Elevate your burger game with this delicious, homemade hamburger buns! These brioche-like buns are light in texture and high in flavour.
This is the only hamburger buns recipe I’ve used to make hamburger buns for years! While these buns are enriched with eggs and a bit of butter for flavour, they somehow still manage to be light in texture, yet sturdy enough to hold all the burger and the toppings.
I love that I can make these burger buns without a stand mixer. The simple dough comes together easily in a large bowl.
So if you’re looking to elevate your burger game this Summer, these delicious homemade hamburger buns are a great place to start. They freeze beautifully, so make a couple of batches and load up the freezer and you’re always ready for a leisurely Summer BBQ
Key Ingredients
Bread flour: You’ll get the best results if you start with bread flour and even better, if you start with unbleached bread flour. Here in Canada, that’s not the easiest to find on the shelf in grocery stores. I get mine at Bulk Barn. Failing that, bleached bread flour is fine. You can use just all-purpose, but your buns might not rise quite as high.
Active Dry or Regular Instant Yeast: Active dry yeast needs to be proofed (soaked) in warm water before using. I never use dry active yeast myself, but prefer to use Instant Yeast (such as SAF Brand). While Instant Yeast doesn’t require proofing in water before using, it doesn’t hurt if you do, so I just go ahead and proof the Instant Yeast in the same manner as described in the recipe. Instant Quick-rising or rapid-rise yeast will not work with these buns and are not recommended.
Video: How to make homemade hamburger buns
I think the one thing that tends to trip people up when making buns is the shaping of “the ball”. It’s quite understandable that someone might think that you just need to grab a piece of dough and form/squeeze it into a ball shape. In fact though, there is a bit of a technique to creating “a ball” with dough, that creates what’s known as surface tension or tightness on the top of the ball. It’s this tension that encourages the dough to rise higher, while also creating a lovely smooth top.
The technique for forming the dough into buns is shown in this video. It’s the easiest way I think and produces great results.
1. Stretch the top to create a smooth top.
2. Flip over and stretch the sides in towards the centre and pinch together.
3. Do this all around the edges, until the sides are smooth, too.
4. Flip the ball over, so your pinched part is down.
Baking Tips
- The first thing you need to know about this dough is that it is very moist and almost sticky when made as prescribed. To get the best (lightest) results, you want to avoid as best you can adding much more flour here. Add just the bare minimum you need to, so you can handle the dough.
- This dough is also a slow riser, so be patient and allow it to rise for however long it takes to double etc. In a warm Summer kitchen, it will probably rise a little more quickly.
- I like to weigh the whole dough before dividing into balls. I then divide the total weight by 8, to calculate the dough weight of each roll. Weigh them out separately and you will have 8 identically sized rolls!
- Right after egg washing the buns and just before popping them in the oven, top buns with sesame seeds, poppy seed or “everything” mix if you’d like to add some toppings to your homemade buns.
Top Tip!
Be sure to brush the egg wash on the dough evenly and thoroughly, being sure to get all around the bun and right to the bottom. Any bare spots left from your brushing will leave pale spots on the finished burger buns.
Making ahead, storing and freezing homemade hamburger buns
These are best enjoyed on the day they are made, but it is perfectly fine to make in the morning and enjoy for dinner.
Store rolls in an airtight container, until needed, up to 24 hours. Freeze for longer storage.
These buns freeze beautifully up to 2 months! Simply remove the buns from the freezer and thaw on the counter. It will only take a short time to thaw (30 minutes, or so).
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Get the Recipe: Simply Perfect Homemade Hamburger Buns
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 g) water, warmed to about 105-110F
- 3 Tablespoons (45 g) milk, warmed slightly to lukewarm
- 2 teaspoons (6 g) active dry yeast or regular Instant yeast, not quick or rapid rise yeast
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons (33 g) white sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten with a fork
- 3 cups (375 g) bread flour, spooned and levelled
- 1/3 cup (45 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) fine salt
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons (35 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
For egg wash:
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon water
- Poppy or sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- Before you start! Scroll down to the Recipe Notes for some important tips for working with sticky dough.
- In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, combine the warm water, warmed milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until bubbly, about 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour, all purpose flour and salt. Add the butter. Using your finger tips, rub the butter in to the flour mixture, making even crumbs.
- Add the yeast mixture and the beaten egg to the bowl and using a dough scraper or silicone spatula, stir until a moist, sticky dough forms.
- Using a silicone bowl scraper, scrape the dough on to a very lightly floured counter or work surface. At this point the dough is very moist and sticky and not really able to be kneaded as you traditionally would. You will be tempted to dust with flour, but resist the urge to start. Instead of traditionally kneading, use your dough scraper or silicone spatula to scoop up the dough and then slam it back on the counter. (Don't just drop it, slam it. It's therapeutic :) Use your scraper to turn it over a few times on the counter, then pick it up and slam it again. Repeat this slaming/turning action for a couple of minutes. You should find that it is a sticking to the counter a little less. If you feel it isn't progressing after a couple of minutes (is still super sticky), very lightly dust the counter with flour and turn the dough over it to flour very lightly (Not too much flour. Just a dusting). Continue doing the slam and turn action for several more minutes. At some point, after about 5 minutes or so of this routine, your dough should stop sticking to the counter. Though it will still be a quite moist dough, you should be able to form it into a ball. *If your dough is still sticking after 5-7 minutes of working it, dust with a tiny bit more flour, as needed, until it is no longer sticking, but is still nice and moist.
- Shape dough into a ball and place into a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 1-2 hours. Note that this dough is a bit of a slow-riser. Allow it to rise until doubled, no matter how long that takes.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Using a dough scraper, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. (* I like to weight the dough ball and then divide that weight by 8, to get a weight for each piece. I then weigh out each piece to that weight, to get 8 exactly equal pieces. My last bake, the individual balls were 101g apiece. Yours may vary somewhat.)
- If your dough is still too sticky at this point to form into balls, very lightly dust with a tiny bit of four.
- Form each of the 8 dough pieces into balls (* See video above the recipe card on how to do this!). Place balls on parchment lined baking sheet about 2-3 inches apart. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until doubled again, 1-2 hours.
- Set a large shallow roasting pan of water on the lowest rack of the oven. Preheat oven to 400F (not fan assisted) with a rack in centre of the oven, as well.
- When buns have doubled, beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush the buns thoroughly. * Be sure to brush the entire bun, top and sides, right down to the pan, as any areas you miss will be pale-coloured once baked. If desired, you could sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds at this point, as well. Bake, turning sheet 180 degrees halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes.
- Immediately transfer buns to a rack to cool completely.
Notes
Adapted from “Light Brioche Buns” by Jane Sigal as shared by the New York Times
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Made these yesterday and they were really good. Nice flavour and hold up well when loading them up with burgers and all the fixings. Definitely approved by the family! I proofed the dough in our Instant Pot on the low yogurt setting and it only took 20 minutes to double! The second rise was less than an hour on the kitchen countertop. I didn’t have any bread flour so I used all-purpose white flour and a bit of whole wheat flour too. I will be definitely be making these again!
Glad to hear, Juliette :) Thanks so much!
I’m in the middle of making these right now, so far, so good. Looking forward to burgers tonight! Just curious how much your 8 dough balls weighed.
Hi Wayne and sorry, I totally don’t remember. Sometimes I make note of it in the recipe, but if I didn’t it’s gone for now :)
I just formed the rolls and they are rising. Mine weighed a little over 3.5 ounces each.
Thanks Joanie :)
So delicious! Very light but held together perfectly for burgers. Thank you for sharing this recipe :)
Glad to hear, Janice :) Thanks so much!
Made these buns and they were the prettiest thing I’ve baked in my life! They were perfect! Would this recipe work for a loaf too? I tried another brioche loaf recipe and it failed to rise even though I followed everything exactly!
Sure, you could make it into a loaf!
It’s a great recipe, even the first time came to a huge success! Like others said, it’s really sticky but turned out light and fluffy at the end!
I divided the recipe into half quantity, making 4 buns based on the metric calculation, and it still worked out great! Only thing was as the author mentioned, the liquid is just an approximate amount, which at the end I added 2 tbsp liquid less based on my experience, and I just dusted with very little flour on the dough after the first proof.
One more good thing about this recipe is it doesn’t need the traditional kneading, which make it easier and less time to proceed, but it can still give a light and airy texture.
I would really stick on this recipe whether I have to make a burger bun from now on, thanks Jennifer for sharing such good recipe with all of us!
So glad you enjoyed these, Katie :) Thanks so much!
I’ve made three of your recipes and they’ve all been wonderful. This is one of them. Mine looked exactly like the picture, and that’s not the norm ;-) The dough was definitely sticky, I had to keep scrapping the dough off my fingers. I resisted the urge to add more flour and they turned out light and fluffy. They were a very fast rise so I had the most enjoyable hamburger for lunch. My husband, who is not a bread lover like me, loved them.
So glad to hear, Claire :) Thanks so much!
I made these last night and they were awesome and so easy to make! We didn’t have any bread flour so I used all AP, and we also didn’t have milk, so I used the 35% whipping cream we had in the fridge. They came out PERFECT and smelled and tasted like heaven. Thanks!
So glad to hear, Caroline :) Thanks so much!
I made these for my parents and brother and they 110% approved!! Thank you for sharing this!
So glad you enjoyed them :) Thanks so much!
Absolutely delicious, my family loved them so much. I will never go back to store bought burger buns.
So glad to hear, Nour :) Thanks so much!
This is my first time making buns. I didn’t put a lot of egg wash, my fault, only on top so it looked like pale buns when it came out 😁. Taste great though! Thank you!!!
So glad to hear, Caroline :) Thanks so much!
Hiya, Can I make these with just bread flour….I don’t have all purpose thanks
Hi Amy and sure, it should be fine. You may need less over-all flour if using all bread flour. Enjoy!
Although a bit sticky but this is the best burger bread I’ve ever baked! Thank you for sharing this recipe .
So glad to hear! Yes, it is a sticky dough, but that’s what makes them so light in the end. Thanks :)
My son said he would like me to make brioche buns for our homemade hamburgers. The burgers were seasoned and I forgot to buy buns on my last grocery run.
I came across your recipe because I have active, not instant yeast and your post came up when I searched. It’s my first time baking with yeast in a long time. It’s scarce in the stores and I have a bottle of 1 year expired yeast. I figured I would see if it was still good. I started the recipe with the proofing. Now after a few minutes I was happy with what I saw.
When I looked at it again after about 15 there seemed to be a huge amount of proofed yeast in my measuring cup that it was running over the edges.
I checked the recipe for the next steps and realized I had proofed 2 tablespoons and not 2 teaspoons!!!!
To make a long story short the buns came out amazing! They were light and airy.
My resting/rising time was reduced due to more yeast. My oven was barely warm as I had used it earlier and I placed the bowl in the oven. This also helped in reducing the rising time.
Halfway through baking the color on the top was perfect. To prevent further browning I covered them with a sheet of foil until the final bake time.
This was such a great experience I will use your recipe again!
That must have been the fastest yeast rising ever :) Glad it all worked out in the end! Thanks so much, Better.
Do you freeze the buns before or after baking? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, I freeze them after they are baked and cooled.
Wish I had read the comments first.My dough was on the dry side.
I will add the last cup of flour as needed next time. Jennifer do you sift your flour? Thanks for so many wonderful recipes, jennifer.
Donna, in Halifax
Hi Donna and no, I don’t sift. I just stir it in the jar first, then spoon and level. And yes, not just for these buns, but for any yeast dough, only add as much flour as you need. The flour amount is always approximate in yeast doughs :)
Made two batches, Jennifer and added less flour to the second. Both lots turned out great.It is a wonderful recipe. Nice to have have these in the freezer come bbq season.Good to have one less trip to the grocery store when we are in self isolation. Stay safe and well.
Glad to hear and yes, I love to have these in the freezer for bbq burgers whenever! Thanks so much :)
This is hands down the best hamburger bun I’ve ever tasted (first time making). I’ve made these twice so far; once using butter and the next time using olive oil as a sub as we ran out of butter and both times were fantastic. My favourite thing about these buns is that they do not get soggy or fall apart like store bought buns. They are honestly perfect! My only tidbit of info to share is that when you use olive oil the dough is much stickier so I had to add a bit more flour than when using butter. Thank you so much for this recipe!
So glad you are enjoying these, Charlene and good to know that olive oil works well here, too! Thanks so much :)