Homemade hamburgers (+buns)

We call it “The Epic Burger”. It’s the best homemade hamburger we’ve had so far. The patty is easy to make and with the homemade bun’s it becomes even more epic.

I’ve recently got a new standmixer and a new stove with an oven. I used to have a gas oven without a broiler and it was always difficult to bake anything.

Hamburger buns were the first thing I made in my new oven. The original recipe is by Levine (in Dutch), but I use Ellen’s (Dutch) method.

You could buy hamburgers bun, but do give these a try.

Ingredients for 8 buns:

425 gr flour

7 gr dried yeast (1 packet)

240 ml milk, room temperature

28 gr soft butter

12 gr sugar

8 gr salt

1 egg, whisked

Flavorless oil for greasing your work surface

To glaze: 1 egg + 1 Tbs milk

Optional: sesame seeds

Optional: freshly ground pepper

Ingredients for 2 burgers:

400 gr ground beef

Freshly ground pepper

2 slices of Cheddar

Lettuce leaves (little gem or Romaine)

Slices of sweet and sour pickles

4 rashers of bacon

Onion jam (Stonewall Kitchen) or caramelized onions

Ketchup (Stonewall Kitchen or Heinz)

The hamburger buns

For this recipe you’ll need a stand mixer or a good hand mixer with dough hooks. The dough is too sticky to mix by hand.

Mix the flour and yeast in a bowl.

Use the dough hook to knead the milk through the flour. Add butter in small cubes and add the salt and sugar.

Add 1 whisked egg and knead until smooth. Loosen the dough from the bowl a couple of times to thoroughly knead the dough.

Cover the bowl and proof for an hour or until doubled in size at room temperature.

Grease your work surface with a bit of oil and divide the dough into 8 pieces. Cup your hand over the dough and make circular motions while pressing it down. Eventually the dough becomes more resistant and will shape into a ball. A small belly button will form underneath.

Flatten the dough balls a bit, so your buns don’t become to high. If you have difficulty pressing them down, wait a minute before pushing them down again.

Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment and transfer the dough rounds onto here. Make sure they’re at least 1 inch apart. Cover and leave to proof to almost doubled in size at room temperature.

Preheat the oven at 430°F/220°C. Whisk an egg with 1 tablespoon of milk and brush the top of the buns. You could then sprinkle them with some sesame seeds and freshly ground pepper.

Bake for 15 minutes in the middle of the oven and leave to cool on a rack.

The burgers

Making the patties doesn’t take long so prep your favorite toppings in advance. Wash the lettuce, fry the bacon and get your sauces together.

Put a griddle pan on high and let this heat up (don’t use butter or oil). Slice the buns and grill them cut side down.

For the meat I use ground beef where you can still see the slithers from the mincer. Inspired by an article about the perfect burger and Heston Blumenthal’s Perfect Hamburger I only loosely shape my patties. So don’t knead the ground beef!

Make 200 gram patties, shaping them by hand to about 3/4 inch thick. Don’t press them to hard, but they should hold their shape.

Grill the patties for a couple of minutes, give them a quarter turn and reduce the heat. Give them a couple more minutes before flipping and repeating the process. Season with freshly ground pepper and cover with a slice of chedder.

These thick burgers need quite some time to cook to well done, so try to be patient. We like them medium to just done.

Our epic hamburgers are layered as followed. Bun, lettuce, patty with cheese, onion jam, ketchup, pickles, bacon and bun.

We’ve used this combo before, but On the homemade bun it’s even more delicious.