Sourdough Discard Hamburger Buns Recipe
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These quick sourdough discard hamburger buns are perfect for grilling season. Make these speedy sourdough discard hamburger buns in around 2.5 hours - and use your sourdough discard. Winning right? They are soft and tender with a rich, buttery crumb yet will wow you with their golden brown, glossy sheen. Honestly, you'll never want (or need) to buy store-bought buns again!
Just like this sourdough discard sandwich bread and these sourdough English muffins, these sourdough discard hamburger buns are perfect to make while you are making a sourdough starter, just like this list of 100+ sourdough discard recipes!
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
Fast Rise Time - These soft buns utilise a small amount of commercial yeast, along with your unfed sourdough starter, to make them rise. This gives you a delicious flavor, without having to wait. If you'd prefer to use active starter, check out these sourdough burger buns.
Perfect for Grilling Season - You can use these sourdough discard burger buns during grilling season, for burger night, breakfast or lunch sandwiches - and the best thing is you can make them whatever size you like. Why not serve them with these sourdough onion rings, sourdough hot dog buns or sourdough pigs in blankets?
Make Ahead, Bake When You're Ready - If you want to make these buns earlier than you need them, you can put them in the fridge after shaping. They can stay there for up to 24 hours. Just bring them to room temp before you bake them. Because they have commercial yeast, they will complete the second rise in the fridge.
Ingredients
- Milk - I've used whole milk, but you can use 2%. I recommend warm milk if you can as it will speed up the rising process.
- Sourdough Starter Discard - You'll use 100g of sourdough discard in this sourdough hamburger bun recipe.
- Bread Flour - I've written this recipe with bread flour and it works perfectly. If you want to use all purpose flour, I recommend reducing the milk by around 20g.
- Sugar - just a little granulated sugar to create a slight sweetness to the dough and soften the crumb. You can leave it out if you prefer, but trust me on this, it's much better if you leave it in!
- Egg - I've used 2 egg yolks to create an enriched dough. I've then used the egg white to create an egg wash before baking. No waste here!
- Butter - softened but not melted, salted butter is best, but you can of course use unsalted if you prefer.
- Instant Yeast - we are using instant yeast here because we are using sourdough discard, which doesn't have the leavening power that active sourdough starter does (plus we are wanting a quick rise here).
- Salt
- Sesame Seeds - these are completely optional, I've use black sesame seeds for something a little different!
How To Make Sourdough Discard Hamburger Buns
Start by combining warm milk, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, stirring gently until dissolved. Add the flour, sourdough discard, egg yolks, butter, and salt, and bring everything together into a shaggy dough (a silicone spatula can help scrape down the sides). Fit your stand mixer with a dough hook and knead for 6–8 minutes, until the dough is silky, smooth, and comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl with no stickiness. Using a stand mixer is both fast and convenient here, as it efficiently works the butter and eggs into the dough (but as always, you can easily knead the dough by hand if you prefer).
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a bag and let the dough rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size. The exact time will depend on the temperature in your kitchen. Once risen, transfer the dough to your counter for shaping. For accuracy, weigh your dough on a kitchen scale and divide it evenly by the number of buns you’d like. For larger burger buns, divide into 8 pieces of approximately 137g each. For smaller buns, divide into 12 pieces of about 90g each. The enriched dough is smooth and easy to handle, making shaping simple—just pull the edges into the center to create a rounded top, then roll on the counter to form a bun.
Place the shaped buns on a parchment-lined baking tray, cover, and let them rise for around 30 minutes until plump and round. Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Brush each bun with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, Everything Bagel Seasoning, or leave plain—it’s completely up to you. Bake for about 22 minutes, keeping a close eye on them as they brown quickly. The buns are ready when they’re golden, glossy, and sound hollow when tapped underneath. Cool on a wire rack before serving.
If you’d like to make them ahead, you can refrigerate the shaped buns for up to 24 hours before baking; just bring them to room temperature to complete their second rise. Soft, buttery, and slightly sweet, they toast beautifully—split and lightly char the insides for the perfect brioche-style burger bun. We love eating them with this simple tomato chutney.
How To Store + Freeze
Store At Room Temperature - These sourdough discard hamburger buns will last for 2 days at room temperature. Store in a plastic ziplock bag or airtight container. Warm slightly in the microwave to freshen them up.
Freeze - These buttery hamburger buns are super fast to make fresh, however sometimes you may have a few leftover. Or perhaps you like having a stash in the freezer for easy weeknight dinners. These sourdough buns can be frozen. Simply place them in a Ziploc bag and freeze (there's always a bag in my freezer).
Thaw at room temperature. You can microwave them for a few seconds to soften them up or simply split them and toast the insides before adding your favorite burger fillings.
You'll find more information on how to freeze sourdough bread here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Since this recipe uses discard, the flavor is mild. You’ll get a hint of tang, but the enriched dough (with butter, milk, and eggs) makes them soft, fluffy, and slightly sweet — more like brioche.
No — you can knead by hand if you prefer. It will take a little longer (around 10–12 minutes), but the dough is smooth and enriched, so it’s easy to handle.
The dough should be silky, elastic, and come away cleanly from the sides of the bowl. It shouldn’t feel sticky.
No you don't have to. If you have a mature sourdough starter and you're confident in your discard, you can skip the yeast, or just use active starter.
Sourdough Discard Hamburger Buns Recipe
Video
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Digital Scale
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 250 g Milk (warm)
- 100 g Sourdough Starter Discard (unfed sourdough starter)
- 500 g Bread Flour
- 50 g Sugar
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 100 g Butter (softened but not melted)
- 7 g Instant Yeast
- 10 g Salt
- 1 Egg White (for egg wash)
- 30 g Sesame Seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Combine the warm milk, yeast and sugar together in a stand mixer bowl and gently incorporate so that the yeast and sugar are dissolved in the milk.
- Add the flour, sourdough discard, egg yolks, butter and salt to the bowl and bring together to form a shaggy dough. You may need a silicon spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Use a dough hook and/or knead function for this step.Knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes using a stand mixer (see notes for hand kneading below).The dough will be silky and completely come away from the sides of the bowl when it's done. There should be no stickiness at all.
- Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or wrap and set aside for around an hour to rise. The time it takes depends on the temperature in your home.
- Once the dough has doubled, transfer it to your kitchen counter for shaping. If you are able to, weigh your dough. Divide the weight of the dough by the number of buns you want. Then you'll know how big to make each bun.I make 8 from this recipe and each bun is around 137g. For smaller buns, divide into 12 pieces of approx. 90g each.
- Divide the dough into 8 perfectly even pieces (weighing them for accuracy).
- Shape each piece into a bun. Pull the edges into the centre to form a rounded top and then place each piece on the counter and roll to shape (like you'd shape a boule).
- Place your buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and cover with a plastic bag or wrap. Set aside to rise for around 30 minutes. They will be plump and round when they're ready to bake.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Brush each bun with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional).
- Bake for around 22 minutes or until glossy and hollow when you tap the base. They burn very easily so keep an eye on them.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
GREAT BURGER ROLLS - especially toasted on the grill! Theycame out perfect and the ingredient portions were spot on. One thing to mention in step 10 is to add a teaspoon or 2 of water to the egg white wash for a better application. Thanks!
So easy!! You have to try these! Thank you for your amazing recipes ❤
These look interesting. If I wanted to avoid using commercial yeast, could I still use the discard and let them cold retard in the fridge? Or use active starter instead of discard? Thanks!
Can we not use yeast ??
I used 50% white flour, 50% whole wheat flour. Very good! And I'm making them again for our Super Bowl party. Thank you!
Hi just curious if you can use dairy substitute? For example almond milk instead of regular milk? Can’t wait to make these! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
You can use any dairy free milk as a substitute. 🙂
I almost didn't make this recipe because of it being in grams but I decided to go for it and love it! It tastes like a brioche bun which is my favorite. I did have some issues with shaping the ball making it perfectly smooth so some of them have some creases but still taste great. Mine took a lot longer to cook as well but I think thats because of my oven. I am so happy I tried this recipe and it will now be my go to!
Awesome recipe! Easy to make and delicious, will definitely be making again. Can the sugar be substituted with honey or maple syrup and how much? Thank you!
We haven't tried substituting the sugar for honey or maple syrup, so can't say for sure, but it should work. You would use the same amount of honey/maple syrup as sugar. Please let us know if you end up trying it!
I really like this recipe the buns turned out amazing. Do you have the recipe in in cups/tablespoons rather than grams. I was converting everything it was little confusing.
I want to make these this weekend. I have looked and looked but I cannot find the video so I can learn how to shape them.
Thanks!
I made some challah hamburger rolls and thought they were my forever rolls. Then I made these. WOW! So much flavor, so delicious! I used 75% bread flour and 25% WW. Make these!
This is my favorite recipe of yours, so far. I agree with the comment above about adding water to the egg white. My bun tops look drippy, but otherwise, I'm really crazy about this recipe. Super easy!
Perfect bun recipe. Made several times and each time I fall even more in love with them!
These are the most awesome burger bun /rolls I've ever made, and quite easy!
I am excited to try this! I'm wondering if this dough can also be used for cinnamon rolls? I'm looking for a cinnamon roll recipe that is light and fluffy and not much sourdough taste, would this dough achieve this? Thank you for all your recipes!
These were fantastic. Perfectly pillowy, it’s definitely going to be my go to for sandwich buns.
These were so good, but I have one question, could I cut out the sugar and use a substitute or is the sugar necessary for the yeast?
You could cut the sugar out if you really want to, but over 8 buns it really is a tiny amount of sugar ... but it does add to the flavor and texture of the rolls 🙂
I made the hamburger buns today, they are amazing, I would rather have wheat buns so after reading the notes, next time I’ll be making WW buns.
Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Can I use a bread machine on the dough cycle, instead of a stand mixer? Thanks!
Super easy and good! Only thing I wish you would include in recipe is for us to save egg whites from yolks so we don't waste an egg for the egg wash!
These took a lot longer to rise than expected. So I didn’t need the dough for buns anymore since it wasn’t done rising til after lunch. Decided to use the dough to make cinnamon rolls instead lol, turned out great!
These are Amazing! I’ve made them so many times and they are a hit every time! So easy, so delish! I’ve made them with all white flour and 75 to 25 white to wheat. Either way they’re fabulous! I like whole wheat so I tend to do that more often.
Question: has anyone tried making these without yeast and just had a longer rise time? Just curious if it would work on a day when I actually plan ahead.
Could you make the dough ahead and refrigerate it overnight (at Step 4) and then bake the following day? I’d assume you would have to bring to room temp before shaping. Has anyone tried this?
Wondering if its possible to make these without sugar or yeast....Maybe with honey instead or coconut sugar or even maple syrup and just let them rise longer?
Made my first batch of buns and very happy. Easy to follow steps, ingredients worked well together. Definitely they're on they're the list for future batches.
Super easy to make and really nice, soft and fluffy hamburger buns. I made the recipe as is. Next time I might try a little whole wheat flour. Thanks for a great recipe!
If dough doesn’t double after an hour or two what do you suggest? Might I have made the milk to hot?
Can one make these with 100% ww?
These buns are so easy and delicious. Perfect recipe and instructions. I make them at least once a week! They freeze beautifully. Thanks for all of your sourdough knowledge and recipes. I've learned so much from you.
The measurement for milk says grams, should it say milliliters?
No, always grams 🙂
Concur. 250 grams of milk is approximately 241.3 milliliters.
Is there a variation that uses active starter? I tried this recipe and it turned out AMAZING but didn’t have as good of success with the active starter rolls. Some ingredients are slightly different so just wondering if you’ve tried this with active starter.
These are excellent hamburger buns, and so easy! I used 360g bread flour, 70g WW and 70g rye, and the flavor is wonderful. I live in a colder climate so I generally use the oven with the light on for proofing, which worked beautifully. I did the first rise for 1 hour and the second for just under an hour, and I was glad I let the shaped buns rise for that extra time. They were definitely more puffy after 50 minutes. Always love finding great ways to use the discard!
Good recipe, many thanks. I'm always looking for ways to use up discard. I'm a hand kneader & the way I deal with butter in this & similar recipes is to grate it into the mixture using a standard box grater. This makes it much easier to disperse. A couple of other useful items are a silicon mat to knead on & a bench scraper. The dough is really sticky at first but don't add more flour. Keep kneading, using a scraper to pull the dough back together & it'll come together after 4-5 mins. It took around 12 mins of kneading to get to the final smooth dough described above - a full workout!
I made these tonight. I cut the recipe in half because it’s just me. I made 4 perfect hamburger buns! Ii used one tonight and it’s perfect! I hope you all give it a try.
They are delicious and easy to make. Instructions are so easy to follow, thank you Kate.
Made these the other day and they turned out great. They were a little heavy but when cut into them to put the burgers on they were perfect. Great texture and density. Made good sandwiches the next day too. Highly recommend them.
Ah-ma-zing!!! Great recipe, first time making- won’t be my last. Easy to follow directions, buns are perfect!