I’ve been on a hamburger bun kick in preparation for burger week! Although I love my Quick & Easy Cheater Hamburger Buns, Whole Wheat Kaiser Hamburger Buns, and Easy Poppyseed Kaiser Hamburger Buns, I also enjoy making bread from scratch. ESPECIALLY since getting my Bosch Universal Mixer
! Up until recently I’ve been solely dedicated to my KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer. The Bosch I’m quickly falling in love with. But that’s another story for another day. Back to buns shall we? In my series of hamburger buns I wanted to make sure I snuck in a homemade recipe. This recipe is really not too complicated, relatively quick, and very delicious.
Once you’ve got your dough prepped and ready to shape in to buns it’s a quick and easy process. It will be super soft and very easy to work with. Because I sprayed my bowl before adding the dough for the rise and also sprayed the top of my dough, I didn’t need any additional oil or flour. It was pillowy soft!
You will divide the dough in half, and each half will yield four pieces. Try to section off dough in equal pieces so that your buns will all be the same size. If you’ve got a kitchen scale, this is where it could really come in handy if you want to be ultra precise.
For each ball of dough you will shape each piece tightly. I just kept stretching, pulling, and tucking underneath until I felt like the tops were smooth enough.
This kitchen trick is such a game changer! It really takes the buns to the next level to separate them from just plain rolls to actual hamburger buns. By adding the second cookie sheet on top and flattening just a bit, it allows your dough to raise outward rather than upward. Love this tip!
See what I mean? They look like buns right?! After your rolls have risen (and not too much) they are ready for the oven. I would probably try to space them a little farther apart, but this was just fine. I added 8 rolls (2×4) to my 12×17 cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Unless you give them an egg wash coat or brush with butter they won’t brown too much. Any option works great, just a heads up – don’t cook them until they are brown on top if you haven’t brushed them with anything because they will have cooked too long.
Once cooled you are ready to slice these babies and make your favorite burger!
Homemade Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. active-dry yeast
- 1 c. warm water
- 1 c. milk
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tbsp. butter melted
- 4 tbsp. honey
- 2 tsp. salt
- 6 c. ground soft white winter wheat berries (whole wheat pastry flour)
Instructions
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In a small bowl, add the yeast to warm water and set aside for 10 minutes. In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together milk, eggs, butter, honey, and salt. Add the warm water with yeast and mix until combined. With your paddle attachment add the ground flour and mix on low until the flour just incorporates with the wet ingredients.
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Once incorporated, switch to your dough hook and knead until your dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. If your dough is sticking add a tablespoon at a time more flour while it’s mixing. Your finished dough should be slightly sticky and spring back when touched.
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Once kneaded, shape your dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Brush your dough with more oil, cover, and allow to rise until doubled in size for about an hour. Once risen, divide the dough in half. Divide each half into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a tight ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet. Press slightly with a second cookie sheet and leave on for the second rise of 15-30 minutes.
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Once risen, bake at 375 F for 15-18 minutes. Brush the tops with butter if desired and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Recipe Notes
Instead of using a tbsp. or two of oil for my bowl and the top of my dough, I just sprayed the bowl with my canned olive oil and also the top of my bread and it worked wonderfully!
Adapted from My Humble Kitchen
Whole Wheat Kaiser Hamburger Buns // Tried and Tasty
Quick & Easy Cheater Hamburger Buns // Tried and Tasty
Homemade Whole Wheat Everything Hamburger Buns // Tried and Tasty
Chenin
I’m very excited to try these tonight! I would like to suggest that you add the rise time to the total prep minutes. Thanks!
Yvonne
Thanks for the great suggestion Chenin! I’ve updated the recipe to reflect the rise time. :)
Hi Yvonne!
I have a couple or three questions for you regarding your homemade whole wheat hamburger buns. I am not a baker, but have been interested in trying out some baking projects. I was wondering if this recipe can successfully be halved as I don’t have the freezer space for the full 16. Second, I live in the desert where things dry out quickly and I have found that when I have tried baking bread, the dough gets a crusty top on it while it is rising. Is this a problem? I have tried putting a wet towel over the bowl but that dries out, too. Would plastic be OK or does the dough need to breathe? And, third, if I use full on whole wheat flour (not pastry flour), does that mean the dough will likely be harder or drier? Thank you!
Lisa
Yvonne
Hi Lisa! You can certainly half this recipe, and if your bread dries out quickly I would definitely recommend that. These really are best same day, and not too much longer after that. I don’t know that the crust so much is a problem, when I’m baking with my Rhodes freezer rolls, I sometimes get that too – but I’ve noticed that I get it more if I’ve left the dough uncovered or if it’s too cool while rising. I’ve never tried a wet towel, is the temp where you are rising the bread pretty warm? I use thin cloths to cover my bread, or often I’ve used cooking spray coated saran wrap and that works great too. Depending on the type of whole wheat (whether it be a hard winter wheat berry, or other variety) should determine the density of the bread. 100% whole wheat can be a little more dense, which is why I like to use white winter wheat berries, so that it’s a little lighter! Hope that helps!