Buttery Brioche Sandwich Buns
I’ve made brioche a few different ways: traditional brioche à tête with the little knob on top, brioche nanterre or loaf, sweetened buns…but for brioche sandwich or burger buns, I like this recipe by King Arthur Baking. Though the dough is unlike bread doughs that you may be used to handling, the process is ultimately pretty straightforward. And even though my dough collapsed in the refrigerator during the overnight rise, the buns perked right up during their second rise, and even more so in the oven. More importantly, the results were perfectly buttery and fluffy. Sturdy enough to stand up to a burger, but soooo soft with a great chew.
Before 2nd rise…
After 2nd rise…
Just out of the oven!
Use them for burgers, toasted for a buttery BLT, breakfast fried egg sandwiches, tuna melts, or simply spread some jam on them and enjoy! If you try the recipe, let me know, I’d be curious to hear how it went for you.
You might also like my Homemade Hamburger Buns recipe. They’re also a delicious, enriched bread but with significantly less butter!
Homemade salmon burgers with sweet potato fries on these Buttery Brioche Buns. So delish. Photo by my husband, Daniel Marks.
Brioche Sandwich Bun Recipe:
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/brioche-buns-recipe
Yield:
6-10 buns
Difficulty:
Moderate
Recommended equipment:
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A few tips before you get started…
You do need a mixer or bread machine.
Like the recipe says, you do most likely need to use a machine for this dough. There’s sooo much butter and sooo many eggs that it’s almost as soft as a cake batter. I used the paddle attachment for the first 10-12 minutes of kneading then switched to the dough hook to bring it all together, stopping the machine every 5 minutes to scrape it down to help things along.
Resting/proofing the dough.
Make sure the bowl with your dough is very tightly covered with plastic when it goes into the refrigerator to rise overnight. This prevents it from drying out.
Think about the size of the bun you want.
The recipe says it makes 6 buns. With the quantity of dough you’ll be making, dividing it into 6 yields seriously enormous buns. I made 8 buns out of the dough and they were still very large, around 4 1/2 inches wide…still big and pillowy as you can see. Next time I might try making 9 buns.
Photo by Daniel Marks
No specialty pan needed!
I assume the recipe says it makes 6 buns because the recipe was designed to go along with their hamburger bun pan which has 6 wells. I shaped the buns by hand and baked them on a standard half sheet pan. They turned out perfectly without need another pan!
Plan your toppings.
Think about how you want to use these buns before you top them. This may sound obvious, but I tried a few different topping options and it made a difference depending on what I was having them with:
For breakfast, I thought the plain or poppyseed topped buns tasted best (think a buttery bun with a light spread of raspberry jam, or an egg and cheddar sandwich).
For the salmon burgers in the pictures, I liked the sesame or poppyseed/sesame blend the best.
I also tried using an “everything bagel” blend as a topping but I felt like the onion and garlic wasn’t the right flavor match for these. Whatever you do, don’t skip the egg wash. This is what gives the buns their beautiful color.
P.S. Feel free to drop me a message if you’d like to try my Salmon Burger Recipe. I’m happy to share that too.
Photo by Daniel Marks
