Summer time is barbecue and burger time. We love burgers and finding real good burger buns in the supermarket is not that easy.
Often, when you buy buns from the supermarket, they are extremely soft and tear apart easily. You will end up having the ingredients of your burger spread all over the plate and pick them up one by one which is no fun at all – and of course not as tasty as it should be. The burger bun should soak up the juice from the meat, the sauces you use and still keep everything together.
So we decided to bake our own burger buns to make sure that the base is perfect and we can enjoy really tasty burgers.
Things to know before you start
Time Schedule
| Steps | Work time | Waiting time |
| Mix | ~20 minutes | 10 minutes |
| Bulk Fermentation | – | 48 hours |
| Shape | ~20 minutes | – |
| Proof | ~5 minutes | 2,5 hours |
| Bake | ~5 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Cool | – | 10-15 minutes |
Ready to use these burger buns full of flavour for your burgers in about 53 hours.
Total ingredients
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 355 g | All-purpose flour |
| 6 g | Salt |
| 35 g | Sugar |
| 7 g | Yeast – Fresh |
| 35 g | Canola or sunflower oil |
| 25 g | Egg (about 1/2 of a small egg) |
| 190 g | Milk – 3,5% Fat |
| ~50 g | Sesame (optional) |
You will have a dough of about 628 g in total suitable for 8 burger buns.
If you want to, you can easily double all ingredients to make more at once. For example, we made 8 classic burger buns and 8 with sesame.
Difficulty
A simple recipe for great burger buns with a lot of flavour.
Baking tools
No special baking tools are needed, but you can have a look at our should have baking tools to make your life easier.
Steps
1. Mix
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 6 g | Salt |
| 35 g | Sugar |
| 7 g | Yeast – Fresh |
| 190 g | Milk – 3,5% Fat |
- Mix salt, sugar and crumbled yeast with milk in a separate bowl to dissolve
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 355 g | All-purpose flour |
| 25 g | Egg (about 1/2 of a small egg) |
| 35 g | Canola or sunflower oil |
| – | Dissolved salt, sugar, yeast and milk mixture |
- Mix all of the mentioned ingredients together in a stand mixer for 5 minutes on speed one and 10 minutes on speed two
- The dough should be elastic and smooth
2. Bulk Fermentation
- Put the dough in a sealed container and place it in the fridge at 4-6°C (39,2-42,8°F) for 48 hours
- On the left you can see the dough after 48 hours and on the right how I punched it down (I just couldn’t resist)
3. Shape
- Take the dough out of the fridge
- Get the whole dough into nice burger buns by following this short guide:
- Divide the dough into 8 small dough balls, each equalling to about 78 g
- On a very lightly floured surface flatten the dough ball a bit
- Pull the edges from the sides in the air and then in the middle of the dough to create a smooth outer skin on all sides of the dough ball
- Flip the dough upside down
- Cover the dough with your hand forming a claw around it
- Start rotating little circles with your hand on the dough for about 10 to 15 seconds
- Again flatten the dough a bit
- Place it seam-side up on the bakers couche
- Repeat the process for each dough ball
- Besides the pictures, you can check this short video from us on how this is done from our sunday morning breakfast rolls recipe:
4. Proof
- Take a baking tray and cover it with parchment paper
- Place the shaped dough balls on it
- Optional: Roll the top of the dough balls in sesame
- Flatten the dough balls to about 2,5 cm in height by gently pressing them down a bit
- Cover all with a kitchen towel
- Let them proof for 2,5 hours at 24°C (75,2°F)
5. Bake
- Preheat oven to 190°C (374°F) for ~20 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
- Put the baking tray with the burger buns in the oven, create steam and bake for 20 minutes
- After 10 minutes let the steam out by opening the oven door for ~30 seconds and close it again
- Here is a video of the baking process in timelapse of our burger buns for this recipe:
6. Cool
- Let your burger buns cool for 10 to 15 minutes on some kind of grid
Conclusion
Crust
We made some of the burger buns with sesame seeds and some without. The ones with sesame seeds were very firm but soft at the same time. The ones without seeds were a bit more tender.
Crumb
The crumb is soft but it does not tear up. Even when adding the patty, the crumb will perfectly hold it and soak up the juice of the patty and other sauces you place on the burger.
Taste
The taste reminds a bit of milk rolls. The slight sweetness of the burger bun is a great contrast and addition at the same time when adding the patty and all other things you like your burger with.
Goes good with
Meatballs, pulled pork or burger patties of course! We had our burger with some lettuce, tomatoes, gherkins and cheddar cheese of course. Additionally, we had some spiced ketchup and a barbecue sauce that was sweet and spicy.
As usual, there are no limits and it is totally up to your personal taste when it comes to creating your own burger.
Credits
This recipe was inspired by Hamburgerbrötchen / Hotdogbrötchen nach Peter Reinhart.
Gallery
