Delicious homemade buns make a huge difference. A delicious brioche texture, quality ingredients and a fantastic recipe !
About this recipe
Here's a great recipe to elevate your homemade burgers, by making your own buns !
I really love the texture of these buns. They have an incredible brioche like texture, they taste wonderful, and will make your burger taste twice better
After trying this recipe, I stopped buying buns at my supermarket. I tried several at my local Von's, Trader Joe's, Ralph's, Albertson's, even Whole Foods. I recon, there are sometimes exceptions, for buns found in the "gourmet section" : Those can be pretty decent
Unfortunately, in general, Buns you buy tend to be dry, tasteless and too expensive for what they are. Looking at the ingredients list on the bag, you will also realize that most of them have poor ingredients, as well as all kinds of nasty preservatives
So, here's a recipe you absolutely need to try !
Source of the recipe
A recipe by Marc Grossman, found in his great book "New York Cult Recipes"
To purchase the book online:
The recipe is on page 102
1. For the Water (⅔ Cup or 154 g), I recommend taking filtered water, as tap water contain chemicals that can "destroy" the yeast
2. In as saucepan, pour the Water (⅔ Cup or 154 g) and the Butter (3 Tablespoons or 43 g)
3. Cook until the butter is melted
4. Transfer to a clean bowl to start cooling down
Scanpan Saucepan
Calphalon Nonstick Sauce Pan
5. Pour in the Milk (¾ Cup or 187 g)
6. Verify the temperature : You must wait it decreases to 125 °F / 50 °C or lower (this avoids activating the yeast too much and avoids cooking the egg)
Digital Laser Infrared Thermometer
Matfer Pocket Digital Thermometer
7. In a mixing bowl, pour in the Flour (4 ¼ Cups or 620 g), the Dry Yeast (1 teaspoon or 4 g), the Sugar (3 Tablespoons or 40 g) and the Salt (1 teaspoon or 11 g)
8. Mix manually
9. For the next steps, you may mix manually, or with the stand mixer (like a Kitchen Aid appliance) with the hook
KitchenAid 7-Quart Stand Mixer
Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer
10. Pour slowly the previous liquid, while keeping stirring
11. Start kneading
12. Add in the Egg Yolks (4), one by one, and knead
13. Stop kneading, scrape the sides of the bowl, and knead again
First Rise
14. Cover with a plastic wrap over the bowl to avoid the dough to crust
15. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour 30 minutes
Shaping
16. I am going to use a special mold to shape and bake those buns. This mold has lots of "tiny holes" that distribute the heat and bake the buns evenly
17. To purchase online, see HERE
18. Without this mold, you may also cook those buns on a silicone mat or with a parchment paper, but the final shape won't be as nice
Silicone Hamburger Bun Pan, Perforated
19. Cut individual portions. With my molds, 3.93" (or 3 15/16" or 10 cm) in diameter, I cut individual buns that weigh 110 g (¼ lbs )
20. ● If you want "extra high" buns, like those you use for "Big Mac" style burgers (those with 2 patties and 3 slices of buns), you will need more dough for each bun : 130 g (¼ lbs )
Ball Shaping
21. Once cut, the dough must be shaped into a ball. There are several techniques for this. Here's my favorite technique : pick, stretch, and bring the sides to the center
22. Then flip the ball over
23. Place each ball at the center of the mold
Second Rise
24. Take a plastic wrap, spread onto the work surface and spray with a Cooking spray
25. Cover the buns with this plastic wrap, with the oiled side onto the buns (the oil will prevent them to stick)
26. Let rise until the buns have doubled in size : this should take 1 hour, depending on the room temperature and the humidity
Sunflower Oil Cooking Spray
Avocado Oil Spray
Glazing
27. Glaze each bun with Milk, with a brush
28. Sprinkle Sesame Seeds
Pastry Brush
Silicone Brush, Heat Resistant for Pastry and Barbecue
Baking
29. 
Bake in preheated oven at 405 °F / 210 °C
30. Baking will take approx. 11 minutes, until lightly golden brown
31. Ater baking, let cool down a few minutes and remove from molds
That's it!
As you see, this is a fairly easy recipe, and the result is worth it !
You are now ready to use those wonderful buns for your homemade Hamburgers
To store, wrap them individually and keep them in the freezer