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Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: So rich and tasty, with a tiny hint of sweetness.
Texture: Paradoxically light and fluffy AND rich, with a slightly crusty exterior.
Ease: The dough is a little sticky, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be making these for every cookout.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: 1,000 times better than any store-bought burger buns.
I have had a longtime obsession with these Burger Buns. Be warned: they will spoil you against store-bought buns for life.
Soft, squishy, light and amazing! Held together and didn’t fall apart even when loaded with our homemade chicken burgers and condiments. Amazing and will be kept on rotation!!
They’re the perfect way to elevate your burger game. Your summer cookouts will never be the same.
These homemade Hamburger Buns feature a light brioche base, which makes them incredibly fluffy yet rich, and a little crusty on the outside. They’re soft yet sturdy enough to contain even the juiciest burger or any sandwich.
Below, I’m sharing all my tips and tricks for how to make my homemade Hamburger Bun recipe, which will seriously wow anyone who comes to your next summer BBQ.
Get ready to enjoy the best burgers of your life!
How To Make Soft & Fluffy Buns
- Avoid adding too much extra flour to the dough. Since this dough is enriched and takes quite a while to come together, it’ll look really wet and sticky. Your instinct might be to add extra flour; however, any extra flour will create a denser, tougher bun instead of the light, fluffy, brioche-style bun we want.
- It’s better to be sticky than dense. The sticky factor will continue to lessen as the dough is kneaded and especially as it rises. If the dough doesn’t seem like it’s coming together at all, let it rest for about 10 minutes before continuing to knead, to allow the gluten to relax.
How to Tell When Dough Has Properly Risen
- After kneading, shape the dough into a ball. Place in a lightly oiled mixing bowl. I like to use a glass bowl, so I can see how much it’s rising. I’ll even snap a picture of the dough before rising, so I can compare it later.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free location. Near a sunny window, warm oven, or laundry dryer (away from scented dryer sheets) are great options. Ideal rise temperatures are between 80°F and 90°F. Lower temperatures will require more rising time.
- The dough is done rising when it’s about doubled in size and passes the “ripe” test. Gently stick two fingers in the risen dough up to the second knuckle and then take them out. If the finger marks remain, the dough is ready for shaping into balls. If not, cover and let the dough rise longer until it is.
- The same finger test can be done again after the second rise, when the rolls are shaped and getting ready for baking.
Here’s what my dough looked like before and after the first and second rises:
How To Tell If You Have Over-Proofed Your Hamburger Buns
This can happen easily if your kitchen is very hot, or if you’re busy and forget to check on the buns. If your buns have over-proofed, they will likely deflate while egg washing, or look flattened once baking. Over-proofed buns will look a little sad, but they should still taste fine.
Tips for Shaping Beautiful Buns
Properly shaping Burger Buns means the difference between sad, flat buns and beautifully round, tall ones that look professional.
- Deflate the dough. Once the dough is risen, press it down to deflate it slightly.
- Place on work surface. Place the dough onto a clean surface (not a floured surface).
- Divide the dough. Use a bench scraper to section the dough into 8 equal pieces. Feel free to eyeball it, but if you’re a perfectionist like me, weigh the entire mass of dough, divide that number by 8, then portion each piece perfectly by weight.
- Shape into rounds. As you’re shaping each piece into a round, make sure to tug on pieces of dough to bring towards a central point. Pinch those pieces together to create a very tight, taught ball of dough. Roll the ball on your work surface to even it out. This will help the buns rise beautifully.
- Don’t flour the work surface. Don’t flour your work surface when shaping the buns because you want some resistance to roll them into taut balls.
- Tip if the dough is too sticky to handle easily: Very lightly oil, dampen, or flour your hands – just enough that you can handle the dough without it sticking to your hands.
Storage & Make ahead
Make Ahead – Fridge: I recommend preparing the buns through the first rise, dividing and shaping the rolls, letting them rise for about 20 minutes, then covering them well with plastic wrap and refrigerating for up to 24 hours. Remove from the fridge and allow to sit at room temperature for at least another hour.
Make Ahead – Freezer: Freeze the unbaked rolls after their first rise and shaping. Place the rolls in a baking pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw to room temperature. Let rise until an indentation made with your finger into the dough remains before proceeding with the recipe as written.
Store at Room Temperature: Store baked, cooled buns inside an airtight container for up to two days at room temperature.
Store in Freezer: Store baked, completely-cooled buns inside an airtight container in the freezer for up to two months. Let defrost at room temperature or in the microwave before toasting the buns in your toaster or on your griddle or grill.
FAQs
Yes! Simply divide the dough into 15 and place in a 9 by 13-inch metal pan. Bake at 400°F for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the tops are golden brown.
Yes, but it’ll require some elbow grease and patience. Many readers have successfully kneaded by hand, but this dough is on the sticky side and requires a lot of kneading to develop that gluten. If you’ve got a mixer, it’s worth lugging out of the cabinet. If you don’t have a stand mixer, check out my How to Knead Dough article here.
Check out my Whole Wheat Burger Buns recipe, where I’ve made the adjustments so you don’t have to!
Yes, you can swap instant yeast for active dry yeast at a 1:1 ratio. Active dry yeast will take about 20% longer to rise. Here’s how to slightly speed up that process:
– Combine the active dry yeast with the warm water and warm milk called for in the recipe and allow it to proof for 5 minutes, until frothy.
– Then add to the bowl with the other ingredients and proceed with the recipe as written
For best results, I really recommend sticking with both bread and all-purpose flour as written.
Bread flour contains more protein than all-purpose flour, which helps develop the gluten in the dough. Gluten is the backbone of any bread’s structure and since we are adding ingredients that prohibit gluten development (butter, egg, sugar), this dough needs that additional protein to develop its structure and prevent them from falling flat.
When testing this recipe, I found that making the buns with all bread flour resulted in buns that were too tall and stiff. A little all-purpose flour balances this out.
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Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons (44 grams) warm whole milk, between 105° and 120°F
- 1 cup (237 grams) warm water, between 105° and 120°F
- 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 packet, 8 grams)
instant yeast 1 - 2 ½ tablespoons (31 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature, slighten beaten
- 3 cups (382 grams) – 3 cups + 3 tablespoons (406 grams) bread flour, approximately2 (do not substitute this)
- ⅓ cup (43 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 3 tablespoons (43 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
For topping:
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
- Sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the milk, water, yeast1, sugar, and egg.
- Add the flour to the bowl, and mix until incorporated. Mix in the salt and butter. Knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, or until the dough comes together into a soft yet tacky dough (should not be unbearably sticky). Avoid adding too much extra flour because it will create tough buns; however, depending on climate and humidity, you may need to add up to an additional 3 tablespoons (24 grams) of flour. It’s better to be sticky than dense, I promise!
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours3.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper4. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each portion of dough into a ball and place four to a baking sheet, 2 to 3 inches apart. If your dough is unbearably sticky, lightly grease your hands with cooking spray or lightly dust the tops of each dough ball with flour before rolling. Cover with a clean towel and let rise again until puffy and almost doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Brush the tops of the buns lightly with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake the buns about 15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the tops are golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
- Serve or store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to one month. Let defrost at room temperature before reheating in a 350°F oven until warmed or toasting.
Notes
More Recipes You’ll Love:
This recipe was originally published in 2015 and updated in 2023 with new photos and recipe improvements. Photos by Joanie Simon.
this was amazing. soft, fluffy, but doesn’t fall apart with all the juices from the patty. definitely a recipe for the collection. I live in the tropics so used all 406g of bread flour and it worked perfectly. was a little tacky, but nothing a little oil didn’t fix. it did rise very quickly for me, half an hour to 45min, so reduce the yeast if a slower rise is required
The buns were great! I live in a tropical country with high humidity. So i used 406g bread flour and the AP flour as per recipe. In hindsight i wonder if i should have used even more bread flour or reduced the water as the dough was extremely wet hence had trouble shaping to a ball?
The first rise also happened extremely fast like in 30-40 mins with bubbles forming even after shaping. It was actually w relatively cooler day too. But overall taste makes up for everything
I’m just working on my first batch and realized that for those of us with professional-size Kitchenaid mixers, three cups of flour isn’t enough to reach my dough hook. You’ll need to double the recipe.
Thank you for a great recipe, for it to work for me i needed around 500 grams flour in total, it was wet pancake batter consistency without adding more. Maybe it’s because I’m in Australia, i aslo halved the sugar as too sweet for us Aussies for a hamburger/steak burger bun. All in all i achieved a sticky dough adding the extra bread flour and the rolls turned out wonderfully. Thank you
Woooow these burger buns are outrageously good!!!
I have a question: could this recipe be used to make a white loaf?
Thank you so much for this recipe – again, so so good.
So happy you love them, Annie 🙂 We haven’t tried that, but let us know if you experiment!
Oh My Buns!!! Hands down best burger buns EVER!! I will never buy another bun again!
Can I just divide the quantities in half for all ingredients if I have to make 4 buns
We haven’t tried that, but I don’t see why not! To halve the egg, crack an egg into a small bowl and beat it well before measuring out two tablespoons for the recipe. These buns also freeze beautifully, so you could always make a full batch and freeze half in an airtight container for up to two months 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get my dough to rise despite following the instructions with warm milk/water, sugarand yeast. I live in a fairly cold area not sure if the humidity and temperature has something to do with it?
Hi! I’m not the creator of this recipe, but I used to live in a cold climate. A good tip is to turn your oven on to 350-400 and let your dough rise on top of it (not in it) with a kitchen towel resting over it to keep the heat in.
Thanks, Amber, for your great suggestion! I, too, live in a very cold climate, and it takes additional time for my dough to rise in the the winter. Placing them in a slightly warmer location is always a great idea 🙂 That said, Sheryll, if your dough wasn’t rising at all, I’d double check that your yeast is fresh. You can learn how to check here. I hope you give this recipe another try!
Is the egg wash the 1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water? The recipe states add the egg with the yeast, milk, water, sugar?
Also, should all the flour be added or is the + 3 tablespoons as needed?
Thanks!
Hi Wendi! This recipe calls for two eggs in total: one that you’ll combine with the milk, water, yeast, and sugar in Step #1, and a second that you’ll mix with 1 tablespoon of water in Step #5 to brush onto the tops of the buns. For the bread flour, the amount you’ll need will vary based on the humidity of your location. Please see the Recipe Notes for more details. Excited for you to try this recipe! It’s one of my favorites 🙂
These burger buns are the best! I overproved them the first time, but this time was perfect! They are amazing! (I’m not sure the picture will work, but they look picture perfect)
They look fantastic, Ali!
I have tried so many bun recipes before in the past and this one surpasses them all. I have made them 3x in the last week and a half as per my kids request. Major hit in our home. Thank you for a delicious better then bakery bun recipe.
So happy to hear how much your family loves them, Heidi!
Have you tried making these into hotdog buns? I’m wondering if they would keep their shape if I made them into more of a log instead of a ball when rolling….
We haven’t tried that, but now I’m intrigued! I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, but it would require some experimentation with sizing and bake time. Let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
Hi i just read your recipe need to make it and see how will turn out definitely i like the way is explained thank you!