Brioche Burger Buns

Hamburger buns plagued me for a long time. I mean, way longer than they should have. I spent more time and wasted more flour trying different recipes and techniques, even watching YouTube videos, all of them promising to be light and fluffy. None of them ever were. They always came out too dense and flavorless. I always assumed it was because I had no patience and couldn’t quite get the right feel for the dough. I’ve been baking bread for years and have successfully pulled off everything from pizza dough to focaccia, pretzels to bagels, white sandwich bread to multigrain and everything in between.

But hamburger buns were a mystery. Until I came across this little gem, courtesy of Everyday Annie.  They are the most gorgeous brioche rolls and they are perfectly tender, light and with a buttery richness that is perfect for burgers.

This recipe yields 10 buns.

Brioche Burger Buns

Buttery, soft burger buns.

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Prep Time 4 hours hrs

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Servings 10

Ingredients

  

For Buns:

• 3 tablespoons warm milk
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 1 large egg
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2½ tablespoons unsalted butter softened

For Topping:

• Egg wash (1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)
• Sesame seeds or poppy seeds or everything bagel seasoning (if desired)

Instructions

 

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix the milk, water, yeast, sugar, egg and salt. Add the flours and salt and mix until well incorporated. Add in the softened butter and knead on low for roughly 6-8 minutes. The dough will be slightly tacky but not overly sticky. If it’s really sticky, add an additional tablespoon of flour and knead for another minute or so.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (1-2 hours depending on your yeast. Rapid rise will obviously be a lot faster than regular yeast.)
• **If you have a bread machine, you can also chuck everything into the bowl of the machine in the order listed in your manual and use the dough cycle.**
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Using a bench scraper, divide the dough into 10 equal parts (a kitchen scale works great for portioning these out…otherwise just eyeball it). Roll each portion into a ball and place on the baking sheet, roughly 2-3 inches apart. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 1-2 hours or until doubled.
• Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and another one on the bottom. Fill a large metal pan or a 9×13 pyrex pan with water and place it on the lowest rack. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the tops of the rolls with the egg wash and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds, if desired. Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the tops are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.