We love burgers in our household, especially Mr. 197! No matter when we go to restaurants or thinking about a weekend dinner at home, Mr. 197 always suggests having burgers.
So if we want to make a great burger at home, how can we not have the best burger buns for it? To me, the best burger buns have to be soft and fluffy, and when you eat the burger, the bun is still a little bit warm and the inside is a bit crispy. We make the best burger buns (in our opinion) using this method called Utane dough, and it exactly does what we want – our burger buns are extremely soft and fluffy.
What is Utane dough?
Now you may wonder what is Utane dough and why it makes the bread softer and fluffier?
Utane dough also known as the tangzhong method, Yudane or Water Roux. It is a baking method from the Japanese. It mixes flour with water, warms it up to around 65-70 degrees Celcius, so it becomes a paste. Then you need to cover the Utane dough paste and cool it down to room temperature before putting in the rest of your dough.
The reason why this method makes the bread softer and fluffier because it keeps more moisture in your dough. Utane dough absorbs all the water, so even if you want to eat the bread 2-3 days later, it will still be soft.
You can always substitute part of your bread recipe with Utane dough, just you need to do some maths. Some people say the flour to water ratio should be 1:5, some say 1:1, some say 1:10. I usually make it something around 1:5. When you want to substitute your normal bread recipe, then you will need to deduct the flour and water you use in the Utane dough from the original recipe. And the Utane dough shouldn’t be more than ~25% of the original recipe.
Making the best burger buns
With this Utane dough method, your bun will be very soft. I usually make it the same day we plan to have burgers, leave the buns to completely cool down (at least an hour) before cutting them half. Then put the inner side of the bun on a pan (no need to add oil) for a bit to create a crispy surface.
Burger Buns
Ingredients
Utane dough
- 12 g Flour either plain or bread flour is okay
- 70 mL Water
Main bread dough
- 160 g Bread flour
- 80 g Plain flour
- 25 g Sugar
- 3 g Yeast
- 4 g Salt
- 30 g Egg
- 80 mL Milk
- 15 g Butter
Instructions
Utane dough
- Mix the flour and water in a small pot.
- Heat the pot up on medium-low fire. Keep stirring and a smooth paste formed.
- Cover it with cling film and leave it to cool to room temperature before use. (Alternatively make it the night in advance and leave it in the fridge, and bring it out to room temperature before use.)
Main bread dough
- Put the flour in a big bowl.
- Add sugar and yeast on one side of the bowl, and salt on the other.
- Beat an egg, add 30g to the bowl, leave the rest for the egg wash later on.
- Add the milk. Mix roughly, and start kneading either with a mixer or by hand until it becomes a smooth dough.
- Add butter, and continue to knead again a smooth dough formed, ideally you see a thin membrane formed when you try to stretch the dough thin.
- Leave the dough in a closed oven to prove for the first time for 45 mins until it doubles in size - I also leave a pot of lukewarm water in the oven. (Alternatively, cover with a cling film or damped towel, and leave it in a warm place.)
- Press all the air out from the dough. Shape it round, leave it to rest for 15 mins covered.
- Divide the dough into 4 pieces equally (each should be ~115g - alternatively, we made 2 normal size burger buns and 4 mini burger buns.) For each dough, press all the air out. Now it's the time to shape the dough - try to tuck the side of the dough to the bottom, roll the dough with your palm like a round ball. Leave it on the baking sheet.
- Leave the dough balls in the closed oven for a second prove (or cover with cling film at a warm place), for around 30 mins.
- Take the dough balls from the oven. Pre-heat the oven at 180°C.
- Brush some egg wash right before putting the dough in the oven.
- Bake in the oven for 12-15 mins until the buns are golden brown. Leave them on a rack to cool down completely before cutting them apart for burgers.