Once in awhile my husband and I get a craving for a big, juicy, delicious burger. He is of the sort that would be happy to go out and by one from a restaurant. I, on the other hand, love to make great burgers from scratch. It’s not something I do all the time so when I do it, I like to go all out and make it even better than you’d ever find in a restaurant. My husband was fine with that, so I set out to work. Every great burger starts with a great bun, and that is the topic of my post today.

There are a great many buns that can work well for a burger. One of my favorites is the brioche bun. It’s rich but also light, soft, and airy. Below is my attempt to make a great brioche bun with the ingredients I had on hand. You might notice that I did not use bread flour and active yeast. Instead I just used regular unbleached all purpose flour and instant yeast. I was worried this may not be as good, but it turned out terrific. This is a simple recipe that is not hard to make.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (extra for flouring the counter)
• 2 tsp. instant yeast
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 jumbo eggs
• 3 tbsp. warm milk
• 1 cup water, warm
• 1 extra egg to brush the top of the buns
• sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions

Place 3 1/2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Use your hand and gently mix the ingredients. Next, add the softened butter, two beaten eggs, water, and milk. Be sure that your water and milk are between 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit. (I microwaved the milk and water for 20-30 seconds, making sure it is not too hot). Use a dough hook to mix all the ingredients. Run the mixer on medium for around 8 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl time to time to make sure everything is well mixed. The dough will be sticky.

Scrape the dough out with a plastic bench scraper on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle another thin layer of flour on the top surface of the dough if too sticky. Form dough into a ball. Add a little oil in the bottom of the mixing bowl and spread it around. Put the dough back in the oiled mixing bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 1-3 hours. I used my oven for this step with the oven lights on.

This process took me 1 1/2 hours. Once the dough is risen, lightly punch the dough with your hand to deflate it. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface.

Use a floured plastic bench scraper cut the dough into 10 equal sized pieces. If you have a kitchen scale, you can use that to guarantee that they’re all the same size.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To shape the dough into balls, gently flatten each piece of dough like a pancake. Gather the ends and pinch the dough to seal in the center. Flip the dough over, cup the surface with you palm, and roll into a ball. Transfer the balls to the parchment lined baking sheet, spacing them a few inches a part. You can watch the video for these steps.

Cover it with lightly oiled plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Put it back in the oven to rest for another hour and a half. Before turning the oven on, make sure your dough is out of the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the dough is rested, you will see that they are puffy and lightly risen.

To make the egg wash, beat 1 egg with a splash of water, and gently brush each dough with the egg wash. At this point, you can add sesame seeds or any other seeds of your choice to top your rolls.

Place a metal baking dish on the preheated oven floor with 1 1/2 cups of water before your dough goes in. Water creates steam to keep the buns nice and moist.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. During the baking process, I turned the tray every 5 minutes so it bakes evenly. Transfer the baked buns to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 10 Buns

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram. If you would to be notified of upcoming posts, please consider subscribing to my blog!