Hamburger Buns (The Very Best!)

These hamburger buns will absolutely ruin you for store bought.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as you may end up eating less subpar hamburgers and more amazing burgers.  I, along with almost all of the rest of the world, love burgers.  I like all sorts of different versions, and recently, on a small vacation enticed the kids on the trip to hypothetically design their best burgers and then describe them to everyone.  Obsessive yes?  But it was an enjoyable wait till our food came at the restaurant.

This recipe comes from the New York Times, and when I first started making these buns, I was a bit obsessive to the original recipe, but like anything, you get to making it a bit and you take liberties. One is with the flour.  I wouldn’t let lack of bread flour keep me from making these buns.  If I have bread flour, great, if not, meh, homemade buns are still going to be superior.   Additionally, I find that I often need a bit more flour than the original recipe called for to make the dough come together.  Perhaps it has to do with the size of my eggs.  Likewise, the original recipe calls for unsalted butter.  I know the entire baking world is enthralled with unsalted butter.  I am not.  It is fine for baking and sometimes I do buy it for specific cookies, but you can absolutely use salted butter confidently by slightly decreasing the amount of salt in a recipe.  And I mean slightly.  A cube of butter generally has around a 1/4 tsp of salt give or take a little.  Very few recipes will have a noticeable difference if you are off a little at that amount.  I understand the no salt thing made people think butter was fresher, and it is true that butter acts as a preservative, but it just doesn’t taste as good.  Period.  This recipe calls for 2.5 Tablespoons of butter, so salted or unsalted is not going to make a hill of difference.

Finally, these are doable for a Monday through Friday indulgence, depending on how ambitious you are early in the day.  I have been known to throw the dough together first thing when I get up and the coffee is brewing, and then I do a cold rise in the fridge while at work, then I come home, shape, and let them do their second quicker rise while the oven is preheating and we are prepping the coals.  Then they bake so quickly, and voila!

I know this is a lot of words to intro a hamburger bun recipe, but my final plea is just this–make them.  They really are that good.  They soak up the juice from the patty and they are strong enough to hold up great to a variety of toppings.

Update: I happen to know these buns are fantastic for fried chicken sandwiches too!

Print

Light Brioche Hamburger Buns

These buns are the perfect accompaniment to a juicy hamburger.  You can choose the size you want, but I like to make 8-10.  I find 10 seems like a good manageable size for adults and kids alike.  8 for all adults.  You can also knead this by hand easily, but for speed, I prefer the mixer.  

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons warm milk
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 2 ½ tablespoons sugar
  • 2 large eggs 1 for the recipe, 1 for an egg wash
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour plus up to 1/4 cup more if needed
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 ½ tablespoons butter softened

Instructions

  1. In a glass measuring cup, combine 1 cup warm water, the milk, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat 1 egg.

  2. In a large bowl (use the bowl for your stand mixer and it will save you an extra bowl during clean up) stir together the flours (3 cups bread and 1/2 cup all-purpose) with salt. Add butter and rub into flour between your fingers, making crumbs.  Put the dough hook into your stand mixer, and mix in the yeast mixture and beaten egg until a dough forms.  As the dough comes together, you can you increase the speed a little until the dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl and slaps back against it. You may need to add a bit more flour at this point so the dough becomes stretchy, but be careful to add as little as possible, as that keeps the finished buns lighter. Keep this up for 8-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

  3. Shape dough into a ball and return it to bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

  4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking silpat. Divide dough into 8-10 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let buns rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours.

  5. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns. Bake, until the tops are golden brown, and the bottoms are very lightly colored, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.  Slice and serve as is, or, to really amp it up, grill with butter before making your burgers.