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Take your burgers to the next level with these light, pillowy homemade hamburger buns made with easy ingredients from your pantry!
Table of Contents
Hamburger Buns Recipe from Scratch
No burger buns on hand? No problem! Once you make hamburger buns from scratch, you will always think twice before getting them from the store. Yes, getting buns from the store is a quick solution BUT if you are willing to just put in a few minutes of prep-work (and a little patience while the dough rises) you won’t regret it! Do your burgers, sloppy joes, or sandwiches a favor and give them the soft, warm, homemade buns they deserve.
These delicious buns can be used for any of our sandwich or burger recipes. They pack well and can be used as your bread for a fun lunch or picnic!
Easy Pantry Ingredients
What I love most about this recipe is that I always have the ingredients on-hand. I can’t tell you how many times I have planned to make burgers and forgotten to get the buns. Hamburger buns from the store seem to go stale quickly so you almost have to buy them the day you actually plan on serving the burgers or you lose freshness. That’s why I like making them from scratch because you can make fresh, delicious, homemade burger buns without the unnecessary store runs. All you need is water, flour, yeast, butter, sugar, salt, and an egg! That’s it!
Bread Machine Hamburger Buns
If you want to make things even easier, do yourself a favor and use a bread machine to make the dough. You will literally put all the ingredients in and let the bread machine do all the work. We have included both the stand-mixer method and the bread machine method in the recipe below.
Getting The Dough To Rise
Allow your hamburger bun dough to rise in a WARM place. This could be near a sunny window, over a heating vent, or on a heating pad or heated blanket on low heat (my favorite cheater way). You can also use your oven but be careful doing this. Heat the to 200-degrees then turn off and open the oven door for 5-10 minutes or until it is just warm. Place the dough inside and shut the door. Ovens can be tricky with inconsistent heat so I recommend one of the other ways mentioned above before resorting to this method.
Keep Your Buns From Deflating
To keep your homemade hamburger buns from sticking to the plastic wrap while rising, spray both the dough and the plastic wrap before covering. Now you can remove the plastic wrap without deflating your buns!
Hot Dog Buns
Making hot dog buns from this dough recipe is easy! When you get to step 4 in the recipe, instead of forming the dough into discs, pinch and roll the dough into a tight, even cylinder shape 6-8″ long. Pinch the seams together tightly and tuck them under the dough. Place them onto the baking sheet seam side down. Follow steps 5-8 as directed.
Hamburger Bun Toppings
These homemade hamburger buns can be left plain and brushed with melted butter after coming out of the oven, or they can be brushed with an egg wash before baking. If you use an egg wash, it is easy to add toppings to your buns before baking to give them more texture or different flavors. Here are a few fun topping ideas:
- Sesame seeds
- “Everything But The Bagel” topping
- Poppy seeds
- Dehydrated onion
- Shredded cheese
- Cheese and diced jalapeño
- Shredded Mozzarella and Italian seasoning
Frequently Asked Questions
We like to use bread flour because it give the buns a pillowy, slightly chewy texture but you can also use all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour.
You can use a GF flour mixture but the texture won’t be the same. GF flours have a tendency to be more dry and aren’t as good for bread.
If your yeast doesn’t foam it may be because your yeast has gone bad. If it doesn’t rise and foam up in the warm water, it probably won’t help your dough rise. The best thing to do is try again with new yeast.
There are a couple possible reasons for this: 1. Your yeast isn’t good (see question above) or 2. It’s not in a warm enough place (see recipe tips above)
You can keep them in a sealed bag at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze in an airtight container in the freezer for 3 to 4 months. Then thaw at room temperature when ready to use.
Read Next: Easy BBQ and Grilling Recipes
Recipes Using Hamburger Buns
There are so many great recipes that you can enjoy with your tasty homemade hamburger buns. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Pulled Pork Sandwiches
- Blue Cheese Burger with Bacon
- Big Kahuna Chicken Sandwich
- Blue Cheese Smoked Brisket Burger
How to Make Homemade Hamburger Buns
Homemade Hamburger Buns
Equipment
- Bread machine (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 cup very warm water (borderline hot)
- 1 tablespoon quick rise yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 large egg
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour (all-purpose works fine also)
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 egg (optional, for the egg wash)
- sesame seeds (optional, to taste)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes until mixture becomes foamy.
- In a stand mixer combine yeast mixture, egg, butter, and salt. Mix together with dough hook attachment until well combined. Add flour a little at a time while mixing. Dough will start pulling away from the sides of the bowl, but will still be quite sticky. Mix 3 more minutes. Dough will start pulling away from the sides of the bowl, but will still be quite sticky. Beat 3 more minutes. Push down with a spatula and/or add a little more flour if needed.
- Coat another large bowl with 2 tablespoons oil. Take dough out of mixing bowl and place in oiled bowl, turning over once to coat all over. Place clean towel or plastic wrap over bowl and let raise in a warm spot for 1 hours or until doubled in size.
- Put dough out onto a lightly floured surface and lightly roll or pat dough down into an even rectangle (about 1" thick). Cut dough into 8 even pieces and gently form into a disc shape, pulling and tucking the edges underneath (about 1/2" thick).
- Space dough discs 1" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you don't want them to touch after rising and/or baking (to make perfectly round buns instead of having to pull them apart a little), you can put a couple on a separate sheet. Spray the buns with cooking spray, then spray a sheet of plastic wrap and gently place the plastic wrap over the dough, making sure they are all covered. This will prevent the wrap from sticking to the dough as they rise.
- Place dough in a WARM place to rise. After the dough has risen to bun-size (about 1 hour), carefully remove the plastic wrap. Heat oven to 350-degrees.
- Optional: In a small bowl, beat the egg until foamy. Using a pastry brush, GENTLY brush the egg wash over the buns. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the buns (see other topping options above).
- Place buns in the heated oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops start to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool before serving. Cut lengthwise to serve as a hamburger bun.
Bread Machine Hamburger Buns
- Place water, butter, sugar, salt, and egg in the bread machine.
- Place flour over the top. Form a well in the flour and place yeast in the well.
- Close the bread machine and press the "dough" option.
- Once the bread machine has completed the dough cycle, remove the dough and follow steps 4-8 above.
Notes
Hamburger Bun Toppings
These homemade hamburger buns can be left plain and brushed with melted butter after coming out of the oven, or they can be brushed with an egg wash before baking. If you use an egg wash, it is easy to add toppings to your buns before baking to give them more texture or different flavors. Here are a few fun topping ideas:- Sesame seeds
- “Everything But The Bagel” topping
- Poppy seeds
- Dehydrated onion
- Shredded cheese
- Cheese and diced jalapeño
- Shredded Mozzarella and Italian seasoning
Great recipe – the homemade bun is life changing!
These buns are the perfect size and texture for any burgers that you want to grill out with! Nothing beats some fresh bread, like literally nothing is better than fresh bread!
So soft and fluffy! Love these for hamburgers and all types of sandwiches. Wonderfully easy. So delicious! My new favorite bun!