Brioche Burger Buns

I have to be totally honest here and say these, along with Macaroons, are my nemesis. I have attempted it several times with no success whatsoever.

This has now all changed with this recipe. It’s really simple and as with all bread recipes, you just need time to achieve something brilliantly light, fluffy and delicious.

Just to prove how dreadful my previous ones were, take a look at this:

This dough was quite simply, awful. And I mean, AWFUL. This, I now know was a result of under kneading the dough.

By under-kneading the strands of gluten needed for a stable bread were not there. This combined with adding loads more flour in an attempt to make the dough manageable lead to a very dry, and flat bun. But, making mistakes is all part of baking and as long as you learn from it, there isn’t really a problem there. The buns were still edible and were a good enough vessel for some tasty pulled pork.

Enough about that catastrophe, lets talk about these things of beauty.

These were beautiful and shiny on the tops, soft and springy to the touch and had a good level of sweetness – perfect for a burger bun. It has to be said that these are not as sweet as a typical brioche loaf, but to be honest I preferred this.

You will need:

390g Bread flour
45g Plain flour
1 pack dried yeast (2 tsp/7g)
45g Butter at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 1/2 tbsp Sugar
3 tbsp Warm milk (Hand hot)
2 Eggs
1 cup of water

Start by combining the milk, yeast, sugar and water in your stand mixer. Leave this for around 5 minutes to bubble and start to froth up.

Then add both flours and mix to combine. **TIP** If you would prefer you can give the flour a quick stir before lowering your dough hook.

Then add the salt, then the butter one tablespoon at a time.

Turn the mixer to a medium speed- for me this was 4 – and mix for around 10 minutes. Then test your dough so elasticity. I found my dough needed an extra couple of minutes so was a total time of 13 minutes.

The dough should be soft and tacky- Not sticky – you should be able to remove it from your hands easily, if you can’t just knead for a couple more minutes.

Place your dough into an oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it has doubled in size. I left mine for around 1 1/4 hours as the oven had already been on and the kitchen was nice and warm.

Knock back the dough and cut into 8 equal pieces. I wanted to be spot on with the sizes so I weighed my dough and divided this by 8, this was around 93g per bun.

To shape your buns, flatten a ball out on your surface. Then fold inwards from the edges, pressing down each time.

Give the ball a firm roll on your surface, this will tighten up the skin and give you a nice even prove.

Press the ball between two flat palms to create your bun shape.

Place your buns inside some pre-made bun rings, I made mine out of tin-foil – click here to find out how. Cover with cling film and leave for another hour until they have doubled in size.

Using the remaining egg, separate the yolk and the white. Mix the yolk with 1 tbsp of water and brush to the top of your buns.

Bake at 200°c in a pre-heated oven for around 10-15 minutes until they are golden brown. You may wish to turn these around part way through to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Leave the buns until they have cooled to remove the bun ring and slicing.