Sourdough Hamburger Buns
These soft sourdough hamburger buns are soft and fluffy with a shiny golden exterior. They are naturally leavened and easy to make by hand.
Making them is very simple, but they do need time for the dough to rise and develop flavor. The actual schedule can change though depending on what suits you.
Sometimes I make the dough the day before, give it a first rise then cold-proof it overnight. The following day, I will shape the burger buns, let them rise again, and bake them. Other times I will make the dough in the late evening, let it rise overnight at room temperature and then shape the buns the following morning.
Starter note: I usually make a seperate levain for my bread, which is like an offshoot of my starter that I feed to add the whole thing to my dough. If you feed your starter differently, though, no worries, then use around 100g of your active starter in the dough.
The dough is enriched with milk and a little butter, which helps keep the buns soft and tender. It’s a bit of a sticky dough – the extra hydration makes a lovely soft bun, but not so much that you can’t mix it by hand.
Baker’s schedule – One option
- In the evening – Feed the starter
- 9 am – Mix the dough
- 9:20 am – 2:30 pm – Rise until doubled
- 2:30 pm– Shape the burger buns
- 2:30 pm- 5:00pm – Rise in a warm spot
- 5 pm– Bake the burger buns.
The dough can also be refrigerated after the first rise, for up to 24 hours. When you’re ready, take it from the fridge and shape the buns. Allow around 4-6 hours for them to rise in a warm spot.
Method with Pictures
- Add flour, sugar, and salt, water, milk and sourdough starter to a large bowl and mix into a shaggy dough. Tip this dough onto a workbench and use a slap-and-fold kneading method to bring the dough together. Knead it for 5 minutes to begin developing the gluten. Fat can coat the flour particles, inhibiting gluten formation, so I like to give the gluten a head start before adding the butter.
- Add in the cubed butter, a few small cubes at a time, and knead them in. The butter is going to make it sticky, but the dough will have some strength already from the previous kneading.
- Continue slapping and folding for a further 5 minutes until smooth but it will still be sticky. Let it rise until almost doubled in size.
Shaping
- Divide the total weight of your dough by 9. That’s how much dough is needed for each bun.
- Cut the dough into 9 equal pieces and take some from one piece to give to another until they’re all the same size.
- Curve your fingers and place your hand over a dough piece. Gently press and rotate the dough in small circles on the surface. Keep rotating until the dough forms a smooth, tight ball with a taut surface.
- Place the shaped buns onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Dip your fingers in water and use them to gently flatten the dough ball slightly. This will help to make a wider bun.
- Let them rise until doubled, then brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Bake until deep golden brown.
Storing
Leftover burger buns can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Alternatively, freeze them for up to 3 months.
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Sourdough Burger Buns
Ingredients
Starter*
- 20 g starter
- 60 g all-purpose flour
- 60 g water
Burger bun dough
- 450 g all-purpose flour
- 20 g granulated sugar
- 8 g salt
- 150 g water
- 140 g whole milk
- All the sourdough starter around 100g
- 50 g unsalted butter room temperature
Egg wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix all the starter ingredients until well combined. Scoop the mixture into a clean jar covered loosely and leave it to double.
- Once doubled, add flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add water, milk and sourdough starter and mix into a shaggy dough. Tip this dough onto a workbench and use a slap-and-fold kneading method to bring the dough together. Knead it for 5 minutes to begin developing the gluten. Fat can coat the flour particles, inhibiting gluten formation, so I like to give the gluten a head start before adding the butter.
- Add in the cubed butter, a few cubes at a time, and knead them in. The butter will make it sticky, but the dough will already have some strength from the previous kneading.
- Continue slapping and folding for a further 3-4 minutes until smooth (but still a bit sticky.) This can also be done with stand mixer and dough hook.
- Overnight fridge proof: Add the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover it and let it rise until it has almost doubled in a warm spot (ideally around 25°C/77°F) for 3-4 hours. You can create a warm and humid spot by placing the dough into a turned-off oven alongside a large cup of boiled water. Replace the water as needed when it cools down. After this period, tightly cover the dough so it doesn't dry out and refrigerate overnight.
- No fridge proof: If you’re skipping the fridge proof, make the dough and let it double in size at room temperature, then move onto the shaping steps.
Shaping
- Punch down the dough and pull onto a floured work surface. Shape it into a dough ball and weigh it on a scale. Divide the total weight of your dough by 9. That's how much dough is needed for each bun.
- Shape each piece into a tight ball. I use a claw-hand technique: Curve your fingers and place your hand over the dough. Gently press and rotate the dough in small circles on the surface. Keep rotating until the dough forms a smooth, tight ball with a taut surface.
- Place the buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Dip your fingers in water and use them to gently flatten the dough ball slightly. This will help to make a wider bun.
- Loosely cover and leave the buns to rise for approximately 2-4 hours in a warm spot until they have about doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
- Lightly beat an egg with a tablespoon of water. Brush this over the buns and sprinkle them with sesame seeds.
- Bake for approximately 22-25 minutes until the buns are a deep golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack.
Wow what a versatile recipe. Tried it for the burger buns but since everyone loved it, I decided to make a bread with it. Sooo good and fast. Its a one day bread and what I love about it is if you want a mild sourdough taste this is it and that’s what i was looking for. I’m starting making bread and was looking for this. Very soft and tender. Love also your discard blueberry scones since I live in an area of the region (chicoutimi, quebec) famous for our blueberry. They grow everywhere. Thank you for your beautiful and good recipes.
So happy you’ve been enjoying the recipes Flechere!! 😀
140g whole milk?? What is that in oz or mL? Or did you mean ounces? I’ve never seen liquids listed by weight?
I mean grams 🙂 it’s super easy and consistent to measure that way. I place a bowl on my digital scale and measure our 140g milk. It’s around 136ml, but kitchen scales can’t measure liquid volume accurately, so grams works best.
This was so good! Nice to have a hamburger bun I want to eat just by itself. I didn’t know the protein content of my all-purpose flour, so I used half all-purpose and half bread, and it turned out great. I also did a 30 minute “fermentolyse” before adding the butter, mostly out of laziness, but I think it helped with dough strengthening as well.
Wondering which gives better results, shaping before putting in fridge or the next day. If before am I correct to allow them to almost double before putting in the fridge so they get oven spring?
Thanks
Heya I prefer shaping the following day. Pre shaping and rising before putting in the fridge will likely result in over-proofed buns