Whole Wheat Burger Buns

Whole Wheat Burger Buns Recipe with step by step pictures. Delicious soft buns made with whole wheat flour, yeast, milk, sugar, butter and eggs. In this blog post I have shared wheat buns recipe made with eggs and without eggs. I have already shared a basic burger buns but this one is made whole wheat turns out super soft making it perfect for burger or sandwiches. Learn how to make soft wheat buns with step by step pictures and video.

Whole Wheat Burger Buns

We make homemade burgers at home every other week. Kids enjoy chicken burgers with fries. I make homemade wheat buns to go with the burgers which is a healthier option and taste really good.

The dough is so easy to put together and these buns turns out super soft. I have tried and shared many versions of making wheat buns before. But today I am updating with two fool proof wheat buns recipe in this recipe post. I am sharing two ways I make buns at home. One with eggs and without eggs so everyone can enjoy.

Jump to:

• About Wheat Buns (with & without eggs)
• Watch Wheat Buns Video (Egg & Eggless)
• Wheat Buns Ingredients
• Extra Tips From a Pro Baker
• Doubts About Yeast in Making Buns?
• Wheat Buns Dough Texture
• How to Make Whole Wheat Buns (Stepwise Pictures)
• How to Make Eggless Wheat Buns
• Expert Tips
• FAQ
• 📖 Recipe Card

About Wheat Buns (with & without eggs)

Buns are usually made from a dough of flour, sugar, milk, yeast and butter. Sweet bun dough is distinguished from bread dough by being enriched with sugar and butter, and sometimes egg. Common sweet varieties contain small fruit or nuts, and may be topped with icing or caramel, and filled with jam or cream.

Whole Wheat Buns is a delicious soft buns made with whole wheat flour, yeast, milk, sugar, butter. In this blog post, I have shared two ways of making wheat buns with eggs and without eggs. Both the recipes are kind of similar, the only change you make to the recipe is the addition of egg and how the ingredient is used.

The bread dough is made in a stand mixer, but you can use a mixing bowl to knead the dough with hands. It might take some time but it is possible. Over the years of bread baking, I have found out few tips and tricks which I am sharing in this blog post. If you enjoy this post, check my other recipes for white bread, Wheat Bread and brioche.

In this blog post, I have shared the recipe for making whole wheat buns in stand mixer using eggs and without eggs. Recipe for making burger buns with eggs and without eggs is shared. You can easily make these burger buns vegan by swapping milk with soy milk or almond milk.

This bun is made this entirely with wheat flour. And I feel happy eating that because I know that it is healthy for me. You can fill this bun with anything and eat it like a burger. I made a spicy potato filling and had this. 

Similar Recipes,

Christmas Sweet Bread

Semolina Bread

Cheese Bread

Wheat Bran Bread

White Sandwich Bread

Soda Bread Rolls.

Watch Wheat Buns Video (Egg & Eggless)

Wheat Buns Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour - use the finest quality wheat flour you can find. I used store bought wheat flour and it worked just fine. Always prefer using 100% whole wheat flour.

Milk - I added milk to lock in the moisture. This helps soft texture in the buns.

Butter - soft unsalted butter is added into the bread dough during the final stages of kneading. It helps incorporate some fat into the bread dough which inturn makes it soft.

Honey or Sugar - I prefer to use sugar, you can use honey as well. You need some kind of sweetener to activate yeast. 

Yeast - one of the most important ingredient in making bread. I use dry yeast, if you struggle activating yeast, read my FAQ section where I have talked about yeast.

Egg - egg makes the buns soft. I have shared eggless wheat bun recipe in this blog as well.

Extra Tips From a Pro Baker

The Yeast Mix: Mix together milk with little sugar and yeast in a bowl. to activate the yeast. It has to look foamy before you proceed with the recipe. if your yeast doesn't look foamy then your bread won't rise.

Kneading Stand Mixer or By Hand - If you have a stand mixer, making the dough in a stand mixer is best. Since the dough is sticky. Add all ingredients to the stand mixer. Use dough hook attachment in the mixer and mix till it comes together. The bread dough is made in a stand mixer, but you can use a mixing bowl to knead the dough with hands. It might take some time but it is possible.

Butter or oil : You can use olive oil in buns. but butter makes the bread so rich and buttery.

Proofing of the Dough: Leave the dough to rise in a warm spot for 1 to 2 hours till it is doubled in size.

Final Proof: Divide the dough into equal portions. Roll it smooth and place it in a tray pan. Leave to rise for 30 mins to 1 hour. If you let it rise for longer, the bun may collapse when baking.

Egg Washing: Egg wash is must for getting the golden shiny colour on top. You can use milk wash as well if you want eggless burger buns.

How to Make Wheat Buns (5 Easy Steps)

Activating the Yeast - Take warm milk in a bowl. Add in yeast, sugar and let it sit and activate for 5 mins. It will get foamy and bubbly.

Making the Dough - Take wheat flour in a stand mixer bowl. Add in salt and mix well. Add in yeast milk, egg and place it on the stand mixer and let it knead on low to medium speed for 10 mins. Scrape the bowl in-between for even mixing. The dough will come together in 15 mins of kneading.

Proofing the Dough - Once the dough comes together. Shape it into a smooth ball. Cover and let it rest for 1 hour till doubled in size.

Shaping & Proofing the buns - Now divide the dough into equal portion and shape into a smooth ball. Place on a parchment lined baking tray and flatten each dough ball. Once the buns and shaped. Cover and let it rise for another 30 to 45 mins.

Baking Buns - During the last 10 mins of rising. Preheat oven to 190 degree C. Brush top with egg and milk mixed and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 mins. Remove and brush top with melted butter. Cool this for 10 mins and serve.

OTHER FABULOUS DINNER ROLLS AND BREAD RECIPES:

• Buttery dinner rolls
• Best Ever Hamburger Rolls
• Pecan Sticky Cinnamon Rolls
• Croissants
• Soft Herb Rolls

Doubts About Yeast in Making Buns?

One of the questions which I often get is Why my bread is not rising. Why my dough is not doubling up. Why my bread is dense. The Answer for all the questions above depends on your yeast. Activating yeast properly is very important.

How to Activate Yeast?

• Take warm water in a bowl. Use Luke warm water. Dip your finger in the water and it should be very warm. Just like a warm bath water.
• Sprinkle little sweetness like sugar, honey. Because yeast loves warm and sweet environment.
• Now sprinkle yeast over it. I use dry yeast.
• Leave aside for 5 mins to activate. The yeast mix should be bubbly and foamy. This means yeast is activated.

Why my yeast doesn't look foamy?

• Then you must have added yeast to too hot water so the yeast has died.
• You have used cold water so yeast didn’t activated.
• Your yeast is expired. Always store yeast in freezer in an air tight container.

Wheat Buns Dough Texture

Kneading wheat dough is very important to achieve chewy texture. You can either knead it in a mixing bowl by hand or use stand mixer.

If you don't have a stand mixer, you have to take all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix the ingredients together using your hands. Bring the dough together using your hands. Then transfer the mixture to a work surface or silipat sheet and mix the dough till it is soft and smooth. You have to keep kneading this for 10 to 15 minutes.

If using stand mixer, You have to mix the dough for 8 to 10 minutes. The dough would have pulled away from the sides of the bowl. It should look smooth and supple.

How to Make Whole Wheat Buns (Stepwise Pictures)

Activating Yeast

1)Take warm milk in a bowl. Make sure the milk is around 100°–110°F (luke warm) which is the ideal temperature for dry yeast. Don't use too hot milk else the yeast will die.

2)Now you have to use some kind of sweetener. I used sugar for making this bread. You can use honey as well, honey works great in this recipe.

3)Now take 1 ½ tsp of dry yeast. Sprinkle yeast over the warm milk. Once yeast is added into the milk, allow it to activate for few minutes.

4)Gently mix the yeast with the warm milk and let it sit for 5 minutes to get foamy and activated.

5)In around 5 minutes, the mixture will look foamy and bubbly like this. This means the yeast is activated.

If your mixture looks watery with no active yeast bubbles. Don't proceed with the recipe, else the bread won't rise.

Mixing Dry Ingredients

6)I am making the dough in a stand mixer. Take wheat flour in the stand mixer, add salt to the wheat flour.

If you don't have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough in a bowl using your hands.

7)Mix the wheat flour with the salt for 1 minute. This ensures that the salt is evenly mixed with the wheat flour.

Adding Wet Ingredients

8)Now add in the beaten egg. I added almost all the egg, but reserved one spoon for egg wash. check the link, If you prefer eggless wheat buns.

9)I reserved just 1 tbsp of the beaten egg for egg wash. Set this aside till needed.

10)Now pour in the activated yeast milk mixture into the wheat flour.

11)Now that all ingredients is added into the stand mixer. Place the bowl in the stand mixer and start kneading. First let the wheat flour be hydrated with the milk and egg mixture. After 1 minute of mixing the dough would come together like this.

12)once the wheat flour is hydrated with the milk and yeast mix. Start adding butter into the dough. Add little at a time and keep mixing. I added 1 tbsp at a time and mixed it until the butter is incorporated into the dough.

Pro Tip: If you don't have a stand mixer, you have to take all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix the ingredients together using your hands. Bring the dough together using your hands. Then transfer the mixture to a work surface or silipat sheet and mix the dough till it is soft and smooth. You have to keep kneading this for 10 to 15 minutes.

13)This is how the dough looks once all the butter is mixed into it. It will look shaggy and sticky.

14)You have to keep kneading in low speed of your stand mixer for atleast 15 to 20 minutes. This is how it looks after 5 minutes of mixing. The dough will look slightly smooth and the butter would have incorporated into the dough.

15)This is how it looks after 10 minutes of kneading in the low speed. The dough would have started pulling from the sides of the bowl.

16)This is how it looks after 15 minutes of slow kneading. The dough is shiny and elastic.

Window pane test in the dough

17)Window pane test is very important to check whether the gluten development in dough is formed. This helps in getting the texture of the bread. Take a small ball of the dough and stretch it into a square. Keep on stretching until it becomes a thin film in the middle without breaking. The dough must be thin enough to pass light through it. If it is obtained without any tear, then your dough is properly kneaded.

Pre shaping Dough for first proofing

18)I removed the dough to a work surface. The dough will look soft and supple. Shape the dough into a smooth ball like shape. This is pre shaping, it allows the dough to rise more evenly and smoothly.

19)Place the dough into the slightly greased stand mixer bowl. Cover the bowl using a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise for 1 to 2 hours in a warm spot.

Pro Tip: I like to place the bowl inside the oven with light alone turned on. This ensure the place is warm enough for the dough to rise faster. You can follow this method for rising dough in winter.

20)Now the dough has risen. You can see it looks more than doubled in size.

Shaping Dough in Buns

16) Remove the proofed dough into the work surface with smooth surface facing down. Shape it into a log like.

17)Divide it into 8 equal portion.

18)Take one portion of dough, flatten it slightly.

19)Bring all the sides in the centre.

20)Invert it and shape it into smooth ball. As you roll the dough inside your hands, the friction of the work surface and the dough helps to shape it into a smooth ball. You can refer to my video to know about shaping the dough in detail.

Proofing Bun

21)Arrange the shaped buns in a parchment lined baking tray. Leave some space between each buns because it rise a lot when baking.

22)Flatten it slightly. Since we are making burger buns, it is important to flatten the buns slightly so it expands and get proper shape.

23)Cover it and allow it rise for 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

24)Now buns has risen.

Egg Washing & Baking

25)mix the reserved egg with some milk. This is your egg wash. Brush the egg wash over the buns using a pastry brush.

26)Sprinkle sesame seeds over the buns.

27)Place the bun into a 190 degree C preheated oven, bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the buns from oven, brush with butter if needed and let it cool. Serve.

How to Make Eggless Wheat Buns

This recipe for wheat bun is made without eggs. It is made with basic ingredients like wheat flour, water, yeast, sugar, butter and milk. The texture is super soft and delicious.

I have made so many eggless buns recipe in the past. But this version is the best. The wheat buns turn out soft and spongy. I have a separate video made for that.

Ingredients Used for Eggless Wheat Buns

• 3 cups Wheat Flour
• 1 cup Warm Water
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 2 tsp Dry Yeast
• 2 tsp Salt
• ½ cup Milk
• 3 tbsp Butter melted
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

How to Make Eggless Wheat Buns

1)Take warm water in a bowl. Add in sugar and mix well.

2)Sprinkle yeast over, let it sit and activate for 5 mins. It will get foamy and bubbly.

3)Now yeast is activated.

4)Take wheat flour in a stand mixer bowl. Add in salt and mix well.

5)Add in yeast water.

6)Add in milk.

7)Add in melted butter.

8)place it on the stand mixer and let it knead on low to medium speed for 10 mins. Scrape the bowl in-between for even mixing. The dough will come together in 15 mins of kneading.

9)Once the dough comes together. Shape it into a smooth ball.

10)Cover and let it rest for 1 hour till doubled in size.

11)Now the dough has risen.

12)Take the dough on a work surface.

13)Now divide the dough into equal portion and shape into a smooth ball.

14)Shape the dough into a smooth ball.

15)Place on a parchment lined baking tray and flatten each dough ball.

16)Once the buns and shaped. Cover and let it rise for another 30 to 45 mins.

17)During the last 10 mins of rising. Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Brush top with milk.

18)sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 17 mins.

19)Remove and brush top with melted butter. Cool this for 10 mins and serve.

20)Enjoy.

Expert Tips

• Whichever buns you make, with eggs or without eggs, it needs kneading. You have to knead for 15 to 20 minutes in low speed (speed 1) in a stand mixer till smooth. If you are kneading by hand, knead it for 30 minutes till elastic.
• Egg washing make the bun soft and helps soften the top layer of the bun.
• Depending on the wheat flour you use, you might need to add more milk. 
• Instead of sugar you can use honey. 

Storage

Homemade Wheat buns can be stored in an air tight container at room temp for 2 days. You can store in fridge upto a week. 

FAQ

1)How long do fluffy rolls need to rise?

The rising will take about an hour on the counter. You can speed up the rising process by:

1. Placing the pan in a warm oven (about 200°F).
2. Set the pan on the oven while it’s preheating.
3. Place the pan on a rack set over a large roasting pan full of boiling water.

Those three will shorten your rising time up to about half.

2)How long do buns last?

1. This can be stored in fridge for over a week.
2. burger rolls can be stored in freezer for over a month

3)Why are my rolls hard?

Here are some of the reasons rolls can come out hard and flat. if your yeast is not activated, then dough wont rise and the bread will be hard. Over baking can make your rolls hard. Also not letting the dough rise enough also makes it hard.

4)Can you over knead dough?

If you think you've over-kneaded the dough, try letting it rise a little longer before shaping it.

5)What happens if I don't knead my dough enough?

If you don't knead your dough enough by hand or if you don't allow it enough time in your mixer, the dough will lack strength. Once baked, an under-kneaded bread loaf will be flat and dense in texture

6)Why is my bread rolls so heavy and dense?

you did not knead it or leave it to prove for long enough or you could have killed the yeast by leaving the dough to rise in a place that was too hot.

7)Can you let burger buns rise too long?

Letting the dough rise for too long makes the structure of the bread weak, so it can't support itself.

8)What can I eat with these buns?

You can serve it with just soups. You can even serve it with sabzi, kheema, bhurji, omelette or any curries to soak the rolls in.

9)Can i make bread and buns without oven?

Yes you can. check my recipe for "How to make buns without oven

10)Doubts About Yeast in Making Buns?

The answer for all those questions is activating yeast. Activating yeast is so easy. Just follow these steps.

• Take warm water in a bowl. Use Luke warm water. Dip your finger in the water and it should be very warm. Just like a warm bath water.
• Sprinkle little sweetness like sugar, honey. Because yeast loves warm and sweet environment.
• Now sprinkle yeast over it. I use dry yeast.
• Leave aside for 5 mins to activate. The yeast mix should be bubbly and foamy. This means yeast is activated.

11)Why my yeast has not activated?

• Then you must have added yeast to too hot water so the yeast has died.
• You have used cold water so yeast didn’t activated.
• Your yeast is expired. Always store yeast in freezer in an air tight container.

More Buns to Try

📖 Recipe Card

If you have any questions not covered in this post and if you need help, leave me a comment or mail me @[email protected] and I’ll help as soon as I can.

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook,Pinterest ,Youtube and Twitter for more Yummy Tummy inspiration.

IF YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR ANYTHING FROM YUMMY TUMMY, MAKE SURE TO POST IT AND TAG ME SO I CAN SEE ALL OF YOUR CREATIONS!! #YUMMYTUMMYAARTHI AND @YUMMYTUMMYAARTHI ON INSTAGRAM!

More Bread Recipes to try