In online baking circles these hamburger buns are truly legendary. We first learned of them through a post from Our Happy Acres last year. After searching around numerous sites, including the Fresh Loaf and King Arthur Flour, and reading through numerous online variations of the recipe, we realized we might be the only ones that hadn’t tried making them for ourselves!
Our version of Moomie's famous burger buns
Credit for the original recipe goes to Ellen Dorsey (aka ‘Moomie’), one of the original members of King Arthur Flour’s Baking Circle. However, bakers everywhere have added or altered various ingredients along the way to make the recipe their own.
We started with the recipe posted at King Arthur Flour, with the ratio of wheat to all-purpose flours listed at Our Happy Acres, and made two ingredient substitutions. In place of regular whole wheat flour, we used a white whole wheat to keep the color and texture of the dough a little lighter, and substituted all of the sugar in the recipe with honey. After all, we do have bees!
The dough was soft, pliable and easy to work with, and resulted in buns that were light, but with a much richer flavor, and satisfying texture, than any squishy store-bought bun. Here’s our version of Moomie’s Famous Burger Buns.
Yield: 8 Large Burger Buns, 12 Sliders, or 6 Large Hot Dog Buns
Preheat Oven: 375°F
The Dough:
3/4 to 1 Cup Lukewarm Water
2 Tbs Butter
1 Large Egg
1-1/2 Cups White Whole Wheat Flour
1-3/4 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Honey
1-1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Yeast
Semolina Flour (for dusting parchment) or spray oil
Topping:
1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Water
Sesame Seeds
Prepare the Dough:
Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.* In areas with high atmospheric humidity, start by adding 3/4 cup of water, and gradually increasing the water until the dough is of the desired consistency.
Place the ingredients in the work bowl, starting with 3/4 cup of water, and increasing up to 1 cup as needed
Mix on low speed until the dough begins to form a ball. Mix on the second speed for 2 minutes, and rest the dough for 3-5 minutes. After resting, mix for an additional minute or two. Don’t over work the dough as this will cause the dough to toughen. The dough should be smooth, and very sightly tacky.
The dough should be soft and elastic in texture
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl (I use the mixing bowl, just mist with oil, and return the dough to the bowl). Mist the surface of the dough with oil, and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel, and allow to rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours until the dough is nearly doubled in bulk.
Shaping the Dough:
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, and lightly dust the parchment with semolina flour, or spray oil, to prevent the buns from sticking.
Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, and set on the parchment lined baking sheet.
Using a kitchen scale will help with making each dough ball equal in size
Flatten each ball to approximately 3″ across. You can flatten by hand, but we found the bottom of a 1 Cup metal round measuring cup helped to flatten the dough evenly all the way across.
Firmly flatten each ball of dough using your hand, a rolling pin, or the base of a metal measuring cup
Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, or a damp towel, and allow to rise for approximately one hour until the dough is noticeably puffy.
Allow the shaped buns to proof at room temperature for approximately an hour
Baking:
Whisk the egg white with the tablespoon of water to make an egg white wash. Brush the top of each bun lightly with the wash, and sprinkle sesame seeds evenly across their tops.
For a classic hamburger bun look, sprinkle the buns with sesame seeds before baking
Bake the buns for 15 to 18 minutes, at 375°F, until golden, rotating once halfway through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
The egg-white wash gives the buns a rich golden color
Transfer the buns to wire racks to cool.
These buns are excellent as is, but equally as good lightly toasted on the grill, and will stand up to even the juiciest of burgers! They take less than 4 hours to make, and have a texture that is far superior to any plastic wrapped burger bun in a grocery store. After all, a homemade burger deserves a homemade hamburger bun, don’t you think?
This dough also makes great hot dog buns!
If you’ve never made hamburger buns before, even if you’ve never made bread before, I highly recommend trying these at your next summer barbecue for that extra something special. These buns are famous for a reason…and we’ll be making them again very soon!
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*Most versions of this recipe we found call for the use of a bread machine or food processor. We make all of our bread at Curbstone Valley using a stand mixer, so we’ve adapted the recipe for use with a mixer. If you are using a bread machine, we recommend following the mixing directions at ‘Our Happy Acres’.
I’ve been wanting to try your version with honey ever since I first read about it. Hopefully we will have our own honey in a few months! Thanks for posting the recipe.
It’s funny, I use a stand mixer for most of our breads, but for this recipe the first time I made it I just threw it all in the bread machine. And I’ve been making it that way ever since. The leftovers freeze so well that we almost always have some in the freezer. It would be difficult to go back to store-bought buns now.
We’re having burgers Monday for our 4th of July dinner, and of course we’ll be having them on Moomies Famous Burger Buns!
I was curious how well they froze. We didn’t have any left overs when we made them 😉 I might make a double batch this weekend, and freeze some just to have them on hand. I’m thinking of making the ones this weekend slider-sized, to make salmon cake sandwiches with! 🙂
I’m not much of a burger gal, but I bet those would be delish split and toasted with jam or butter. They look great!!
I actually had one toasted with jam the next morning. You can leave the sesame seeds off, and just brush them with a little melted butter before baking. I also think they’d be great for veggie sandwiches too. Maybe a pesto mayonnaise, with some fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, and fresh sliced tomatoes? Oh bother…can you tell I skipped lunch? 😛
Perfect timing! We were thinking of having burgers this weekend, so I hope I have the time to try these. We usually go to a bakery for buns because the ones in the grocery store are so mushy. Have a good 4th!
They take very little actual hands on time. I usually start the dough right after my first cup of coffee in the morning. Then you can ignore the dough for a couple of hours while you prep other things. Only takes a few minutes to shape them…ignore them for another hour…and 15 minutes to bake. If you’re in the kitchen anyway prepping the 4th, I think you’ll find they’re not much bother to make at all (not to mention they make the house smell great). If you try them, let us know how they turn out!
Clare, This post made me so hungry I had to grab a piece of wheat toast~It wasn’t nearly as tasty as your Most Famous, and Beautiful, Burger Buns sound…gail
…and left over buns make pretty good toast too 😉 I have the same problem when I read recipe posts when I’ve skipped lunch!
This makes me wish I had an outdoor oven right about now.
This weekend, an outdoor oven would be perfect. I admit, it’s been a little too warm to turn the oven on in the kitchen 😉
Those look so good! Homemade bread and rolls are the best. The salmon cake sliders sound delicious.
I haven’t tried making the salmon cakes before, but we have some trimmings from some beautiful wild caught salmon that I hope will be perfect for them. If they turn out I’ll post them 🙂
Wow, those sound great…how about with a grilled portobella? Thanks, Clare, I’ll have to try these, maybe with the grandkids this weekend.
Absolutely, grilled mushrooms would work great on these too. 🙂
Hi CV,
Mmmm, looks delicious… I haven’t had breakfast yet and now have the sudden urge to bake some bread – I don’t have all the exciting stuff to make this bread though unfortunately.
Having Honey in bread sounds interesting, but then I hear bread in the US is much sweeter than over here?
I think store bought bread often is too sweet here, with way too much sugar (or corn syrup) in it, but I grew up buying wholemeal Hovis loaves from the local bakery, and remember those as not being sweet at all. Honey and wheat though is a lovely combination in bread, and all bread needs a little something sweet to help activate the yeast. Whenever I can now I use honey for that instead of table sugar.
Very timely! I have been trying to bake all our breads, and this weekend we will have hamburgers. Need buns! 🙂
I hope you give them a try Holley. It’s difficult once you start making your own bread to go back to store bought. Our mixer broke a couple of months ago, and I broke down and purchased our first loaf of sandwich bread in almost a year. It just wasn’t the same! 🙁
Oh they look soooo yummy Clare!
I think I might just leave this page up for our resident bread maker to see 😉
If you want to try them Heidi, and you don’t have American measuring cups there, let me know. I’ll weigh the flour components when I make these tomorrow, so I can at least give you approximate equivalents in ounces. I wish American recipes would use weights. When I first moved here I said ‘what the heck is a cup? A tea cup? A coffee cup?’. It’s not that hard to use a kitchen scale 😛 Then of course, I had to figure out the flour…I was used to plain and self-rising…that made for some interesting recipe conversions!
“… might be the only ones that hadn’t tried making them…”, well, now I must be the only one. 😉 They look great and there is nothing more pleasing than the smell of homemade bread wafting through the rooms. I love your choice of honey, Clare; we seldom use white sugar in anything anymore. Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Happy 4th!
I just think honey has so much more complexity in flavor, and although it’s subtle in bread, why not? Now you’ll have to make a batch of these so you’re not the only one who hasn’t tried them 😉 I might try turning them into hotdog shaped buns for sausage soon too. I think the texture is perfect for them…I’d just have to perfect making them the right shape. Have a great 4th!
Those look delicious! I once made homemade bread, but somehow with all the responsibilities and busy schedules over the years, it just became easier to buy from the store. You make me realize the loss!
I do find I have to think ahead to make bread, but the flavor is worth it. I’ve certainly had schedules in my life though where it would have been impossible. However, as Villager pointed out, the advantage with a lot of breads is that they freeze well. So making double batches, and freezing half, can certainly cut down on time spent in the kitchen 🙂
Nice buns! =)
(sorry, I’m weak. I HAD to do that. really, tho’, I wanted to say a) they look AMAZING and b) I loved the title of the post. Who could resist? if it weren’t 1000 degrees I’d LOVE to bake something. Maybe get one of those solar ovens ’cause the 90+ degree weather has begun!)
LOL, why thank you 😛 I just made a batch of hot dog buns (and updated the post with a photo of them at the end). I’m glad I did them today though, and not yesterday, as it was 99F here yesterday afternoon! Not as bad today, but an outdoor oven would be awesome for this summer heat!
So impressed, dear Clare. I have never attempted to make buns … these look fabulous and am sure taste even better! In awe how you wrap your arms around all that you do so well. Happy Summer 🙂
Fabulous, thank you for this – I used to make cumin burger buns, that were wonderfully moist (they included grated carrot) but which were really messy and fiddly to make. These look perfect, I will have to give them a whirl.