Soft Fluffy Tangzhong Hamburger Bun

Course: Baked Buns

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 16

Proof the dough twice:: 1 45

Total Time: 2 21

Servings: buns

Calories: 224kcal

Author: Marvellina

This tangzhong hamburger bun recipe creates a wonderfully soft and fluffy texture, making them the perfect base for your burgers. They stay soft so much longer too!

Print Recipe

US Customary - Metric

Equipment

Ingredients

Tangzhong roux:

175 g whole milk
35 g bread flour (12.7% protein content)

Final dough:

370 g bread flour
135 g whole milk
20 g sugar
7 g instant yeast
30 g oil
8 g fine sea salt

Egg wash:

1 egg beaten

Topping: (optional)

white sesame seeds or seeds of your choice or leave them out

Instructions

Prepare tangzhong:

Combine the flour and milk in a non-stick pan or a saucepan. Use a whisk to stir to combine until you don't see any more lumps. Put on the stove and turn the heat to low-medium and keep stirring
The mixture will start to thicken. Remember to keep stirring and don't crank up the heat. It will be a thick slurry consistency, about 2 minutes or so of cooking over low-medium heat
remove from the stove and cover with a cling wrap, touching the surface of the tangzhong directly to prevent a "skin" from forming on the surface. Let it sit at room temperature until it cools down to at least lukewarm

Prepare the dough:

Put all ingredients for the main dough in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Add the tangzhong you prepare earlier
Use a dough hook attachment to knead the dough until all the crumbly dough starts to come together into one mass, about 2-3 minutes. Continue to knead until the dough clears the side of the bowl and elastic. This may take about 5-8 more minutes kneading on medium speed for this to happen. It feels sticky to the touch and that's normal. Try not to add any more flour, the more flour you add, the drier the hamburger buns. If the dough feels too dry to you, add one tablespoon of water and knead again
When you gently stretch a small amount of the dough thinly, it doesn't break easily. This shows proper gluten development

1st proofing:

Place this dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, cover it with a clean and damp tea cloth or plastic wrap and let it rise at a warm place for about 1 hour. The dough will puff up and double in volume

Shaping:

Prepare two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Fold the edges of the dough towards the center to deflate the dough. Divide the dough into 9 equal smaller-size dough. Cover with a cloth or cling wrap to prevent them from drying out
Work with one dough at a time, round each dough up into a round ball
Use your palm to flatten the dough to about 3-inch wide disc. Place it on a prepared baking sheet. Continue with the rest of the dough. Placed each shaped dough about 2-inches apart. I put 6 dough on one pan and another 3 on a different pan

2nd proofing:

Lightly mist with some water and cover with a clean towel and place them at a warm place to let them proof again until the dough are noticeably puffy and light. when you gently push the dough with your finger, the dough bounces back slowly and leaves a bit of indentation.
This is a sign that the dough is done proofing. It took about 45 minutes or so, depending on the temperature
15 minutes before the end of 2nd proofing, preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C) for conventional oven, 380 F (190 C) for convection oven. Position the oven racks, 3rd from the bottom and 3rd from the top

Baking:

Brush the surface of the dough with some egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or seeds of your choice if you choose to use
Place the baking sheets on the positioned racks. Bake for 10 minutes and then rotate the baking sheets, top to bottom, front to back. The buns bake evenly these way when you bake two pans at the same time. Bake for another 6 minutes or until the buns are nicely golden brown. The internal temperature should be 190 F (88 C)

Cool down:

Remove them from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack immediately to let them cool down. This is to prevent the bottom of the buns from getting soggy

Nutrition