The Ultimate Sourdough Brioche Burger Buns
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These sourdough brioche burger buns are perfectly soft, fluffy, and sturdy enough to hold a juicy burger. They are rich, flavorful, and ideal as hamburger buns as well as sandwich buns.
Let your stand mixer do all the work, and give this recipe a go; you’ll never want to buy store-bought burger buns again.
Table of contents
Recipe run through
Day one
- Prepare the levain – Add all the ingredients to a small mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Cover the bowl and let the levain rise in a warm spot (78-80°F/26-27°C) for four hours, or until it has doubled in size.
- Make the tangzhong – Add milk and flour to a small pot. Heat over medium heat while stirring with a whisk. Once the mixture has thickened and reached 150°F/65°C, it is ready. Next, transfer the tangzhong to a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap that touches the entire surface of the tangzhong. Cool to room temperature before continuing with the next step.
- Mix up the main dough – Pop all the ingredients, except salt and butter, into your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Knead until the dough comes together (1-2 minutes), and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Add salt – Add the salt and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Add butter – You want your butter to be soft and at room temperature, but not melty. Cut it into cubes, and slowly, while the mixer is on, add one cube of butter at a time. When you have added all the butter, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and continue mixing at medium-high speed until the dough passes the window-pane test. This can take anywhere from 10-25 minutes, depending on your mixer.
- First proof – Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and proof for three hours at around 75°F/24°C. This dough typically won’t double in size during the first proof. What you’re looking for is an initial rest, and the dough will rise slightly.
- Overnight rest in the fridge – Place the dough in the fridge overnight. This second rest stiffens up the dough, which makes it a lot easier to handle during shaping. The overnight rest in the fridge also helps develop a lot of flavor in the dough.
Day TWO
- Shape the burger buns – Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Each piece will be around 90 grams. Use a kitchen scale for accuracy. Working with one piece at a time, flatten it slightly, fold it into somewhat of a round, then use your hands and work surface to roll it into a taut, even ball.
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- Second proof – Arrange the burger buns on your prepared baking trays, leaving as much room between them as possible so they don’t touch. Cover lightly with plastic wrap. Let the buns proof for 6-10 hours at 75-78°F/24-26°C, until they have doubled in size.
- Brush with egg wash – Crack an egg into a bowl and add a splash of water. Whisk with a fork to make the egg wash. Once the buns have finished proofing, and your oven is nice and preheated, brush each bun with a thin layer of egg wash.
- Bake – Bake the brioche burger buns for 15-20 minutes at 360°F/180°C until golden brown.
Recipe FAQ
WHAT IS AN ACTIVE SOURDOUGH STARTER?
An active sourdough starter is one that has been fed regularly for at least 2-3 days. If you usually store your sourdough starter in the fridge, I recommend that you take it out 2-3 days before making this recipe. During these days, you want to feed your starter with equal parts flour and water every 12 hours. Please make sure it at least doubles in size during the 12-hour rise.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF TANGZHONG IN THIS DOUGH?
Tangzhong is a baking technique that I often use in my recipes. It involves pre-cooking a portion of the recipe’s flour and liquid, causing the mixture to thicken and gelatinize. The Tangzhong causes the bread to remain softer and have an extended shelf life.
CAN I USE COMMERCIAL YEAST TO REPLACE THE SOURDOUGH STARTER?
If you use commercial yeast, the proofing times and dough measurements will be different. So, if you don’t want to bake with sourdough, finding a recipe that asks for regular yeast would be the easier option.
CAN I KNEAD THIS DOUGH BY HAND?
No. This dough is sticky and difficult to knead by hand, and it needs the strength that only a mixer can develop.
WHAT TYPE OF FLOUR SHOULD I USE?
A strong bread flour at around 13% protein is what I recommend.
DO THESE BUNS FREEZE WELL?
Absolutely! Here’s how to do it:
- Cool – Allow the buns to cool completely at room temperature before freezing.
- Wrap – Individually wrap each bun tightly with plastic wrap to maintain freshness.
- Label – Remember to label and date the burger buns to be sure you serve them at a reasonable timeframe
- Freeze – Place the wrapped buns in the freezer and store them for up to 2-3 months.
- Thaw – On the day of serving, remove them from the freezer and let them thaw for a few hours until completely thawed.
- Reheat – Once thawed, reheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and reheat for 3-5 minutes until warmed through. Enjoy!
Watch Me Bake
Sourdough Brioche burger buns
Sourdough Brioche Burger Buns
Ingredients
Levain
- 30 g active sourdough starter
- 40 g all-purpose flour
- 40 g whole milk cold from the fridge
- 10 g sugar
Tangzhong
- 140 g whole milk
- 35 g all-purpose flour
Main Dough
- 460 g bread flour
- 30 g sugar
- 250 g eggs approximately 5 eggs
- all the tangzhong
- all the levain
- 12 g salt
- 150 g unsalted butter softened, in cubes
Egg wash
- 1 egg
- splash of water
Instructions
Levain
- Add all the ingredients to a small mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Cover the bowl and let the levain rise in a warm spot (78-80°F/26-27°C) for four hours, or until it has doubled in size.
Tangzhong
- Add milk and flour to a small pot. Heat up over medium heat while stirring with a whisk. Once the mixture has thickened and reached the temperature of 150°F/65°C, it is ready.
- Transfer the tangzhong to a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap that touches the entire surface of the tangzhong. Cool to room temperature before continuing with the next step.
Main Dough
- Add all the ingredients, except salt and butter, including the sweet levain and tangzhong, to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix until just combined. Rest/autolyse for 30 minutes.
- Add the salt and knead on medium speed for 5-10 minutes.
- Slowly add in cubed, softened butter, one cube at a time. When you have added all the butter, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and continue mixing at medium-high speed until the dough passes the window-pane test. This can take anywhere from 10-25 minutes, depending on your mixer.
- Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and proof for three hours at around 75°F/24°C.
- After the three hours proof, you can transfer the dough to the fridge and let it cold-proof for 8-15 hours.
Shape
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 12 equal pieces (around 90 grams each.) Use a kitchen scale for accuracy.
- Roll each dough piece into seamless rounds and arrange them on your prepared baking trays, leaving as much room between them as possible, so they don't touch. Cover lightly with plastic wrap.
- Let the buns proof for 6-10 hours at 75-78°F/24-26°C, until doubled in size.
Bake
- Preheat your oven to 360°F/180°C.
- Brush the tops of the burger buns with egg wash.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before slicing.
Hi Elise,
I online recently discovered your webpage and I love your work! I’m also a self-taught baker. I love this recipe and I love this uniformed color you’ve achieved! Could you please tell me how you achieve it?
Cheers,
Jemila
I have no idea why this recipe only has 3.9 stars.
It was perfection and the best burger bun I have eaten in my entire 58 years of Life.
I did reduce the eggs to three and increased the milk. This will be my go to from now on. The search for the perfect Hamburger bun is over.
Thank you!
Thanks so much, Petra!
Haven’t made the recipe yet, waiting for my levain to rise! But I am wondering how much milk did you use for thr 3 eggs recipe?
I’m in the middle of trying this recipe… I’m little nervous about machine kneading that long! It would seem to break the gluten strands… anyone else had any experience with this recipe?
Hi! I recommend just keeping an eye on it. This dough needs the long kneading time and it should not break the gluten strands.
Hi. Instead of Sugar can I use honey?
I wouldn’t recommend it.
Mine were delicious, but they didn’t get as golden brown as yours. They were kind of pale.
Thank you for the great recipe and I took on the challenge.. and… you can make this BY HAND without a mixer! They turned out just perfect!
I baked these last night and they turned out perfectly. Thanks for a great recipe. I will keep it on repeat 😉
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe, Lyndsay!
I’d love to try this recipe, but what I don’t know is how to make the sourdough starter. Can you please help me out by providing some guidance on that I.e. the exact ingredients and the steps. Thanks in advance.
Hi – my dough was really sticky when taking it out of the fridge. I couldn’t roll it in nice balls as in the pictures, but tried the best I could. I wasn’t sure if I should use flour or oil to make the dough drier. Any recommendations? I’m still going through with the buns, just to see how they turn out.
I don’t think my starter was as active as it should have been since the levain didn’t double in size in the 4 hours, I waited 7 but still wasn’t double. It grew for sure, but just not double. This is the very first starter and sourdough recipe I did, so very inexperienced! Maybe adding pictures to the starter e-book would help – what it should look like?
Great recipe
Perfect. Thank you for a well-written and delicious recipe.
I made yesterday ! woow was amazing . Thank you so much for share this.
Excellent Recipe! Fluffy, great flavor, great instructions! When shaping I flattened them a little to make them wider, which worked great for sandwiches and burgers.
I did those for first time and they came up amazing… all my guests wanted the recipe. Each thing I try from your website, always turns out excellent… thank you very much for sahring! Looking forward to your cookbook.
Fantastic buns! They are a work of love, but if you follow every step you will be rewarded with pillowy soft rolls. I’m new to sourdough baking, and I felt the instructions were easy to follow. I finally found a website with sourdough recipes that makes sense and provides great results – thank you!