- In a bowl, combine the 2&1/4 cups flour and salt.
- Mix in water with a fork or chopsticks until dough is evenly moistened and begins to hold together.
- On a lightly floured board, knead
dough, adding flour (as little as possible) to keep it from sticking,
until very smooth and satiny (about 10 minutes) Cover and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. - Meanwhile, heat salad oil over medium heat
Add the 2 TB flour and cook, stirring, just until mixture
Turns caramel color (roux). Let cool. - On a lightly floured board, roll dough out into an 8 by 15-inch rectangle.
- Spread cooled roux over dough.
- Cut rectangle crosswise into thirds.
- Stack cut pieces on top of one another with roux-coated surfaces inside stack.
- Cut stack in half lengthwise, and then crosswise into 4 equal pieces. You will now have 8 pieces.
- Roll each piece to 1/8 inch thickness, then
fold 2 opposite sides toward center. Overlap side, completely.
With seam side up, roll only half of each folded piece to 1/8 inch thickness. Starting at thicker end,
fold dough over twice toward thin end. - With thin end on top, dip bottom surface in sesame seeds.
- With seed side up, roll out each bun to form a 3 by 5-inch rectangle 1/4 inch thick.
- Place on ungreased cookie sheet, seed side
up. Let buns rest for at least 5 minutes before baking.
At this point you can cover and chill buns up to 24 hours; freeze for longer storage. - Bake on the bottom rack of a 400°F oven
until golden brown and puffy (about 15 minutes if dough is at room
temperature, 25 minutes if cold; frozen dough should be thawed before
baking).
September 24
James Maury Henson's Birthday
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If you’ve ever owned a
TV, or known someone who has, or have maybe seen a TV at any time since the
early sixties, chances are you’re familiar with Jim Henson’s work. And
chances are, if you’re familiar with it, then at one point in your life you
were utterly charmed by the irrepressibly animate, impossibly lovable
Muppets.
In 1955, after some success with local television, Jim was offered his own show, and thus Sam and Friends was born. Although the show’s main character was a human muppet named Sam, the true breakout star was Kermit, who at this point wasn’t even a frog, but nevertheless his affable personality and charming singing voice made him a classic character who even to this day is one of the most recognizable personalities in show business – human or puppet.
Jim Henson revolutionized the puppet industry with his unconventional ideas about puppeteering. Disillusioned with the vague head-nodding most marionettes used as a representation of talking, Henson elected to create foam and cloth puppets whose mouth would be operated by the puppeteers, allowing for much more accurate lip-syncing. This left only one hand to operate the limbs, so Henson used wooden rods to manipulate the characters’ arms instead of the traditional strings. As a result, Henson’s puppets feel much more “real” than previous efforts, while simultaneously avoiding theuncanny-valley creepiness of ventriloquist dummies.
AJim called his creations “Muppets.” The Muppets landed a contract as star players on up-and-coming children’s show Sesame Street, and later a half-hour comedy series modeled after vaudeville reviews known as The Muppet Show.
Jim Henson died of a
bacterial infection in 1990. He is survived by Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Rowlf the Dog, and too many
other timeless characters to name. To honor the man who made puppeteering
culturally significant again, enjoy the following recipe and be thankful
that the genius writers at Children’s Television Workshop never thought to
make a pun about Sesame Buns.
So let celebrate Jim's birthday by baking a batch of Sesame buns and
watching The
Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).
Sesame Buns
|
|
| 2&1/4 cups all-purpose
flour, unsifted 1/4. tsp salt 1 cup boiling water |
3 TB salad oil 2 TB all-purpose flour 3 TB sesame seeds | |