Spelt Burger Buns – Soft, Supple and Ready for the BBQ
Everyone needs a good burger bun recipe up there sleeve. Summer is finally here and BBQs are being dusted off and made ready for the season of outdoor cuisine. Don’t ruin your burgers by serving them in pappy commercial buns. Homemade isn’t as difficult as you might think. This recipe for spelt burger buns is the one I use.
Spelt Burger Buns
When I made pulled jackfruit last week, I wanted to serve it with salad in burger buns. Whilst I can buy good sourdough bread here in Liskeard, anything else is pretty much a no no. There was nothing for it but to make my own. These wholemeal spelt burger buns have a secret ingredient which gives them a delightfully soft texture – not something always associated with wholemeal bread. They aren’t fluffy exactly, but they are exceedingly delicious.
The buns are suitable for most diets. I used coconut oil rather than butter or lard and water instead of milk to make them vegan. Spelt flour is low in gluten and more easily digested than modern wheats. This combined with a slow rise should ease their effect on the alimentary canal. Spelt flour doesn’t require a lot of kneading, so they are relatively easy to make.
These buns, it turned out, made the perfect accompaniment to the pulled jackfruit in homemade barbecue sauce. They are, however, also very good with veggie burgers, cheese and pickle or spread with your favourite nut butter. For further ideas, do take a look at my other recipes for bread and buns.
Potato
Yes, potato is the secret ingredient in these spelt burger buns. Milk is the classic ingredient used to make bread soft, but I wanted these buns to be dairy free and vegan. Wholemeal bread is my favourite kind of bread, but it’s often chewy rather than soft. Potato has a remarkable softening property and it works wonderfully in this recipe.
Linseeds
Adding a few soaked linseeds to bread is a tip I picked up a few years ago. The linseeds soak up water and form a gelatinous mass. This helps to create the soft and supple texture of these spelt burger buns. Linseeds also add omega 3, protein and a whole heap of other beneficial nutrients.
Spelt Burger Buns – The Recipe
These delicious spelt burger buns have a secret ingredient to make them soft and supple. It's worth the extra effort.
- 3 tsp dried yeast
- 300 ml warm water
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp coconut or other unrefined sugar
- 1 tbsp linseeds
- 500 g wholemeal spelt flour
- 1 medium potato - boiled and mashed (with skin on)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- whole sesame seeds for sprinkling
- Mix 100 ml water (make sure it's only luke warm) with the yeast, coconut oil and sugar. Place in a mixing bowl and leave for 15 minutes.
- Add the linseeds to the rest of the water and leave to soak.
- Add the flour to the bowl along with the, potato, salt, linseeds and water. Mix then knead for 5 minutes (I used an electric mixer).
- Divide into 12 and roll into balls.
- Place on a baking tray, cover with a plastic bag or tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size.
- Brush with a little water and sprinkle some sesame seeds over the tops.
- Bake at 200C for 15-20 minutes or until the buns are golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- Place on a wire rack to cool.
The dough should be slightly sticky. If it's too dry, add a little more water. You'll need a little flour in order to roll the balls.
I’m sending these spelt burger buns off to #BakeoftheWeek with Mummy Mishaps and Casa Costello
These spelt burger buns also go to One Potato, Two Potato with Utterly Scrummy Food for Families and Family Friends Food
Spelt Burger Buns. PIN IT.
Chris @thinlyspread
5th June 2017 at 11:37 amBeautiful buns! I agree, making homemade buns is always worth the (very small) effort involved – these look delicious and vegan too, hoorah!
Choclette
7th June 2017 at 9:31 pmTrue, the effort is not nearly as huge as one might think, but I do sometimes need to remind myself of this 🙂
Dom
5th June 2017 at 11:49 amoooh, I do love a nice bun! These look delicious. I’ve rarely baked wit spelt but I must try it. Love the added potato too. Great work. x
Choclette
7th June 2017 at 9:30 pmSpelt is my favourite wholemeal flour. It produces fabulous bread and the potato really works to make them a bit softer. Give em a go.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
5th June 2017 at 2:03 pmI love the rustic look of these whole spelt buns and they look very soft!
Choclette
7th June 2017 at 8:18 pmThanks Angie. My wholemeal rolls always look rustic, but luckily I like rustic 🙂
Kath
6th June 2017 at 6:23 amI really like this recipe, I love using spelt and using potato to make them soft and vegan is great.
Choclette
7th June 2017 at 8:17 pmThanks Kath. I’m glad you like it. I was really pleased with the outcome. I used to add potato to bread years ago, but had sort of forgotten about it – until now!
Jessi
7th June 2017 at 4:48 pmThose buns look so good in those pictures. Definitely going to try making it this weekend. Thanks for sharing.
Choclette
7th June 2017 at 8:12 pmThanks Jessi. I hope you enjoy them AND get good weather too.
Rhian @ Rhian's Recipes
9th June 2017 at 12:09 pmThese look delicious – you’ve convinced me I finally need to go buy some spelt flour and try it out!
Choclette
11th June 2017 at 8:08 pmSpelt flour is my all time favourite and it’s even better for us than ordinary wholemeal.
Jenny Paulin
9th June 2017 at 4:34 pmoooh these buns look lovely . Such an even bake and all of them look the same size too. I love the addition of a potato to your dough too.
Thank you for linking up to #Bakeoftheweek x
Choclette
11th June 2017 at 8:06 pmThanks Jenny. The potato definitely helps to make the buns softer.
Nayna Kanabar
11th June 2017 at 6:17 pmYour spelt burger buns look brilliant, I have still along way to go to get comfortable cooking with spelt. Will bookmark and try this recipe.
Choclette
11th June 2017 at 8:02 pmThanks Nayna. I was brought up baking with wholemeal flour. I’m lucky in that respect.
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
12th June 2017 at 11:47 amAny type of homemade bread just wins the meal, eh? Delish!
Choclette
12th June 2017 at 5:34 pmThis is very true Rebecca – unless it’s one of the loaves I forgot about in the oven 😉
Kat (The Baking Explorer)
13th June 2017 at 10:35 pmThey look stunning and so beautifully baked
Choclette
14th June 2017 at 4:16 pmThanks Kat. They work really well as burger buns as well as for holding the jackfruit 🙂
Chris
30th June 2017 at 5:59 pmLuvly buns. Very interesting to add potato. It’s good to have a good burger bun recipe.
Choclette
3rd July 2017 at 7:26 pmThanks Chris. The potato helps to make the buns nice and soft.
Adrien
1st December 2018 at 8:12 pmHello ! Thanks for the recipe, it’s surpringly hard to find a wholewheat recipe to make burger buns. How long did you let them rise. It’s been 2h00 already and it’s very slow… I am hesitating to let it rise the whole night. Also thinking about a sourdough version, do you think it would work?
Choclette
2nd December 2018 at 2:30 pmHi Adrien
Sorry, this is probably a bit late for you now. Rising time will completely depend on the heat of your flour, the freshness of your yeast and the quality of your flour, so it’s very difficult to give a time. I have a fairly cool house and bread normally takes a few hours to rise, but I made those ones in summer so I think they’d probably risen within a couple of hours. If bread is taking too long to rise and you want to go to bed, put them in the fridge overnight and they should rise slowly enough that they’d be ready for baking in the morning. As for a sourdough version, I haven’t tried it, but I’d have to say, give it a go.