This recipe is an adaptation of King Arther Baking company’s No-Knead Chewy Sandwich Rolls. I wanted a softer crumb, more like most store-bought burger buns, so I’ve incorporated the tangzhong method, and of course made adjustments to the shaping process to accommodate burgers.
Active Time: 15-20 minutes
Total Time: 5-6 hours
Yield: 10 buns
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- ½ cup milk | 113g
- ½ cup All Purpose Flour | 2 oz | 60g
Rest of the dough
- 3½ cups All Purpose Flour | 422 g
- 2 teaspoons salt | 14g
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 cup cool water | 227g
- ¼ cup olive oil | 50g
Topping(s) for the buns
- 1 egg white + 1 teaspoon water, beaten.
- Sesame seeds or similar for topping your burger buns.
Instructions
- To make the tangzhong, add the milk (½ cup | 113g) and flour (½ cup | 60g) to a saucepan. Whisk to combine, then place over a medium high heat. Continue to whisk until it thickens to a paste. Then remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. You can speed the process by continuing to whisk off heat. You want to ensure it isn’t so hot that it kills any of your yeast when you add it to the rest of the dough.
- Mix the tangzhong mix with the rest of the dough ingredients together in a large bowl. If you have a wide bowl, that will make the process easier:
- 3½ cups All Purpose Flour | 422 g
- 2 teaspoons salt | 14g
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 cup cool water | 227g
- ¼ cup olive oil | 50g
When you have the dough generally pulled together into a shaggy ball (you may still have some dry flour patches — that’s OK), then use a plastic dough scraper or spatula and fold the dough over itself. Rotate the bowl a little, and repeat. Do a total of 30 “folds”. The dough will still look ragged at this stage.
Cover the bowl, and allow it rest for 20 minutes.
Repeat the fold-cover-rest process 3 more times. In total, you should complete 4 rounds of folds, and you should be at about the 1 hour mark since you started.
At each round, you’ll see that the dough will get smoother and smoother. The shaggy dough ball will become a smooth elastic dough ball.
Cover the bowl once again, and let the dough rise for about 2 hours in a warm spot like an oven with the light on or at least away from any cold drafts.
The dough won’t double, but it will be noticeable puffy after 2 hours. It will still be a bit sticky.
- If you plan to top your buns with sesame seeds, then prep a small bowl with about ¼ cup of sesame seeds. In another bowl, beat the egg white with a teaspoon of water.
- Prep a sheet pan by lining with parchment paper.
- Portion the dough into 10 equal sized pieces (or 8 if you want large buns). If you have a scale, weigh the dough — it should be about 920-940 grams. Use your total to make equal-sized pieces.
- As you handle the dough, don’t add more flour. If it’s too sticky to easily manage, lightly wet your fingers. Keeping a small bowl of water can be helpful.
- Take each portion of dough and form into a ball like you would form a boule. pick a point on the edge of the dough, and stretch it and fold it back into the center. Grab the corner of the fold, and stretch and fold it back to the center. Work your way around the dough until you have a small dough ball. Use your fingers to pinch and seal the dough.
- Holding the dough from the sealed side, dip it into the egg white mixture and then into the bowl of seeds. Press lightly into the seeds, then place the dough onto your parchment-lined sheet pan, seed side up.
Repeat with each portion. As you place the buns onto the parchment, make sure to spread them out so that they will have room to expand.
Cover the pan with a large plastic cover, or drape the buns with lightly greased plastic wrap or parchment. Let them rise until they’re noticeably puffy, about 2 hours or so. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 475°F.
Bake the buns for 18-20 minutes, until they’re nicely browned. Remove them from the oven, and transfer them to a cooling rack. Store the cooled buns in a paper bag for a day or so; freeze for longer storage.