A Perfect Brioche Bun for Burgers
As you may have already noticed, our last post was about the Epic Burger. This burger really deserves its name. Yum! Nelson put a lot of research and effort into this meal (and he wrote a very sweet post–thanks Nelson!).
One of the key components of the burger (and almost as epic as the burger itself), were the brioche buns. This bun was perfectly toasted with a golden colour on the outside, soft inside, and a perfect sprinkling of black sesame seeds on top. Even though the bun was soft on the inside it was just dense enough to hold up the burger and toppings perfectly, without falling apart.
Over the years Nelson has made a lot of bread. Nelson’s made artisan bread, form loaf bread for toast, kaisers, baguettes, cornbread, sweet bread and a few others. But, after taking these buns out of the oven, he claimed “this is possibly the best bread I’ve ever made”. That’s a pretty big statement for Nelson. Just to be clear, this recipe is not a Nelson original. Full credit goes to Lisa, over at the Parsley Sage & Sweet blog. On her blog, Lisa claims that these are “possibly the best burger buns ever”. Nelson (and the family) completely agrees with her! We have never tasted a better restaurant or store-bought burger bun. Thank you for sharing this recipe Lisa! It was worth every black sesame that got stuck in my teeth. It didn’t stop me from eating another bun the next day.
Another bonus is that these buns aren’t even that difficult to make. There was no complicated homemade starter or waiting overnight for the dough to rise. These buns are delicious and easy to make, and we invite you to try them in your own home. If you have some time, please visit Parsley Sage & Sweet for other delicious recipes. We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.
BTW…I couldn’t resist telling Nelson that I liked his buns :-). Yes…I’m cheesy that way…but that’s just me.
A Perfect Brioche Bun for Burgers
- 1 cup warm water + 1 tbs
- 3 tbs warm milk
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 2½ tablespoons sugar
- 1 large egg beaten for dough mixture
- 1 large egg beaten for brushing the dough
- 3 cups bread flour
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tbs unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ tsp black sesame seeds
- ½ tsp coarse salt
- In a small bowl, combine water, milk, dry yeast and sugar and let sit for 10 minutes.
- In a large stand-mixer bowl, combine the bread flour, all-purpose flour and salt.
- Cut in/crumble butter into the flour mixture as if making a pie crust.
- Add the yeast mixture and one beaten egg.
- Place this bowl on the stand mixer and hook up the dough hook attachment.
- Turn on the stand mixer to your 'kneading' setting (2 on the KitchenAid stand mixer).
- Mix for 10 minutes.
- Take out the dough, form it into a ball and add it back in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a blanket for warmth, and let the dough rise for 2 hours. It should double in size.
- Remove dough from bowl and divide into 8 equal parts.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Form each piece of dough into a ball. Place all the balls of dough on the lined baking sheet about 2 to 3 inches apart. Use a second lined baking sheet if required.
- Cover baking sheet(s) with a towel and let rise for 2 hours.
- Thirty (30) minutes before the dough is done rising, place a large pan with water on the bottom oven rack (this process adds moisture during baking to achieve a perfect crust).
- Place the other rack in the middle of the oven and set the oven to 400 ºF.
- In a small bowl, combine the second beaten egg with 1 tbs of water.
- Brush each uncooked bun with the egg wash.
- Sprinkle the sesame seeds and coarse salt evenly over all the buns.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheets and carefully transfer the buns to a wire cooling rack.
- Let the buns cool completely before placing the burger on them.
Love brioche bread! This would be amazing with some smoked salmon and cream cheese, yuuummm
Oh… it so would Sofia! That might just happen this weekend! Great idea!
Nothing beats a good brioche bun. These look great!
Thank you for the nice comment Thalia. My family loved them. Take care.
I’m so glad you both enjoyed these buns as much as we did! As I said in my email, I wish I could take credit for them, but the baker at Comma Ca gets all the kudos! That said, your buns and photos are gorgeous, and I pinned your epic burger. Can’t wait to try it!
Thank you so much for visiting our virtual home Lisa and for the kind feedback. We hope you enjoy the burger. Take care.
These brioche buns are gorgeous! They may be the most beautiful hamburger buns I have ever seen! And I love that the kneading is done in a stand mixer. It’s my kind of recipe!
Hi Thao, the original recipe recommended kneading by hand for the extra love 🙂 In my case, it’s a balance… it has to taste great and it has to be quick because life is happening. I found that they were still great when I used the stand mixer. Give them a try, they were easy to make. Take care.
I tried them yesterday, they tasted great and the black sesame added some nice complexity to the look and bite!
The dough was very wet though and so they became rather flat. What kind of flour is “bread flour” exactly? I haven’t found anything equal to the name in the german supermarkets… I hope you can enlighten me. 🙂
Hi Elisa, I’m not sure what the substitute would be in Germany. I did however find this “Bread flour is designed for yeasted baking! It has a protein content of just under 13% which helps to create more gluten and more rise in our baked breads”. I might try to let it rise a bit longer or add a touch more flour. I hope this works out for you, they make great buns. Thank you for visiting our site.