These are the best sourdough burger buns ever. Yes, I said it.
With grilling season full under way, it's time for me to pull out my trusty sourdough hamburger bun recipe. The best part about these? They can be made in less than a day. How much easier can sourdough get?
For My Easy Sourdough Burger Buns: Timing Rundown
There are 2 timing options here...
In Time for Dinner
Here's option #1 to have the burger buns done in time for dinner:
- The night before, make the levain (9:30pm)
- Mix the dough (9:30am)
- Shape the dough (2:30pm)
- Bake (4:30pm)
- Cool (fully cool by 6pm)
In Time for Lunch
And here's option #2 to have them done for lunch:
- Make the levain (4 pm)
- Mix the dough (10pm) and it can rise on the counter overnight if your kitchen is cool (70-73F)
- Shape the dough (8am)
- Bake (10am)
- Cool (fully cool by 11:30am)
I've done both of those options multiple times, and have found this dough to be very resilient. There's no difference in rising if your aware of the temperature of your kitchen/proofing environment...
Rising and Proofing Environment Temperature
If your dough is bulk rising on the counter overnight, you need to make sure the temperature is cooler (ideally 68-72F) than if you're bulk rising for only the 4-6 hours (ideally 75-78F).
To create a 75-78F environment because my kitchen is generally colder, I usually rise my dough in my oven that I'll turn on for half a second before putting it in there. I have an oven thermometer sitting in my oven at all times, so I can keep an eye on that as well.
How I mix the best sourdough burger buns dough:
I use a STAND MIXER. It saves me time, energy, and ensures a beautiful fluffy texture with not much effort. I let that thing go for 12 minutes and I'm done. It's so easy. Please try it if you have one and if you don't, I'm sorry in advance. You'll have to knead the dough for 18-20 minutes until a gluten window is formed.
To check for a gluten window, which you should do whether you're using a stand mixer or not, you just pull a little piece of dough off and stretch it in the center to see if it stays strong but creates a thin enough layer for you to read something through (like the newspaper).
Alright, let's get to it!
Best Sourdough Burger Buns
Equipment
- 1 large baking sheet
Ingredients
for the levain
- 75g water
- 50g sourdough starter
- 85g bread flour
for the dough
- all of the levain
- 200g lukewarm water
- 60g melted butter
- 30g sugar
- 8g salt
- 350g bread flour
- 100g all-purpose flour
for the egg wash and topping
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
Instructions
6 hours before making the dough
- Make the levain. In a large stand mixer bowl, combine the levain ingredients, and let sit until risen and bubbly. Ideally, let sit at 75-78 degrees F.
To make the dough
- To the large stand mixer bowl with the levain, add the water, melted butter, sugar, and salt and whisk together.
- Add the flours and mix on medium speed at the stand mixer for 12 minutes, or until pulling the dough creates a strong, transparent gluten window.
- Oil a large bowl and ball the dough and place inside of it.
- Cover with plastic or a damp towel and let bulk rise for 4-6 hours, or until it has roughly doubled in size. Ideally, this rise will be at 75-78 degrees F.
Shaping
- Place parchment paper on a half size or full size baking sheet.
- Lightly oil your hands and gently punch the dough down, and divide it into 8 equally sized parts (I measure by weight to keep each bun equal).
- Shape each portion into a ball by folding the edges towards the center and rolling the seams against a clean counter.
- Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet with space between them. Cover the sheet pan with a warm, damp towel.
- Let them proof for 2-3 hours (at 75-78F), or until they have risen and feel puffy to the touch. At about 2 hours, preheat the oven to 375F.
- One the buns have finished rising, remove the towel, gently brush the tops with the beaten egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds evenly on the top of each egg washed bun.
- Bake the buns for about 28 minutes, or until they are golden brown and the internal temperature is at 200F.
- Remove from the oven and let the buns cool on a wire rack completely before slicing them and using them. Enjoy!
Notes
If you enjoyed this recipe, check out my Sourdough Japanese Milk Bread recipe! It's super delicious.
Some of my links are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Purchasing via these links helps support me and this blog, so thank you.
Sari
I made this recipe 4x and it's delicious. The only thing I don't understand is why my buns are not round up like the pictures. Instead, they are short, wider round. I can't figure out what I did wrong.
Hanna
Hi Sari! I'm so glad you think the burger buns are delicious! It means a lot to me that you've made this recipe so many times.
The main reason your buns turn out shorter/wider is most likely to be because there is not enough gluten strength to hold the bun in shape to stay tall during baking.
You could try various things to fix this (little checklist incoming, lol):
1) Make sure your starter is at peak when creating the levain
2) Ensure that your buns are not under or over developing in either bulk fermentation or the final proof (I would be more concerned with over proofing in this case so really pay attention to them and the temperature of your proofing environment)
3) Make sure to get that good gluten window when checking the dough after mixing (and are you using a stand mixer?)
4) Make sure your shaping is on point. Those buns need to be the tightest, roundest balls after shaping. Any seams on the bottom should be invisible and each ball should be holding its round, bouncy shape perfectly!
5) If the previous things are A-okay, as a final resort, you could check the protein content of your bread flour...I always use King Arthur flour to recipe test. Their flour runs around 12.7% protein content, and different flours can really run the gamut on this. In some countries, even all-purpose flour can reach 11% or so, so that's something to consider as well if nothing else seems to help!
I hope this was helpful and feel free to let me if you have any further questions!!