How to make light and airy Sourdough Buns with your sourdough starter (or discard) in 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, with only 20 minutes of hands-on time! Watch the video.
Grilling season has officially begun and many of you have been asking for a good Burger Bun recipe. Here is one we’ve been using with our sourdough discard. This brioche-style Sourdough Bun is soft, light and airy and turns out delicious every time!
We add a little bit of yeast to hasten the rising time, but you could absolutely leave this out.
Ingredients in Sourdough Buns
- sourdough starter or discard (unfed)
- milk- plant-based milk, regular milk or half & half
- egg
- olive oil
- instant yeast (or rapid yeast -use fast-acting yeast works best here)
- all-purpose flour
- salt and sugar
- Optional Eggwash: 1 egg whisked with water
- Optional seeds: sesame seeds, “everything spice”, etc…
How to make Sourdough Buns
Step One: It starts with 1/2 cup of your unfed sourdough starter or discard. (120 grams)
Step Two: Mix the milk, unfed sourdough starter, oil and egg in a large bowl ( or stand mixer). Mix bread flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast(or rapid yeast) in a small bowl. Add dry mixture to wet, to form a ball and kneed for 5-6 minutes with a wet hand.
TIP: YES, the dough will be sticky – resist the temptation to add more flour or you will end up with heavy dense buns. Alternatively, use a stand mixer and dough hook. (Or you could do “stretch and folds” like from the first set of folds in the sourdough bread recipe- 2 sets 15 minutes apart )
Step Three: Oil the dough in the bowl, cover, place in a warm spot ( 70-80 F) and let it double, about 1 hour.
Step Four: On a floured surface, divide into 6 balls and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Let rise again, 30-45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375F
Step Five: Brush with an egg wash, sprinkle with salt and seeds and bake 20-22 minutes, on the middle rack until perfectly golden!
They will come out perfectly puffed, golden, light and airy!
Store cooled buns in a sealed zip lock bag, or freeze.
New to sourdough starter/discard?
Sourdough Starter is often referred to as “wild yeast”, made from flour and water and the wild yeast in the air around us,and it is typically used as the “yeast” when baking Sourdough Bread. The sourdough “discard” – the part of the starter that often goes to waste- can be used to make flavorful biscuits, waffles and pancakes.
More sourdough starter/discard recipes!
- Make Sourdough Waffles!
- Make Sourdough Pancakes!
- Make Sourdough Scones!
- Make Sourdough Biscuits
- Make Sourdough Tortillas!
- Make Sourdough Crackers!
- Make Sourdough English Muffins!
Need some Burger Inspiration? Here are my favorites:
- Smoky Chipotle Black bean Burgers
- Miso Portobello Burgers!
- Grilled Lamb Burgers with Harissa Mayo!
- Thai Turkey Burgers
- Falafel Burgers with Tzatziki
- Sprouted Lentil Burgers!
- Chickpea Quinoa Veggie Burgers
Give the Sourdough Buns a try this weekend and let me know what you think!
xoxo
Sourdough Buns Video
Sourdough Buns
- Prep Time: 120
- Cook Time: 22
- Total Time: 2 hours 22 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: bread, baking
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: american
Description
How to make Sourdough Buns with sourdough starter (or sourdough discard) that are light and airy (like a brioche bun) in about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, with only 20 minutes of hands-on time. Watch the video!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter or discard (unfed) ( 120 grams)
- 1/2 cup milk (slightly warm 100F)- plant-based milk, regular milk or half & half
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast (rapid yeast -use fast-acting yeast here, or see notes!)
- 2 cups flour (240 grams) All-purpose flour or bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- —–
- Eggwash: 1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon water
- optional seeds: sesame seeds, “everything spice”, etc…
Instructions
- Mix warm milk, unfed sourdough starter, oil, and egg in a large bowl (or stand mixer).
- Mix in salt, sugar, instant yeast and flour.
- Combine with fork to form a ball and kneed for 5-6 minutes with a wet hand, (or dough hook). YES, the dough will be quite sticky – resist the temptation to add more flour (which will result in a heavy bun). (Alternatively, if mixing by hand, you could do the “stretch and fold ” technique (see 1st video) from the sourdough bread recipe. Do 2-3 sets, 15 minutes apart )
- Oil the dough in the bowl, cover, place in a warm spot (70-80 F) and let double, 1 – 1 1/2 hours.
- On a floured surface, gently divide into 6 pieces, form into balls and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan.
- Let rise again, 30-45 minutes, while you preheat oven to 375F
- Brush with an Egg Wash, sprinkle with salt and seeds, and bake 20-22 minutes, on the middle rack until perfectly puffed and golden!
Notes
If using regular active dry yeast, mix the yeast with warmed nut milk first until dissolved, let stand 10 minutes before adding starter, oil and egg. NOTE: Rise time will double.
If you rather not use yeast, leave it out, and let the dough rise until it almost doubles. Rising time will vary depending on kitchen temp, but I’d plan on roughly 6 hours.
If making ahead store in a zip lock bag, for freeze for later.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 212
- Sugar: 0.5 g
- Sodium: 222.4 mg
- Fat: 4.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 35.6 g
- Fiber: 1.5 g
- Protein: 7.2 g
- Cholesterol: 31 mg
well.. I made these.. my dough was very very dry.. is 1/2 cup milk the right amount?
Yes, that is correct, along with the starter and the egg. Did you add those too?
I just made these. Wonderful! Thank you for the easy recipe.
Great to hear Shari!
Tried these today and they’re absolutely delicious! Easy recipe to follow. What do you recommend for storage so they’re best next day?
A ziplock bag or an airtight container- after they have completely cooled! Glad you enjoyed!
I’ve made these buns a million times, and I love them. I’ve also done this using active starter with an overnight fermentation. After I shape, I rest them for another 2 hours. So it’s a slow sourdough bun 😂 but really tasty as well! The shape is a little flatter. In case anyone else wanted to try it that way.
Thanks Angeli, really helpful!
This recipe looks great, but just to confirm, it doesn’t use any water?
We use milk for the liquid + the starter.
Thanks for clarifying! I made these today and they turned out great.
Oh good! So glad you gave them a try. Thanks so much for the review!
Love love love them! So soft, so fluffy, so easy.
Wonderful! Thanks Paulina.
Very nice buns. I did the dough process completely in my Zojirushi bread machine and it turned out perfect.
Didn’t quite take 21 minutes.
Thank you for the recipe
Oh good to know Carolyn! Glad you enjoyed.
Awesome to hear Carolyn!
While waiting for it to double it created a crust on top of the dough and now has transferred to the buns, how do I avoid this?
Did you cover the bowl while proofing?
Fantastic discard recipe! I was pressed for time today and really didn’t want to purchase those “store bought” buns…I was able to make this recipe and enjoy them for dinner today. I made 6 buns but the next time I will make 5 as the hamburgers were big. The buns did not fall apart as some recipes do. Thanks for a true keeper!
Great Katherine, so glad you gave it a try!
Your ratio converter is off. It’s switches to the primary number. OK, like 2X to double the recipe, and 1 cup starter and 4 cups flour – all for doubling, but it does not double the GRAMS of starter or the flour. Yikers!
Yes, sorry it is very glitchy!