You can scale your burger up or down the fancy scale, but store buns will always hold you back. Too soft, too crusty, too small, too large, too flimsy, too expensive, too often sold out on a Saturday afternoon.
Make your own brioche buns and you will never look back. This recipe is enough to make twelve 9cm diameter buns, or more smaller ones if you want. You can easily scale the quantities up or down as well.
Ingredients
1 10g Sachet instant yeast
Sugar
At least 7 cups of flour – AP or white bread
2 Tbsp butter
2 Eggs
Milk
Sesame seeds (optional, or you can use poppy as well)
You will need:
A large mixing bowl
A 40cm x 32cm baking area oven tray
A bench scraper (optional but recommended)
Method
Pour 150ml hot water into a measuring jug and melt the butter. Add 200ml cold milk and 150ml tap water to the jug to give you 500ml of warm liquid.
Pour yeast into a large mixing bowl and add a teaspoon of sugar. Add the warm liquid and mix, then mix in two cups of flour. After about 10 minutes you should have a thick, creamy mixture with bubbles forming on the surface. Your yeast is alive and you are good to go.
You can add two or three tsp of sugar for a slightly sweeter bun, but I prefer not to.
Beat and mix in one egg. Add in two cups of flour, a generous tsp of salt and mix well with a spoon, scraping down the sides. Add two more cups of flour and mix until you have a sticky dough.
Use a large spoon to scoop/scrape it out of the bowl unto a floured work surface. Keep one cup of flour handy. Start kneading, adding a little bit of flour at a time until the dough is no longer overly sticky, but still softish. It is right when it springs back when you poke it with your finger.
Roll the dough into a bowl, lightly oil, and place in a bowl. Cover with an upturned dinner plate and leave in a warmish place until doubled in size. This will take an hour or more, depending on the temperature.
Grease (I use spray and cook type product) your baking tray.
Tip the risen dough on a floured surface, knock out the gas and shape into a flat disc. Use your bench scraper or a large knife to divide into 12 wedges. Roll each wedge into a ball, taking dough from the large balls to add to the smaller until you have all roughly the same size.
Stretch the balls by pulling the rough outer surface to the bottom and tucking the rough edges into the dough. Your dough’s surface should be smooth, without cracks or holes.
Space the balls equidistant on your baking tray rough side down and flatten slightly with three fingers. You can cover lightly with wax paper, but just put them into the cold bottom over to rise.
Preheat your oven to 200 – 220°C (390 – 420F)
After an hour your dough will have risen and spread out, touching their neighbours here and there. This is good.
Make an eggwash – 1 beaten egg and a little splash of milk or water – and gently brush each bun. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes.
Remove and allow to cool a bit until needed.
