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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Tangzhong Burger Buns

Tangzhong Burger Buns

April 25, 2017 by hannahhossack 27 Comments

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Tangzhong burger buns - super soft burger buns made using the tangzhong method (Hokkaido milk bread)

I love the tangzhong method of bread baking, it gives such great results every time – pillowy soft, slightly sweet, incredibly versatile bread. If you haven’t heard of tangzhong before then it is quite simple; it just involves making a cooked paste of flour and water which is added to the bread dough; the dough is quite sticky, so is best made in a stand mixer, but it stays soft for days and is SO good!

Tangzhong burger buns - super soft burger buns made using the tangzhong method (Hokkaido milk bread)

Here I’ve re-worked my Hokkaido milk bread recipe to make tangzhong burger buns. They are fairly similar to brioche buns, but are lighter on the butter while still being lovely and soft and slightly sweet. They are perfect for burgers, or just for sandwiches or to use as dinner rolls. I will be sharing a burger recipe later on this week that I served in these buns so stay tuned!

Tangzhong burger buns - super soft burger buns made using the tangzhong method (Hokkaido milk bread)

Tangzhong burger buns - super soft burger buns made using the tangzhong method (Hokkaido milk bread)
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5 from 7 votes

Tangzhong Burger Buns

Pillowy soft bread rolls that make great burger buns!
Course Side Dish
Cuisine baking
Keyword bread
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Rising Time 2 hours
Servings 8 buns
Author Domestic Gothess

Ingredients

Tangzhong:

  • 20 g (2tbsp) strong white bread flour
  • 100 ml (â…“ cup + 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp) water

Dough:

  • 350 g (scant 3 cups) strong white bread flour
  • 7 g (2 tsp) fast action yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 50 g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp milk powder (optional)
  • 125 ml (1/2 cup) full fat milk (or unsweetened non-dairy milk)
  • 1 large egg (or 3 Tbsp aquafaba or non-dairy milk)
  • 50 g (scant 1/4 cup) softened butter (or vegan butter)

To Glaze:

  • 1 egg, beaten with a splash of milk (use milk to glaze if vegan)
  • sesame seeds

Instructions

  • To make the tangzhong, place the flour in a small saucepan and gradually whisk in the water. Place over a medium heat and cook, whisking constantly until it has thickened to a wallpaper paste-like consistency. Remove from the heat, scrape into a bowl and cover with clingfilm directly on the surface, set aside to cool.
  • Place the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and milk powder in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, lightly stir together and make a well in the centre. Add the egg (or aquafaba/milk), milk and tangzhong to the well and mix on a low speed until it comes together into a dough.
  • Add the butter and mix on a high speed until the dough is very stretchy and comes away from the sides of the bowl, this can take about 15 minutes, even in a stand mixer.
  • Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and either place somewhere warm to rise until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours, or in the fridge overnight.
  • Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Divide the risen dough into 8 equal pieces and shape each piece into a ball on a lightly floured surface. Spread the balls out well spaced apart on the baking sheet and loosely cover with oiled clingfilm. Leave to rise for about 1 hour until puffy.
  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Brush the risen buns with the beaten egg (or non-dairy milk) and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for about 20 minutes until deep golden, the internal temperature should reach 90°C.
  • Transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool before serving, store in an airtight container.

Tangzhong burger buns - super soft burger buns made using the tangzhong method (Hokkaido milk bread)

Filed Under: Baking, Bread, Buns and Yeasted Bakes, Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: hokkaido milk bread, milk bread, rolls, tangzhong, yeasted

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jo @ Jo's Kitchen Larder

    April 25, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    These look so good! I am really intrigued by the tangzhong method as have never come across it before. Will definitely give the rolls and method a go as well 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      May 4, 2017 at 10:01 am

      Thanks Jo! The tangzhong method makes wonderful soft bread, it is well worth a try!

      Reply
  2. Sumayya

    April 25, 2017 at 10:05 pm

    These are tempting the tastebuds of those who can’t have wheat and/or gluten, who’ve just had a big meal! We are almost speechless. Well done on baking up something else that looks fab

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      May 4, 2017 at 10:00 am

      Thanks Sumayya! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Angela / Only Crumbs Remain

    April 26, 2017 at 9:45 am

    Wow! They look seriously amazing. I’ve not come across the tangzhong method before but I’ll definitely be giving it a try especially when they look this good. Pinned.
    Angela x

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      May 4, 2017 at 9:59 am

      Thanks Angela! You should definitely give it a try, it makes amazing bread! x

      Reply
  4. Angela

    April 27, 2017 at 8:12 am

    5 stars
    These look great Hannah – so light and fluffy, a great alternative to a brioche burger bun.

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      May 4, 2017 at 9:58 am

      Thanks Angela, they are just like brioche but don’t contain anywhere near as much butter!

      Reply
  5. Karen

    December 7, 2017 at 7:23 am

    5 stars
    Hello Hannah, I stumbled across your Blog whilst googling ‘milk bread’. What a happy accident!! I’ve been cooking for over 40 years both professionally and for pleasure, have a vast collection of cookbooks and enjoy reading a cooking from a lot of very accomplished food Blogs. I just wanted to say that yours is, in my opinion, right up there with some of the best. It is beautifully photographed, written extremely well and is genuinely ‘useable’with well laid out recipes and a lovely archive. Absolutely brilliant!

    Thanks to you I had my first attempt at Tanzhong method and I love it! SO much easier than other enriched doughs and with an overnight cold prove it’s really easy to handle and shape. I took inspiration from your hot cross bun loaf and created a ‘Pannetone’ version using dried fruit and Pannetone extract (a fab’, all natural flavouring from the brilliant Bakery Bits). The result was just delicious and the method will now be firmly enbedded in my bread repertoire.

    You’re obviously a very creative and curious cook so I don’t know if you’ve already come accross ‘Brave Tart’ http://bravetart.com/recipes/ but Stella has an awful lot of interesting and innovative stuff on there and her pieces for ‘Serious Eats’ come up with some very thought provoking ideas. This one http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/05/how-to-make-caramel-without-melting-sugar.html is pretty life changing for bakers……

    Well done Hannah, keep it up!

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      December 20, 2017 at 11:45 am

      Hi Karen, what a lovely comment, thank you so much and I am so pleased that you like my recipes. Tangzhong panettone sounds like a fabulous idea, I must give it a try! I am also a big fan of Brave Tart, she is a culinary genius! I haven’t tried her caramel sugar before though, what a fantastic idea.

      Reply
  6. Salma Sayeed

    December 27, 2017 at 8:13 am

    5 stars
    Hello there. Thank you so much for the recipe. I tried it out and the results are marvellous.
    I just have one question. For serving 8 buns, the tangzhong starter is 20g of flour to 100ml of water. If I need to make 4 serves of buns or say 12, do I need to make any changes in the starter or should I keep that constant?

    Thank you once again 🙂

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      January 9, 2018 at 11:27 pm

      Hi Salma, Wonderful! I’m so glad you liked the recipe! If you are changing the quantities of the recipe then you will need to change the quantity of tangzhong too; so for 4 buns you would need 10g flour and 50ml water etc.

      Reply
      • Salma Sayeed

        January 10, 2018 at 5:28 pm

        5 stars
        Thank you so much for the prompt reply. It will definitely prove useful, as I am doing research on the science behind this technique. Wish me luck. 🙂

        Reply
  7. jae

    August 30, 2018 at 9:53 pm

    5 stars
    I just took these out of the oven…. instead of egg and sesame seeds I brushed the raised raw dough with garlic flavored olive oil, ground rosemary and pink Himalayan salt. They look and smell amazing!

    Reply
  8. Lukas

    September 24, 2018 at 4:18 am

    5 stars
    I see you like using milk powder. What effect has it on the dough?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      September 24, 2018 at 10:47 am

      Hi Lukas, the milk powder adds flavour and helps to keep the dough soft but it is fine to omit it if you want.

      Reply
  9. Sobia

    March 16, 2019 at 11:26 am

    Hi can i freeze raw buns for later use

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      March 16, 2019 at 1:53 pm

      Hi, I haven’t tried freezing unbaked buns before so I can’t say for sure but I get the feeling that it wouldn’t work. You can freeze them once they have been baked and cooled however – allow to defrost then refresh in a low oven when needed.

      Reply
      • Salma

        March 20, 2019 at 9:50 am

        I haven’t frozen bun shaped dough, but I have kept the dough in cold temperature, not frozen. And I used oiled cling film to wrap it up. However, the texture and consistency isn’t the same as fresh dough post calling… But manageable.

        Reply
      • Alana Clark

        March 22, 2019 at 11:27 am

        I have frozen butterhorn dough before you let rise the second time and they come out beautiful. When I am ready to cook them I take out 5 hours before n let them thaw n have second rise. They rise n taste delicious. Just a fyi hope maybe this help.

        Reply
  10. Linda lee

    May 11, 2019 at 10:48 am

    Hi. Can this recipe be made vegan version? I would be interested to try.

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      May 13, 2019 at 9:26 am

      Hi Linda, I haven’t tested a vegan version of these but you could try swapping the milk for soy milk, the butter for a dairy free butter/margarine (the solid block kind rather than the spreadable kind in a tub.) and the egg for a flax egg or commercial egg replacer. Let me know how they turn out if you do give them a go!

      Reply
  11. Clémentine

    May 16, 2019 at 2:22 am

    Hi, I would like to make these buns but I only have dry active yeast. Would it be ok? As it is to be mixed with water and sugar I don’t know how to proceed. Thanks

    Reply
    • hannahhossack

      May 16, 2019 at 9:32 am

      Hi Clementine, yes that will work fine but it may take a little longer to rise than the instant yeast. Just mix it with the milk (lukewarm) and a teaspoon of the sugar and set it aside for about 10 minutes until it becomes foamy before adding the rest of the ingredients and proceeding with the recipe as written.

      Reply
  12. Jared

    May 17, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    5 stars
    I just made a triple batch of these today. I did reduce the sugar to just 1/4 total, just personal preference for a less sweet bun. But they turned out phenomenal. I will be making them again. Cheers

    Reply
  13. Agnes

    September 3, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    5 stars
    I just made these and they’re so good! The texture is incredible, super soft and fluffy, and they taste amazing! I’ve tried making enriched doughs before but they never came out anywhere near this soft. The only change I made was to halve the sugar. I don’t have a mixer but the dough came together fine by hand it just took a while. Thank you so much for this recipe!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Tangzhong Dinner Rolls | Kitcheninspirations says:
    April 22, 2019 at 1:26 pm

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