Light Brioche Burger Buns

I held off posting about these burger buns for a long time because I thought my brother and I were going to post about them on our now defunct bread blog, Sibling Bakery. (I'm still hoping my brother will want to get back into bread baking and we can continue!) Anyway so last summer my family had a burger competition. My stepdad and sister in law made burgers, and my brother and I made buns. (We made mini burgers and buns, and my sister in law made me mushroom burgers that were delicious! Sadly no recipe to share as she's one of those amazing cooks that just makes things up as she goes.)

We totally didn't plan on making the same burger bun recipe, but it turned out that we did! The more interesting thing was that the buns turned out differently. Which makes sense because bread is not the most exact thing. Both were delicious, I think mine were more soft and his were a bit more dense (not in a bad way at all though). I added Parmesan cheese on top of mine to try and help secure my win. But no clear winner could be determined! And we concluded that we must make homemade burger buns more often (but neither of us have again since then). I hate making vegetarian burgers because they always fall apart.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Hot Crossed Buns
Bagels
Buttermilk Honey Bread
Basic Focaccia

Light Brioche Burger Buns
Adapted from Comme Ça restaurant in Los Angeles, via the New York Times (found on Smitten Kitchen)

Makes 8 4 to 5-inch burger buns

3 tablespoons warm milk
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. In a glass measuring cup, combine one cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about five minutes. Meanwhile, beat one egg.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt. Add butter and rub into flour between your fingers, making crumbs. Using a dough scraper, stir in yeast mixture and beaten egg until a dough forms. Scrape dough onto clean, well-floured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. The dough will be on the sticky side so it can be a bit messy, but keep in mind that the more flour you knead in, the tougher the buns will get. Try to leave them tackier than you would a round loaf.

3. Shape dough into a ball and return it to bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, one to two hours. (In my freaky, warm apartment this only took an hour.)

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange two to three inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap lightly coated in nonstick spray and let buns rise in a warm place for one to two hours. (Again, this only took one hour in my apartment and I suspect, you’ll also only need an hour for a second rise.)

5. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with one tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if using. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.