Bread Machine Burger Buns

A recipe for bread machine burger buns that comes together quickly and easily in your bread maker. Soft, golden brown, and lovely.

Burger buns can be tricky. But these are not. Using a bread machine for your dough guarantees that it knead and rises perfectly. This recipe gives you a bun with a deep, shiny golden brown exterior, a soft and tender crumb, and a bun that’s sturdy enough for your biggest burger.

No bread machine? No problem. You can knead the dough in your stand mixer, or by hand. The only adjustment you’ll make to the recipe is you’ll need to have the dough rise in a warm place, in a clean lightly oil bowl, before you move on to shaping the buns.

Let’s get to it.

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 cups water
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter softened at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 2¼ teaspoons instant yeast

For Topping

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds or poppy seeds optional

Step by step burger buns

Making the dough

My friends, this recipe is easy! The bread machine does all the hard work.

We begin by adding all the dough ingredients to the bread machine and starting the dough cycle. I never, ever worry about the order the ingredients go in, but if your manufacturer recommends a specific order you might want to use that.

Before you walk away, check the consistency of the dough. You want the dough to be smooth and elastic, not sticking to the bread machine bucket. If it’s too dry and crumbly, add a bit more water. If it’s too wet and sticky, a bit more flour.

When the machine beeps, you’ll have lovely, risen dough. All that’s left to do it shape, rise again, and bake!

Shaping and baking the buns

Once the dough is ready, divide it up into eight equal sized pieces. You can use a scale if you want to be sure they’re exactly the same, or you just divide in half and keep going. Of course, if you want smaller buns you could make 12 or even 16.

To shape them, pinch the bottoms so that the top becomes round and smooth. Don’t try to squish them down from the top. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and very gently flatten them out, just a little.

For a pretty shine and professional look, brush the burger buns with an egg wash and then sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds. You can also do this after the second rise, but I like to do it first to avoid deflating them later.

Cover the baking tray with plastic wrap that’s been generously sprayed with cooking spray. You don’t want the buns rising up to the plastic wrap and getting stuck!

Tuck them into a warm place, like a slightly warmed but turned-off oven and let them rise until they are very puffy. Towards the end of the rising, preheat your oven (but make sure the rolls aren’t still in there!) to 375 degrees.

When the oven is bake, bake for about 15 minutes until the rolls are baked through, with deep golden brown exteriors.

Let them cool completely on a wire rack before you use them. If you want to toast them, try buttering a skillet and letting them toast there for a few minutes.

They are delicious with homemade pulled pork, deep fried chicken sandwiches, and of course, burgers.

the recipe

Enjoy!