boys all the time!

 With a name inspired by the creators father, the "Foraging Fox" have created this delicious condiment from natural ingredients making it healthy and is also veggie and vegan friendly. You can taste the love inside each bottle and not only is a great in these baps but it is delicious on bacon butties or mixed into a risotto. You can find more great uses for it on their website and you can order yourself a couple bottles whilst your at it. It's great to see a small independent company producing fantastic products like this and I hope they continue to grow and grow!

The actual bun recipe is one that I've adapted from the Fabulous Baker Brothers and then added my "Foraging Fox" twist! The buns are beautifully crisp on the outside especially with the sprinkling of sesame seeds and soft and fluffy on the inside with the sweet beetroot flavored crumb inside. 

Don't be frightened by the beetroot mind. Your buns won't be bright purple or taste overwhelmingly like beetroot. You will just get this sweet taste to the crumb which is hard to describe but super scrummy and well worth the addition if you can get hold of a bottle. If you can't then you can leave it out and still bake yourself a set of delicious plain baps but trust me when I say you'll be missing out on a treat! 

Here is the recipe for around roughly 10 baps. Remember there is proofing involved so give yourself about 3-4 hours to bake your baps and you may need a thermometer to get the temperature to "tepid" which is roughly 40 degrees. If you don't have one then the water should be feel warm when you stick a little pinky in it but not so hot that it burns your finger off.  Lets get to work!

Beetroot Burger Baps

200ml Tepid Milk
5g Dried Active Yeast
500g Strong White Flour
1 Tbsp Golden Caster Sugar
25g Lard
10g Table Salt
1 Tbsp Beetroot Ketchup
1 Whole Beaten Egg
2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

1. Warm up your milk to 40 degrees (tepid apparently!) and then remove from the heat and add in the yeast and stir until the yeast dissolves. Leave to rest for five minutes to let the yeast do it's thing!
2. Now in a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, lard and salt until well combined. Warm up 100ml of water to a tepid 40 degrees and starting mixing until the dough starts to come together before adding in the milk and beetroot ketchup and mix again until a sticky dough ball forms.
3. Next you can either work the dough in a mixer with a dough hook for ten minutes or tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for around 15 minutes until elastic. If hand kneading then work your way through the sticky stage. Don't be tempted to add more flour.
4. Once kneaded, place the dough in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour until doubled in size.
5. Once proofed, tip the dough out into a floured surface and divide into 10 equal sized pieces and roll them between your hands into balls. Place the balls onto baking trays lined with greaseproof paper around 2 inches apart (you may need to spread them out over 2 trays unless you have a massive oven!). Cover again with a damp tea towel and leave to proof again for 30 minutes.
6. Brush the top of each of the baps with the beaten egg and sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Recover with the tea towel and leave for another 30 minutes. At this point get your oven on to 200 degrees (180 fan).
7. Five minutes before the baps are due in, place a deep sided baking tray filled with water into the base of the oven to create steam in your oven and give your baps a nice crispy crust.
8.  By now, the baps should of roughly doubled in size so uncover them and place in the oven (in batches if you need to) for 10-15 minutes until golden on the top and hollow when tapped on the base.

 

Leave the baps on a wire rack to cool slightly but if you can serve straight away then do so for the ultimate crispy crust and fluffy crumb inside. If they do cool too much or if your eating them next day and they have softened slightly then whack them under a grill to crispy them up and then slather with butter so that it goes all drippy and melty. Lose yourself in the sweetness of that beetroot ketchup in the baps and get ready for the crunch as you bite into your burger. 

No need to forage around for a burger bap recipe anymore, it's right here for you!