These homemade sourdough burger buns, made with 30% whole grain spelt, olive oil, and honey, are perfect for sandwiches and burgers.
I started working on these buns a few weeks ago when I realized I didn’t have a goto recipe for sourdough burger buns.
I do have an easy recipe for light wheat burger buns based on the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes method. However, those buns utilize dried yeast. I wanted some naturally leavened sandwich buns.
So, I started experimenting. My goal was to make sourdough buns that contained at least 30% whole grain, were light, and not too sweet.
Instead of starting completely from scratch, I decided to pick a base recipe and adapt it. I used Artisan Bryan’s whole grain brioche buns recipe, from his book New World Sourdough, as a starting point. His formula makes 8-12 brioche buns. I’ve made his brioche buns before so I knew how the recipe performed.
I started with his flour ratios and adjusted the other ingredients from there. I changed the type of fat and sweetener used and reduced the amounts of each. I also increased the salt a bit.
Mine wouldn’t be considered brioche buns, but I wasn’t shooting for rich and buttery buns. I was looking for light wheat and flavorful sourdough buns, and this is what I got. My family enjoyed these buns toasted and filled with our favorite grilled burgers.
The dough for these buns comes together easily. It can be prepared in one day, including the levain, and cold-fermented in the refrigerator overnight.
Suggested timeframe:
To have fresh hamburger buns for your cookout, start the levain in the morning the day before your cookout. A few hours later, make the final dough and let it ferment for several more hours at room temperature. Then, place the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day, shape the buns and let them rise while you’re doing other things. Then bake the buns in time for your cookout.
Optionally, start the process a couple of days ahead of time. Bake the buns the day before and store them in an airtight container. You can also store the buns in the freezer after cooling completely. Reheat the buns in a 350 degrees F. oven for 5 minutes.
Easy Homemade Sourdough Burger Buns
- Yield: 8-12 Buns 1x
Description
These homemade sourdough burger buns, made with 30% whole grain spelt, olive oil and honey, are perfect for sandwiches and burgers.
Ingredients
Levain
- 50 grams sourdough starter (mature starter from the refrigerator)
- 100 grams warm water
- 75 grams all-purpose flour
- 25 grams whole grain flour (I used home-milled spelt)
Final Dough
- 2 large eggs
- 90 grams cold water
- 250 grams levain (all of the above)
- 80 grams (1/4 cup) honey
- 70 grams (scant 1/3 cup) olive oil
- 350 grams all-purpose flour
- 150 grams whole grain flour (I used home-milled spelt)
- 10 grams fine sea salt + 25 grams water
- Sesame, poppy seeds for topping, optional
Instructions
Day One
Prepare the Levain
- In a small bowl, mix the starter with the warm water to break it up. Add the flours and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Cover with a kitchen towel, bees wrap, or a plate and let rest in a warm place for 4 – 5 hours until doubled.
- To know when your levain is ready to use, perform the float test by placing a small forkful of levain in cold water. If it floats, it is ready. If it doesn’t float, let the levain rest at warm temperature for 30 more minutes and perform the float test again.
Prepare the Final Dough
- In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients (levain, water, honey, olive oil, eggs). Add the flours and mix until combined.
- Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough and dissolve with 10-15 grams of water. Use your fingers to work the salt into the dough. If the dough tears, add more water.
- Cover, and let rest at warm room temperature for 6 hours.
- Perform two stretch and folds at 45-min intervals. After the final stretch and fold, let the dough rest for the remaining 4 and ½ hours.
- Cover tightly and place the dough in the refrigerator for 12 hours or overnight.
Next Day
Shape & Proof the Dough
- Line two baking sheets with parchment.
- Turn the cold dough out onto a work surface sprinkled with flour. Divide the dough into 8-12 pieces, depending on the size you want. My dough weighed 1140 grams. I divided it into 12 pieces, 95 grams each.
- Shape each piece into a tight ball. If using seeds, brush the tops of the buns with water using a pastry brush. Then, sprinkle the seeds over the top or dip them in a plate full of seeds. Arrange the buns on the prepared pans.
- Place an ovenproof pot or steam pan on the bottom shelf of the cold oven and carefully fill with boiling water.
- Cover the sheet pans with a kitchen towel and slide the pans into the cold oven. With the oven off, let the buns proof for 3 hours.
Bake the buns
- Remove the proofed buns from the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Brush the buns again with water using a pastry brush.
- Bake the buns for 15 to 20 minutes until they are golden brown. Rotate the pans halfway through the bake cycle to ensure even coloring.
Notes
Although I used regular all-purpose flour and home-milled spelt flour, these buns could easily be made using white all-purpose spelt flour and whole grain spelt flour or another whole grain flour of your choice. Depending on the type of grain used, you may need to adjust the hydration.
- Category: Sourdough Hamburger Buns
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Terrie Tooms says
Do you leave the pan of water in the oven when you bake the buns?
Cathy says
You should remove the pan of water before you preheat the oven for baking. You don’t need a steam pan when baking these rolls.
Terrie Tooms says
Thank you. These turned out to be the best hamburger buns. Soft but moist.
Cathy says
That’s great! I’m so glad you enjoyed them.
Mary says
I made these and they were great!
If we wanted to double the recipe, would it be necessary to double the levain?
Cathy says
I’m so glad you enjoyed these buns. I used about 40% levain to flour in the original recipe, but you don’t have to use that much. If you double the flour to 1000 grams, 250 grams would be about 22% levain to flour. Which will be fine. You may need to adjust the proofing time accordingly.