Amazing Burger Buns

With all of this staying at home, I haven’t really tried anything new cooking-wise. I saw this video and we decided to give it a go. The result was amazing! The buns ended up being just the right texture, fluffy with a little crisp to them. The taste was slightly sweet, they remind me of Fuddruckers buns. Making them was not difficult, it just took some time. I upsized the recipe so the yield was 9, Zach is back in town and we have a lot of mouths to feed!

Time to prep: 1/2 hour

Time to done: 4 hours

INGREDIENTS

Tangzhong

3 tablespoons bread flour
3 tablespoons water
6 tablespoons whole milk

Dough

¾ cup whole milk @ 95°F
1 ½ tablespoons instant yeast
3 ¾ cups bread flour
1 ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 ¾ tablespoons granulated sugar
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
4 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Egg Wash

1 egg
splash of milk

DIRECTIONS

combine flour, water and milk for the Tangzhong into a pan on medium heat. Whisk until it comes together as a paste, 1 or 2 minutes after adding to heat. Remove to a separate bowl and set aside.

Heat milk to 95°F, add yeast and set aside for 8 minutes.

Add flour, salt, and sugar to your mixer bowl and whisk together.

When yeast mixture is ready, add to mixer on low. Add Tangzhong, then add eggs. Increase mixer speed to medium low. Leave it mixing for about 5 minutes until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

Cut softened butter into pieces and drop them into the mixer one at a time. The dough will ball up here, periodically stop and pull the dough off the hook to get it to turn. As the butter gets incorporated, the dough will come apart and start to change consistency. Keep mixing until you can’t see any pieces of butter, about 8 minutes.

Grease a large bowl, shape the dough into a ball by pulling the edges under, then place the ball into the bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let the dough rise for 1 to 2 hours until it doubles in size.

Uncover the bowl and weigh the dough with the bowl. Remove the dough and place it on a work surface, then weigh the bowl. Do the math and divide the weight of the dough by 9. If I remember correctly, ours came out to 4.3 oz. Cut the dough into roughly 9 pieces, then weigh each one and even things out.

Once you have your buns, pull down the sides of each piece and tuck under the bottom of the bun. Then place the rough ball on a work surface and pull the base of the bun towards you using your pinkies, it rolls and tucks the bottom further. Rotate the bun and continue until the bun looks perfectly round. Place on a greased parchment lined pan and continue the same process with the rest of the buns.

Once all buns are shaped, cover with another pan and let rise for about an hour until they double in size.

After the buns have risen, brush the egg wash on each bun, covering thoroughly.

Bake the buns in a 375°F oven for around 15-18 minutes.

Once they are done, brush the tops with melted butter for extra awesomeness.