This morning my daughter woke up craving burgers — which came with a little problem. While the local butcher shop in our village is excellent when it comes to meat and deli products, finding decent burger buns is a challenge. None of the bakeries around here seem able to make a proper bun: soft, fluffy, and baked all the way through without being dense or undercooked in the middle.
That usually leaves me with three options: drive into the city to buy buns — which can easily take an hour or more out of my day if I’m working from home; order them for delivery — but unless I place the order the evening before, no one can get the buns to us on time; or buy packaged supermarket buns with those suspiciously long shelf lives. I tend to avoid those, because you can’t help but wonder what’s in them that makes them last for months without going stale or moldy.
So today, for the very first time, we decided to make our own burger buns at home. To our delight, they turned out perfect on the very first try! Of course, having a stand mixer helped a lot with the kneading. The only downside was that we didn’t have sesame seeds on hand, so the buns weren’t the prettiest, but the taste more than made up for it. Honestly, these were probably the best burgers we’ve ever made at home.
Like most bread recipes, the total prep time is fairly long. You have to knead the dough, let it rise, bake the buns, and finally let them cool before assembling the burgers. All in all, it took us about four hours from the initial idea to fresh buns ready to eat. But that doesn’t mean four hours of constant work — the hands-on part was no more than 20 minutes, with the rest being waiting time. It actually felt pretty easy to fit the process in between other things I was doing while working from home.
I’d say that even though the recipe is quite simple, it’s better suited for a weekend project, given the longer overall preparation time. The result, however, is absolutely worth it.
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Ingredients
- 500 g bread flour (type 650 or all-purpose flour with high gluten content)
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 100 ml water
- 210 ml whole milk (3.5% fat)
- 4 g instant dry yeast (about ½ packet)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- Sesame seeds or seed mix for topping
For brushing the buns:
Instructions
Place the water, milk, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Warm gently until the butter has melted, ensuring the mixture does not boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, mix 500 g (about 4 cups) of flour with the yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Pour in the cooled liquid and stir until combined, then add the whole egg. Finally, add the salt and knead the dough for about 5 minutes with a stand mixer (or 10 minutes by hand) until soft and smooth. The dough is not left to rise at this stage — it is shaped right away.
Divide the dough using a dough scraper or a knife into 6 equal portions (or 8 smaller ones, depending on the size of the burger patties). Avoid tearing the dough by hand, as this can prevent even rising.
Shape each portion into a ball by gently folding the edges underneath until smooth and round.
Place the buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.
Brush the buns with the egg-and-milk mixture, sprinkle with sesame or mixed seeds, and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C / 390°F (conventional heat, no fan) for 10–15 minutes, until golden brown.
Allow the buns to cool on the tray before slicing and assembling your burgers.
Notes
If your kitchen is cool, let the buns rise in the oven with just the light turned on.