Once you try these homemade hamburger buns, you'll never use store bought buns again! They're soft, puffy, and surprisingly simple to make.
Three months ago, if someone had told me that Jack and I would start making homemade hamburger buns every week, I would have laughed. To me, hamburger buns seemed like something that only professional bakers could make. But since Jack’s been baking up a storm lately, the idea of homemade hamburger buns started to seem less and less crazy. If we could make bagels and bread, why not hamburger buns too?
After testing and re-testing this recipe, I’m happy to report that homemade hamburger buns are surprisingly easy to make! They require under 30 minutes of hands-on work, and they’re absolutely delicious. Light, puffy, and flavorful, they’ll take any burger to a whole new level.
Hamburger Bun Recipe Ingredients
You only need a few basic ingredients to make this hamburger bun recipe:
- All-purpose flour and whole wheat flour – This combination yields really soft buns with a lovely whole wheat flavor.
- Active dry yeast – It’s what makes these buns so puffy!
- Warm water – Aim for it to be between 105 and 115 degrees to best activate the yeast.
- Sugar – It feeds the yeast and gives the hamburger buns a lightly sweet flavor.
- Butter – You’re going to want your butter to be at room temperature, so plan ahead! If it’s too cold or the opposite – melted – the hamburger buns won’t be as light and fluffy.
- An egg – It helps the buns puff up and adds moisture and richness, making them super soft and tender. If you don’t have eggs on hand, or if you prefer not to use one, you can substitute 3 tablespoons water. The buns will be slightly less puffy, but they’ll still taste great.
- Sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
We also like to finish our homemade hamburger buns with an egg wash and sesame seeds. I love the way the crunchy, nutty seeds contrast with the lightly sweet, soft buns!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Hamburger Buns
This hamburger bun recipe is super simple to make. Here’s what you need to do:
First, make the dough. Activate the yeast by mixing it with warm water and a teaspoon of sugar. When the yeast mixture foams, add it to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, and mix it with the flours, salt, butter, egg, and remaining sugar until the dough is smooth, slightly stiff, and not sticky, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Then, transfer the dough to a clean work surface, and knead to form it into a ball. Place it in a large bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set it aside for an hour, until the dough has almost doubled in size.
When the dough has risen, shape the buns! Turn the dough out onto a clean, unfloured work surface and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece on the countertop with a cupped hand to form it into a ball.
Next, transfer the dough balls to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Press each one down slightly to form it into a 3-inch disk. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for another hour.
When an hour has passed, bake! At this point, the dough balls will look slightly more puffy, but they’ll still be relatively flat. That’s ok! They’ll puff up more in the oven.
Transfer them to a 375-degree oven and bake for 13 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, brush the buns with the egg wash, and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Return them to the oven and bake for 2-5 more minutes, until the tops are lightly golden brown. That’s it!
Recipe Tips
- Weigh your flour. Because this hamburger bun recipe uses a large amount of flour, you should weigh it if you can. This way, you’ll know exactly how much flour you’re using. Cup measurements are much less precise, as they can vary based on a variety of factors (your specific measuring cups, how tightly you pack your flour, etc.). If you don’t have a kitchen scale, check out this post for my best tips on measuring flour with measuring cups.
- Let the dough rise somewhere warm. Yeast responds to warmth, so, for an extra productive rise, stick the dough somewhere warm. We like to put ours on a sunny windowsill!
- No stand mixer? No problem. Using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment is the quickest and easiest way to make these hamburger buns, but if you don’t have one, that’s ok! Just knead the dough by hand until it’s stiff, but not sticky, and forms a smooth ball, 12-15 minutes.
- Change the topping. I love these homemade hamburger buns with sesame seeds, but if you don’t have any on hand, feel free to try something different! Poppy seeds or everything bagel seasoning would both be great. You could also skip the egg wash and the topping and just enjoy the buns plain.
Hamburger Buns Serving Suggestions
These hamburger buns are best on the day they’re baked, but they’ll also keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. I recommend slicing them in half and toasting them before serving.
When you’re ready to eat, load them up with your favorite fixings and any type of burger you please! We love these homemade hamburger buns with all of these recipes:
- Best Veggie Burger
- Black Bean Burger
- Portobello Mushroom Burger
- BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches
- Chickpea Harissa Veggie Burgers, page 173 of Love and Lemons Every Day
Homemade Hamburger Buns
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 1/4 cup sugar, divided
- 360 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour
- 60 grams (1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 tablespoons room temperature butter or extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 egg* (see note)
for topping
- 1 egg white plus 1 tablespoon water
- sesame seeds, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon of the sugar, and proof for 5 minutes or until foamy.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, place the flours and salt. Mix briefly to combine the flours, then add the remaining sugar, butter, egg, and the yeast mixture. Mix on medium-low speed for 5 to 7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and well-formed around the hook. It might seem dry at the beginning but should become a smooth, stiff, yet not sticky, dough by the end.
- Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and knead to form into a ball and place into a large bowl. If it's sticky, add a bit of flour to your work surface. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot for 1 hour, until the dough has nearly doubled.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Turn the dough out onto a clean, unfloured work surface and divide into 8 pieces. Form each piece into a ball by rolling on the countertop with a cupped hand. Place onto the baking sheet and flatten into 3-inch disks. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. They’ll look slightly more puffy, but they’ll still be somewhat flat disks - that’s ok.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Uncover and bake 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden brown. At the 13 minute mark, brush with the egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and return to the oven.
- Let cool on a wire rack and serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.
Hi! Can you make these in advance and then bake them as needed? If so, how would that affect the second rise/baking process?
Thanks!
So I made these on pulse one night to go with shrimp burgers. They turned out fantastic. I’ll definitely be making them again. I didn’t use wheat flour as I didn’t have any and just used AP flour if that helps anyone out.
My daughter asked me to make shrimp burgers recently and then proceeded to ask if I’d make these buns again to go with them.
Made these tonight, as I was looking for a less dense hamburger bun than my usual recipe. This one is perfect texture and consistency. I put Everything Bagel seasoning on top as others have mentioned. So good. The only question I have, is my buns kind of began falling apart mid burger, has this happened to anyone else? Mostly the top bun.
Hi Jeanine – Still making these delicious buns… but have a question. Noticing that they are cracking on the bottom regardless of how clean I roll it and get it without cracks before the 2nd rise. Any suggestions?
Hi Lainey, hmm, I’m not sure, that didn’t happen to me. Maybe your dough is a little dry, you could try adding a touch more water?
I’m using olive oil are you using butter? Can’t figure it out following exactly.
Can you mix the dough in a food processor?
Thanks!
Hi Julie, I haven’t tried, I’m not sure if the dough would be too thick or get stuck in the blade.
Last time I tried making Hamburger buns from scratch a couple years ago they came out dense and dry and I haven’t tried again since. But this recipe was perfect! I just used all AP flour and they came out huge, soft and fluffy. Will be making again 😊
Hi Piper, I’m so glad you loved them!
This is the first time I made burger buns and they came out perfectly, they rose beautifully and the golden top is just what it needs to be. Definitely won’t buy from the store anymore. Thank you for the recipe 😊
So glad you loved them!
I made this recipe last night and my buns turned out quite dense and they were sweet! I made sure my flour was measured correctly and the yeast was not expired.
Hi Misha, Did you change anything about the recipe?
Hello,
I just finished making these buns for my dinner later tonight and they are fantastic! They turned out brilliantly! I think what i like most about them is the whole wheat flour, gives a really nice flavour,
Thanks,
Angela
I’m so glad you loved them!
Mine came out super dense, but I wonder if it’s because I didn’t have any wheat four (I used all whole purpose flour). Is that what caused them to be so dense?
Hi Andie, more AP flour should be fine. Did you weigh your flour or use this spoon and level flour to measure? It’s possible that you had too much flour. https://www.loveandlemons.com/how-to-measure-flour/
It’s also possible that your yeast might be expired. You never know how long it’s been on store shelves, and we’ve had dud yeast before. Sometimes it still foams in step 1, but affects the rise and density.
Another successful recipe Jeanine – they turned out great.
I did not have eggs so I used the 3 Tbsp water swap, and I did not have butter so used the olive oil swap and both worked perfectly.
For the egg wash I used my home made almond milk and some maple syrup to glaze with poppy seeds. Too sticky, I should have just left them they were already beautifully golden.
I’ve been making my own veggie burgers for many years, and the bun was always the let down. I won’t buy those processed kind so they were more like half panini’s too much bread. You want it to be about the burger not the bun. These are perfect, and I froze all the leftovers right away to take them out as needed. Next time I’ll try the egg and butter version. Merci
Hi Lainey, I’m so glad you loved them so much! I hear you about disappointing store bought buns!
Thank you for this amazing recipe. Never thought making burger buns was going to be that easy.
Definitly we will never use store bought buns again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Can you use flax seed eggs instead of chicken eggs?
Hi Deb, the flax isn’t necessary, here’s the note at the bottom of how we made them vegan:
*If you don’t have eggs on hand, or if you prefer not to use one, you can substitute 3 tablespoons water. The buns will be slightly less puffy, but they’ll still taste great.
I made these last night without the egg. They were quite good. I thought they were a bit small, so next time will make less than 8.
Will make these again. I will try a flax egg or perhaps baking powder? Any thoughts on that?
I’m glad you enjoyed them! We didn’t find flax to be necessary in this case.
These sound amazing. Has anyone tried to make them using a gluten free flour blend (like Bob’s Red Mill, for example)?
Hi Connie, I’d search specifically for gluten free hamburger buns, I haven’t had good results swapping GF flours 1:1 in yeasted recipes like this.
Excellent! I tried for the first time. I reduced the sugar by half as I don’t like sweet hamburger buns, turn out excellent. Thank you!
What about different ratios of the flours? Maybe half-and-half?
Thank you, Tim
Hi Tim, I haven’t tried half and half so I’m not sure. They’d definitely be more dense.
Thanks Jeanine! I made a batch with half ww bread flour and half AP flour and they turned out great!
Just made these on an impulse tonight and they were so simple and beautiful and delicious for our turkey burgers. I couldn’t resist the everything seasoning on top. Thank you for making such yummy recipes with good directions and notes! You’re my go-to chef!
I’m so glad you loved them!
Hi Marion, did you follow this tip up in the post for weighing or measuring flour using the spoon & level method? It sounds like you may have scooped too much flour into your measuring cups. And/or did you use a stand mixer?
“Weigh your flour. Because this hamburger bun recipe uses a large amount of flour, you should weigh it if you can. This way, you’ll know exactly how much flour you’re using. Cup measurements are much less precise, as they can vary based on a variety of factors (your specific measuring cups, how tightly you pack your flour, etc.). If you don’t have a kitchen scale, check out this post for my best tips on measuring flour with measuring cups. https://www.loveandlemons.com/how-to-measure-flour/“
Wow! Wow! My one cup of flour weighs 160 grams. No wonder… thank you! I’ll try it again and weigh everything
Can I delete my one star? I’m so sorry it was right there in the long part of your directions
yep, it can make a massive difference, especially in a recipe that uses quite a bit of flour! Hope the next round goes well!
I make these all the time with water instead of egg and vegan butter, use maple syrup/Dijon combo for “egg wash” they are so good and easy. The go to bun for a big veggie burger. I always err on the side of undercooking them so they stay supersoft, and then toast them before serving. Thank you!
Thank you for your comment! Glad I read the comments- was looking for a mention of a vegan substitute for the butter to make these truly vegan, and here it was! I’ll be trying these with vegan butter and your maple/Dijon in lieu of egg wash sounds yummy!!
I made one batch with Sesame seeds on top, but on the next batch, I had chopped up some caramelized onions that I mixed into the egg bath then brushed on top… perfect flavor for the perfect veggie burgers! Family loved them 🙂