Name: Soft Sourdough Hamburger Buns
Prep time: 360 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 390 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup active sourdough starter; 1 1/2 cups warm milk or buttermilk; 1 tbsp butter; 2 tbsp sugar; 1 tsp salt; 1 egg; 4 - 5 cups flour

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These soft sourdough hamburger buns are the perfect addition to any cookout or grilling night. They have a beautiful fluffy texture, a soft crust and they make the perfect burgers or sliders! They are easy to make, and have all the probiotic health benefits from the long fermentation process of the sourdough. These do take a few hours to make from start to finish because they are made without commercial yeast. These sourdough buns depend on the wild yeast from active sourdough starter to raise them, but the softness and delicious flavor are worth the extra wait. These sourdough burger buns stay soft for several days, although they never last that long at my house. If there is any of these leftover, my family is always grabbing them the next morning along with some peanut butter and jelly, or eggs for a quick and filling breakfast.

pickles, garlic scapes and burger on sourdough bun

We make these buns quite often, as hamburgers are one of my husband’s favorite meals. I like to make up a batch of homemade mayo, grab some home-canned ketchup and pickles from the pantry, slice up some homemade cheese and grill up some homegrown beef to put between these delicious buns! Served alongside some oven fries baked in tallow, and you have the perfect homestead meal, cooked from scratch with all the ingredients being produced by us except for the flour and spices. Pretty amazing!

If you’re looking for a faster way to make these buns, try my sourdough discard hamburger bun recipe. It’s made with commercial yeast, but is much healthier than purchasing store-bought buns and can be made in less than 3 hours.

Simple and Easy

I like to make this recipe because it is so simple. There is no stretching and folding or difficult steps to follow. I just put it into my Bosch mixer, mix it up, and then let it rise a couple times and bake. The entire process takes about 6 hours from start to finish, but it takes less than 10 minutes of active time, as most of the time the dough is just fermenting or raising. The timing of this recipe is also flexible and can be adjusted to almost any schedule. If it’s summertime, your house is warm and your sourdough starter is happy, you can make these in 3 to 4 hours.

No Scale Needed

This recipe can easily be made without a scale as everything is measured in cups. For those of you that want to measure in grams, I have included those measurements for you.

Why Make Homemade Burger Buns

So why would you want to take the time to make sourdough hamburger buns anyway? Well there are several reasons.

It’s wise to know how to make bread products without having to purchase yeast at the grocery store in case it is ever not available for some reason.
The taste and texture of these sourdough hamburger buns will be unlike any other hamburger buns you will make. They are soft, not dense, and will stay moist for several days.
These buns will stay fresh longer on your counter without molding because they are already inoculated with the beneficial bacteria from the sourdough making it harder for mold to grow.
Because these buns are made with active sourdough starter, and allowed to long ferment over several hours, they will be much easier for your body to digest. See below for more information.
Sourdough bread has a lower glycemic index than other breads, making it a better choice for diabetics than most breads. More info on that here.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sourdough?

Anytime you add a fermented element like sourdough to a recipe, it becomes more nutritious because it contains live probiotics and good bacteria that help with gut health and digestion. Gluten and phytic acid are naturally present in wheat, and are usually what is to blame for people not being able to digest gluten well. When the grain is fermented through the sourdough process, the gluten and phytic acid are broken down, making it easier to digest. A lot of people that struggle with gluten intolerance (not people with celiac), can digest food made with sourdough without any issue, especially if the recipe is allowed to sit out for a few hours and “long ferment”.

In addition, phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that blocks absorption of the nutrients found in wheat. During the sourdough fermentation process, the phytic acid gets broken down and the nutrients are more bio-available to the body. This is why baking with sourdough is so important for our health.

Be sure to watch our full tutorial on how to make your own sourdough starter here.

measuring ingredients for sourdough hamburger buns

Simple Ingredients For Homemade Sourdough Hamburger Buns

Flour, water, and salt is all that is needed to make traditional artisan loaves of sourdough bread, but what makes these hamburger buns so soft and beautiful is the addition of fat, sweetener, and milk.

Flour

For best results I recommend using all or mostly white flour in this sourdough hamburger bun recipe as it will make a softer and more beautiful dough. Bleached or unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour works the best. Unbleached flour is obviously healthier for you and bread flour will make a more beautiful loaf than just all-purpose flour because it has a higher protein content, but any of these flours will work. If you use whole grain or whole wheat flour, I suggest using at least half all-purpose or bread flour when making your bread for best results. If you want to make these with fresh milled flour, just be sure to use hard white wheat for best results.

I like to get my high protein bread flour in bulk from Azure Standard. You can check it out here.

Milk

You can use any kind of milk in this recipe. I like to use raw milk or buttermilk from my Jersey cows, but you can use any kind of milk that you like. The milk helps to give the bread a softer texture.

Fat

You can use melted butter, beef tallow, or coconut oil.

Sweetener

You can use honey, sugar, or anything similar in this recipe.

Salt

I like to use redmond real salt, but you can use whatever salt you have on hand. Salt is what gives the homemade buns their flavor, and it’s really important not to leave it out.

Egg

I like to add an egg to this recipe because it makes the dough extra soft. I also sometimes make an egg wash out of an egg and water to brush the tops of the hamburger buns to make them golden brown.

Sourdough Starter

It’s best to use active sourdough starter for these buns. If you’re making these at the last minute, check out my sourdough discard hamburger buns recipe.

Sesame Seeds, Optional

We like to make lots of sourdough recipes. You can find them here.

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Tips For Making These Sourdough Hamburger Buns

Don’t over ferment the dough. You want to let it raise close to double, but don’t leave it for hours and hours because it will turn into a wet sloppy mess and you won’t be able to shape the dough into buns. You can put the dough in the refrigerator to slow down the first rise for a few extra hours if need be.
Use a stand mixer if possible, as it will make this bread so fast and easy to make. You can also make this without a mixer, and just do some stretch and folds, but it will be more work of course.
If it’s a warm summer day, you can probably get these to raise twice in an afternoon. Mix the dough up at lunch and bake it by suppertime. If it’s wintertime and cooler in your house, you’ll probably need a few extra hours to get these to raise and be nice and fluffy.
Divide this recipe into 16 small buns, and serve them as sliders with meat and cheese and maybe some lettuce.
These buns freeze well, so if you won’t be able to eat all them right away, you can just put some in the freezer

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Tools You May Need

Stand mixer – my favorite mixer is a Bosch. They are very heavy duty and a good investment if you plan to cook from scratch. They pay themselves off in no time especially with the high cost of groceries.
Measuring cups and spoons
Bench scraper
Parchment paper
Baking sheet

Example of Timing For Making Sourdough Hamburger Buns

Sourdough bread is so flexible, it can fit into any schedule. Here’s a couple of examples of how you could fit making these hamburger buns into the margins of your day.

Option 1 – Overnight Sourdough Buns

Around noon, feed your sourdough starter
9:00 p.m. mix up the dough, and allow it to rise in the refrigerator overnight.
8:00 or 9:00 a.m. shape into buns and allow to rise
11:00 a.m. if dough has risen enough, bake.

Option 2 – Same Day Bake

7:00 a.m. Feed your sourdough starter
12:00 p.m. Mix up your dough and allow to rise at room temperature
3 p.m. Shape into buns and allow to rise a second time
5 p.m. Bake

soft and squishy sourdough hamburger buns

How To Make Sourdough Hamburger Buns

Feed Sourdough Starter

To a small amount of starter (no more than ¼ cup), add about 1 cup of flour, and about ⅓ cup warm water. This will give you a little extra starter, but that way you’ll have plenty of starter, and you can always put any leftover starter in the refrigerator and make pancakes, waffles or any other sourdough discard recipe.

Allow fed starter to become active while sitting out at room temperature. When starter has risen all the way to the top and is happy and active, proceed to the next step.

Mix Up The Dough

Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. After mixing for a few minutes, if the dough still seems sticky, you can add a little more flour if needed, so that the dough doesn’t stick to the edge of the bowl. It should pull away from the mixer bowl, and not be sticky.

First Rise

I like to put the lid on my mixer bowl and let it rise at room temperature. The bosch mixer has a nice lid that seals down, keeping the moisture in the bowl and helping the dough to rise quickly. You can also put your dough in a separate bowl covered with a damp tea towel. If you are mixing up your dough at night, I recommend that you put it in the refrigerator to do the first rise as you don’t want it to overferment before morning.

Shape The Buns

Divide dough into 8 or 10 equal pieces using a bench scraper, depending on how large you want your hamburger buns. Shape them into buns by tucking the outsides underneath and placing tension on each ball of dough. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet with some space in between. I usually put them about three wide and four long on the baking sheet. I don’t mind if they end up touching each other after they raise.

Second Rise

Cover with a tea towel, and allow the buns to sit out at room temperature and rise. This usually takes 1-2 hours. Shorter in the summer, and longer in the winter because of temperature of course. You want the buns to rise about 50%, and look nice and puffy. They will raise even more in the oven.

If your house is cool, you can also turn your oven on to warm and let it get just above 100 degrees before shutting off the oven. Put the buns covered with a tea towel into the oven and they can raise in this warmer environment.

Egg Wash (Optional)

Beat an egg yolk with 1 Tablespoon of water and gently brush it on top of the buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired. This step is optional, but will make a beautiful golden top to the buns.

Bake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the buns for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Brush the tops with butter if desired. I usually do this if I didn’t brush the tops of the buns with the egg wash.

brushing sourdough hamburger buns with butter

Enjoy

Slice buns in half and serve with your favorite burger, condiments, cheese, pickles and oven fries baked in tallow. So delicious!!

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21. I can’t wait to see what all you make!