Burger buns
A good burger bun has a contradictory job: to be as soft as cotton wool and still strong enough to carry a patty, sauce and half a tomato without falling apart in your hands. The answer is tangzhong — 25 g of flour cooked into milk, which binds extra water. The dough ends up wetter and the bun stays soft on the third day, with no improvers of any kind.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Tangzhong 20 min
- Kneading 30 min
- First rise 90 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Proving 45 min
- Baking 18 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCook the flour into the milk
Whisk 25 g of flour into 125 ml of milk and heat, stirring, until it becomes a thick paste that leaves a trail on the base (about 65 °C). Scrape it into a large bowl and cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Gelatinised starch binds far more water than raw flour — which is why this dough will take more liquid without turning sticky to work with.
Ingredients: 25 g plain flour · 130 ml milk
The paste leaves a trail on the base — it is ready.Mix everything except the butter
To the cooled tangzhong add the flour, warm milk, egg, yeast and sugar, mix, wait 10 minutes, and only then add the salt. Knead for 8 minutes. The dough will be tacky — do not add flour, that tackiness is water held by the tangzhong.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 120 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 7 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 9 g salt · 60 g butter
Work in the butter piece by piece
Add the soft butter a piece at a time, only now. Fat added at the start coats the flour particles and slows gluten formation, so the dough struggles to develop elasticity. Knead another 6–8 minutes, until smooth and clearing the bowl.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 120 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 7 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 9 g salt · 60 g butter
Rise for 90 minutes
Transfer to an oiled bowl and leave for 90 minutes, until doubled. The test: press a finger in 1 cm — the dent should fill back slowly and not completely. Springing straight back means the dough needs more time.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 120 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 7 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 9 g salt · 60 g butter
Divide into 8 and round them
Divide into 8 pieces of about 110 g and round each on an unfloured worktop, turning under your palm until the surface goes taut. That tension is what holds the shape in the oven — without it the bun spreads sideways.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 120 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 7 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 9 g salt · 60 g butter
A taut, smooth surface, no flour on the bench.Flatten each to 9 cm
Set the balls on a tray and flatten each with your palm to 9 cm across and about 2 cm high. It feels like undoing your work, but the bun rises mostly upwards: left as a ball it bakes into a dome you cannot split for a burger.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 120 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 7 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 9 g salt · 60 g butter
A flat disc — it will climb in the oven anyway.Prove 45 minutes and glaze
Cover and leave for 45 minutes, until visibly puffed. Meanwhile heat the oven to 190 °C (conventional). Brush with the egg beaten with milk and scatter the sesame immediately — on a dried glaze the seeds do not stick and fall off at the first bite.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp milk · 2 tbsp sesame seeds
Sesame goes on while the glaze is still wet.Bake 16–18 minutes at 190 °C
Bake to a deep gold, 92 °C in the centre. Watch the last few minutes: the high sugar and milk content makes these brown faster than ordinary bread. Cool on a rack — left on the tray, the base steams and goes limp.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 120 ml milk · 1 pcs egg · 7 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 9 g salt · 60 g butter
Before you start
Freezing
Split the cooled buns and freeze them. They thaw in 20 minutes, and toasted cut side down in a dry pan they are as good as fresh — the seared surface soaks up sauce more slowly.
The brioche version
Raise the butter to 100 g and add a second egg. The bun is richer and more golden, but also more fragile — for a juicy burger with plenty of sauce, stick with the basic version.
Without sesame
Poppy seeds, nigella or a seed mix all work just as well. You can also leave the buns plain — the egg and milk glaze alone gives them a golden, glossy top.
