{IN THE MIXING BOWL} Best Brioche buns

Since I finally got my hands on a large bag of yeast, I've been finding new recipes to put it to use! We are brioche bread lovers, so it only made sense to make some hamburger and sausage buns! The original recipe by The Clever Carrot was widely shared in a food inspiration group I was part of on Facebook, so obviously it was a great place to start! After my initial trial making hamburger buns, I made my own adjustments to the recipe to successfully pull off these sausage buns!

  

TRCW Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

3 tbsp warm milk

2 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast

2 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten

3 1/3 cups of AP flour

2 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter, softened

1 egg plus 1 tbsp of water, beaten for egg wash

sesame seeds, steak spice for topping

In a small bowl, mix together water, milk, sugar and yeast.

In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg.

In the bowl of a stand mixer and paddle attachment, mix together flour, salt and butter till butter is the size of crumbs.

Pour in yeast mix and egg, and stir till just combined. Switch to dough hook and mix till dough is smooth, approximately 4-5mins.

Cover bowl with a damp towel and allow to rise till it has doubled in size. I have air-conditioning in my home, and it took about 2hrs.

When dough has doubled in volume, scrape it out of the bowl onto a VERY lightly floured surface. To be honest, I didn't even flour my surface. Flatten the dough a bit and cut into equal pieces (8-10 hamburger buns, or 10-12 sausage buns) To ensure your buns are of equal size, weigh the dough first, then try to portion your buns equally. (That's what I do cuz I have some OCD!)

For burger buns:

Gather the sides of each portion to the centre, flip, and move your hands in a circular fashion while cupping the dough. Flatten each bun a bit, or else they become too high. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest. Leave space in between for buns to rise again.

For sausage buns:

Repeat the steps above to form balls. Once all have been formed, go back to the first, and flatten with a rolling pin. Your shape should resemble a rounded rectangle. Along the length, fold the rectangle into thirds, one side covering the middle third, and the other side on top after. Flip and press down to gently seal the folds. Place buns seam side down on parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other portions, leaving about 1.5-2" spacing between. I don't mind if they stick together when they rise again.

Cover with a damp towel, and allow buns to rise again. You can decide how much you want to let them puff up. I proofed mine another 2hrs which allowed me to do other things in between.

When the buns have risen:

Preheat oven to 375F. Brush buns with egg wash and sprinkle topping. My kids like their buns plain, my husband and I absolutely love black/white sesame seeds and steak spice!

  

Bake for 7mins, rotate pan, and bake another 7mins.

Allow to cool a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in a resealable bag or air-tight container for next day use.

I hope you all give this recipe a try! My husband has already warned me not to make these too often or else he'll gain too much weight! But these are just so delicious if you have the time!