Sweet Potato Bun v2.0🔗

You know it's burger time when there is leftover baked sweet potato. The huge success of the first attempt on sweet potato bun (v1.0 recipe) greatly inspired my pursuit of squishy pillowy enriched brioche style bun for burger application. There are a couple of twists on the recipe this time.

1. Used about 100g more sweet potato.
2. Swapped most of the milk with black glutinous rice soaking water, effectively reducing the fat percentage in the dough. Compensated with ~30g of butter in addition to oil.

The reason for the above modification is by no means preconceived optimization. It's just to use up whatever at hand. However, it does yield a finer final product IMO. The higher sweet potato percentage gives the bun noticeable sweet potato aroma, especially when cutting or toasting it. The black rice soaking water mixed with orange sweet potato turns into chocolate color with a sheen, a very iconic potato bun tone. Texture-wise it is so soft thanks to the additional butter I guess. Overall I'd say it's an improvement on v1.0.

For 8 v2.0 buns (~160g each)

• Flour 600g, 100%
• Egg 60g, 10%
• Oil 30g, 5%
• Starchy water 300g, 50%
• Sweet Potato 250g, 40%
• Butter 30g, 5%

Real Deal Burger🔗

A lot of the time we use all kinds of meatless burger patties. Not for any dietary concern but pure curiosity on how far the industry of making fake meat taste like real meat has gone. As far as all the mainstream products go, Impossible is the best IMO. Nonetheless, it's that juicy hemoglobin feast everyone loves and craves back from hunter gatherer era, exclusively delivered from the real deal beef, not impossible, not beyond. We are doing the real stuff this time. Not only for the juicy hemoglobin, also for the hemoglobin hemoglobin. More on that later.

Since it's a four day burger marathon, I get to practice patty cooking techniques and experiment with topping sauce pairing. Gotta say by the end I nailed it. Let me share what I learned.

In terms of patty cooking, the main goals are i) retain as much as beefy juice and ii) caramelize as much as surface area. For not too thin not too thick 4oz patty, the tips are

• preshape to a flat disk not too thin, just a bit smaller than the bun (Contrary to the convention that patty should be bigger than bun so every bite has meat. By experience, patty gets pushed outwards as you eat and eventually runs out of bun, making a bunless messy finish. An extra rim of bun will catch that and complete your devouring like a civilized man always having a bun between his fingers and meat. As for the first meatless bite, it's the only chance to have the bun by itself and appreciate the sweet caramelized sweet potato aroma. No complaints at all when you have such an awesome bun.)
• oil the patty surface and season with generous amount of salt prior to cooking (Salt is crucial to bring out beefy flavor, without it will taste super bland. The amount of salt may be more than you think. Try yourself to get the right pinch.)
• load onto smoking hot pan and then press hard with spatula to ensure maximal contact with hot pan surface (The 4oz size is thicker than smashburger patty. But you still want the signature smashburger caramelized crust by a seamless kiss to the pan.)
• flip when halfway done (2 min for me, time may vary depending on pan temperature, use half-doneness as cue), cheese on, second half takes much less time

It's all about timing and temperature control. Good timing in getting the medium rare doneness is to get goal i) and smoking hot pan for good sear is to get goal ii).

As for the toppings, you can't go wrong with good old tomatoes and pickles. In fact, they are classics for a reason. The bright sweet tomato and sharp acidic pickle contrast with the rich juicy patty, making the beef flavor even more intense. Just some small details when using the two.

• cut them to slices ahead of time so the surface gets nicely dried when you use them
• salt the tomatoes

Of course you can go crazy with premium toppings, fried egg, avocado, beet root, caramelized onion, bacon, you name it. I've done all those before. They are all S-tier toppings that make everything taste better with them. Only one thing to keep in mind. Don't let them overpower the beef flavor. After all this is a burger. You want to get that beefy punch.

As for the sauce, you can't go wrong with not-that-secret secret sauce, which is just classic condiment ketchup mustard mayo three-in-one. You can also go crazy with any “secret secret” sauce. Same principle as toppings, let it be a good support not to steal the spotlight.

Here is what I tried for the four days. They all look amazing. But the tasty level is strictly increasing just because I've been learning and mastering all the tips shared above.

1. caramelized onion, celery pistachio pesto - super tasty onion, but overpowering beef flavor

2. tomato pickle, mayo - nothing wrong with mayo tomato, just overdid a bit on mayo

3. tomato pickle, "secret" sauce - secret sauce is better than mayo, not heavy, nicely integrated with dripping juice

4. tomato pickle, "secret secret" sauce - celery pistachio pesto with mayo, subtle nutty herby, best sauce so far

Some additional tips:

• lightly toast the bun to get the crispy edge (my ideal toasting is barely getting any color, just for drawing out extra moisture so bun is not soggy after putting sauce and veggie on)
• use lid on pan or oven to melt extra cheese (melted cheese is strictly better than unmelted cheese on burger)