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Don’t want none unless you got fresh milled flour hamburger buns hunnnn.

I can’t say buns without needing to start singing that.

ANYWAY.

I’ve got you a fresh milled flour hamburger bun recipe. This recipe works to make 8 hamburger or hotdog buns or your choice. It is made with fresh milled hard white wheat flour and what you get is a perfectly soft, VERY FLAVORFUL, and delicious little bun for any samich you may desire. PLUS, this recipe easily doubles, triples, or quadruples without issue if you’re feeding a crowd. Because I can’t buy those sad, weird tasting, store bought buns if I can avoid it. Your girl needs sturdy bread, and that only comes with fresh milled flour.

BECAUSE I’M BETTER THAN YOU.
If you don’t follow me on social media, disregard because it’s a joke :D

Homemade buns make the samich! We raise our own beef and I’m not putting that high quality meat on a grocery store bought bun… what a disgrace. So, now that you’ve been properly shamed into making your own bread, let’s talk about fresh milled flour LOL

You’ll see recipes use sunflower lecithin or vital wheat gluten, which is great, but I’m not about buying super specific weird ingredients just to make bread. So, I don’t add any of these things and I’ve found that I do just fine. I have found in my research that adding an acid to your dough, whether it be lemon juice or rehydrating your yeast in kefir or buttermilk or whey, does give me a softer bread product in the end and serves its purpose the same as adding lecithin and gluten for homemade burger buns or even bread loaves.

In This Post You'll Find...

Fresh Milled Flour Hamburger Buns (or all yeast bread, really)

For breads risen with yeast or sourdough, you’re normally going to use a hard wheat variety, whether it be white or red. Yeah, you’ll see some people use an ancient grain like einkorn or spelt, but for the sake of this bun recipe, my sanity, and your success, just stick with hard variety = bread, soft variety = cookies, cakes, etc. that you’ll be using baking soda and/or powder as you rising agent which doesn’t depend on gluten development. Got it?

When milling hard wheat flour for bread, I mill it on a medium setting. The flour will be warm after milling which is perfect for bread making, so don’t worry about milling and chilling. OMG I’m a poet! MILLING AND CHILLING. Nah. Just throw that in there warm and make your yeasties happpyyyyyyyy.

Yeast

I NEVER have instant yeast. I know you’ll see many of the fresh milled flour blogs use instant yeast, which I bet would definitely be easier butttttt I can’t be trusted to follow along. I prefer to bloom my yeast to make sure it’s alive before using it because I have this irrational fear that I’m going to add instant yeast to my dough and it’ll be dead and I’d have wasted all that flour.

Either works just fine, you’ll just need to add the instant yeast after the initial rest period to rehydrate the fresh milled flour instead of blooming in the warm water and sugar at the beginning of the recipe. Yes, you can bloom instant yeast too, and use it same as active dry.

Tips for Success with Fresh Milled Flour Hamburger Buns

Rest the dough once it just starts forming a ball for 15-20 minutes before adding more flour to allow the fresh milled grains to rehydrate. This keeps your bread light and fluffy and prevents you from adding too much flour and creating a very dense and dry dough later on. Store bought bread flour or all-purpose flour rehydrate instantly which is why you don’t have to do this step with dead flour.
Give the buns ample amount of time to double in size during the second rise and don’t rush OR allow them to sit too long. Too short can result in sad, dense buns and too long will give you weird wrinkly flat over proofed buns. Depending on how warm your room temperature is, the first rise can be quick or longer. If it’s winter and chilly, I use the proof setting on my oven to keep the dough warm. You can also use the yogurt setting on your pressure cooker or a heating pad under your bowl for a few minutes at a time.
Use an egg wash. I have found that egg washing my buns, especially fresh milled, helps to keep the moisture inside lending to softer buns.
Under bake the buns by like 30-60 seconds and remove from the oven to cool on the baking sheet. This keeps you from over baking and ending up with dry buns. You can also bake with a thermometer inserted into the center of one of the buns and pull them out right at 190F.
Store homemade buns in an air tight container or freeze within 24 hours. Fresh milled flour bread dries out quickly!

Let’s make some fresh milled flour hamburger buns!

Equipment You Might Want:

Large Mixing Bowl
Grain Mill
Bread Machine or Stand Mixer
Bench Scraper
Baking Sheet
Parchment Paper
Pastry Brush

Ingredients:

3/4 cup warm water
3 Tbs sugar or honey
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 cups fresh milled hard white wheat (I mill 2 cups of wheat berries)
1 egg
3 Tbs butter or bacon fat, softened
1 1/2 tsps salt

Step 1: Make the Dough

To the insert of your bread machine or bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, add the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Mix to dissolve and allow to sit and get foamy. This can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.

While you wait, mill the hard white wheat berries.

To the yeast mixture, add the egg, butter/bacon fat, 2 1/2 cups of fresh milled flour, and salt. If using a bread machine, put it on a leavening setting that will mix, knead, and rise your dough. If using a stand mixer, or your hands, mix until the dough just starts to come together. Pause the bread machine and allow the dough to rest for 15-20 minutes.

After resting, begin kneading until you form a smooth ball. Add more flour a little at a time as needed. The dough should be tacky but not stick to the sides of the bowl or your finger when touched. Once you have a smooth ball, transfer the dough to an greased bowl to rise until doubled, 1-2 hours. If using a bread machine, let it finish it’s setting. If you do the windowpane test, go for it. I’ve never done it and I ain’t about to start.

Step 2: Form the Buns

Split the dough into 8 equal portions using a bench scraper, and form into hamburger buns or hot dog buns. To shape, place dough on your counter (do not flour) and cage your hand around it and move your hand in a circular motion, pressing down and pulling the dough toward you each time. It should work the dough into a very tight ball with good surface tension which is what you want.

Place balls equally spaced out on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Cover with a wet tea towel and allow to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour, or til puffy and doubled.

Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 375F.

Step 3: Baking

Gently press each bun down to flatten a little. Whisk 1 egg and egg wash each bun if desired with a pastry brush.

Place buns in the preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or til tops are golden brown and internal temperature is 190F. DO NOT OVERBAKE.

Remove buns from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 4: Storage

Cut in half right before using, but do not store them cut. They’ll dry out real fast, so only slice them open as you need them for best storage!

Store buns in an air tight container or bread bag for 1-2 days max; fresh milled bread dries out quickly. Freeze as soon as they’re cool in a freezer-safe bag or vacuum seal in portions to use later for longer storage life.

Notes:

Feel free to top buns with sesame seeds, everything bagel seasoning, or whatever you want. I rarely remember to top mine with anything :D I have good intentions though.

This recipe can be successfully up to quadrupled if your stand mixer can handle a batch that big and you’re cooking for a crowd.

And now you have homemade hamburger buns made with literal whole grain!

Super Soft Fresh Milled Flour Hamburger Buns Recipe

Name: Super Soft Fresh Milled Flour Hamburger Buns Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ingredients: 3/4 cup warm water; 3 Tbs sugar or honey; 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast; 3 cups fresh milled hard white wheat (I mill 2 cups of wheat berries); 1 egg; 3 Tbs butter or bacon fat (softened); 1 1/2 tsp salt

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 15

Rise Time: 2

Servings: buns

Author: Ruby – Red Feather Farm

Equipment

large mixing bowl
Grain Mill
Bread Machine or Stand Mixer
bench scraper
baking sheet
parchment paper
Pastry Brush

Ingredients

3/4 cup warm water
3 Tbs sugar or honey
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 cups fresh milled hard white wheat I mill 2 cups of wheat berries
1 egg
3 Tbs butter or bacon fat softened
1 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

To the insert of your bread machine or bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, add the warm water, sugar, and yeast. Mix to dissolve and allow to sit and get foamy. This can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.
While you wait, mill the hard white wheat berries.
To the yeast mixture, add the egg, butter/bacon fat, 2 1/2 cups of fresh milled flour, and salt. If using a bread machine, put it on a leavening setting that will mix, knead, and rise your dough. If using a stand mixer, or your hands, mix until the dough just starts to come together. Pause the bread machine and allow the dough to rest for 15-20 minutes.
After resting, begin kneading until you form a smooth ball. Add more flour a little at a time as needed. The dough should be tacky but not stick to the sides of the bowl or your finger when touched. Once you have a smooth ball, transfer the dough to an greased bowl to rise until doubled, 1-2 hours. If using a bread machine, let it finish it’s setting. If you do the windowpane test, go for it. I’ve never done it and I ain’t about to start.
Split the dough into 8 equal portions using a bench scraper, and form into hamburger buns or hot dog buns. To shape, place dough on your counter (do not flour) and cage your hand around it and move your hand in a circular motion, pressing down and pulling the dough toward you each time. It should work the dough into a very tight ball with good surface tension which is what you want.
Place balls equally spaced out on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Cover with a wet tea towel and allow to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour, or til puffy and doubled.
Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 375F.
Gently press each bun down to flatten a little. Whisk 1 egg and egg wash each bun if desired with a pastry brush.
Place buns in the preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or til tops are golden brown and internal temperature is 190F. DO NOT OVERBAKE.
Remove buns from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut in half right before using, but do not store them cut. They’ll dry out real fast, so only slice them open as you need them for best storage!
Store buns in an air tight container or bread bag for 1-2 days max; fresh milled bread dries out quickly. Freeze as soon as they’re cool in a freezer-safe bag or vacuum seal in portions to use later for longer storage life.

Notes

When forming hot dog buns, they will look super skinny as you form them, but they puff up quite a bit after the rise time and then baking too. Be sure and press them down a little, just like the hamburger buns, before baking so they don’t turn into giant ovals.