Pitch-Black Brioche Burger Buns {Squid Ink}

Are you bored of your regular burger buns? Do you want to add a wow factor to your burgers?

I was, and I did. And that’s how I ended up making these natural pitch-BLACK brioche burger bun.

The star ingredient of these buns? The squid ink!

I know some might be thinking “Eww I don’t need any of that fishy taste in my buns”, and that’s exactly what I was worried about in the beginning.

I tasted the dough before proving- I could not taste anything ‘fishy’ although my partner thought he sensed a tiniest hint of saltiness from the ink.

Post-baking? We both agreed there was only the taste of beautifully rich brioche. The ink did not impart any unwanted flavor or smell except the natural black color to the buns.

At the end of the day, they’re just brioche buns with a natural black dye. But the extra ingredient makes the burger so much more fun and look way fancier too!

And who doesn’t need that every once in a while, huh? ;)

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Preparation Time 2.5 hours Baking Time 15 mins Serving Size 10 regular size buns

Ingredients

Buns

• 3 to 3 and 1/3 cups (360-400 gr) Bread Flour Start with 3 cups and add 1 tbsp at a time as you mix only if the dough sticks too much (do NOT use more than 3 and 1/3 cups)

• 1.5 tsp Salt

• 2 tsp Instant Yeast

• 1 tbsp Granulated Sugar

• 1 tbsp Brown Sugar

• 1 Egg (large, 56-63 gr without shell), at room temperature

• 120 ml Milk (whole is better but 2% is OK as well), warm to touch 45-50°C / 113-120°F

• 180 ml Water, warm to touch 45-50°C / 113-120°F

• 85 gr (3/4 stick) Butter, softened to room temperature

• 1 tbsp Squid Ink

Egg Wash / Toppings

• 1 Egg (small or medium)

• 1 tbsp Sesame seeds or any other topping to your liking, e.g. Everything bagel topping

Instructions

1. Take out the butter from the refrigerator in advance (ideally, at least 30 minutes before). Cut the butter into 4-5 pieces. Leave it at room temperature until softened.

2. Add squid ink to the warm milk and water mixture (you can microwave the liquid for 20-30 seconds if it is cold). Then, add this liquid mixture and then the eggs to the flour mixture, and mix well (you can just use a fork).

3. Now add the softened butter to the mixture piece by piece while kneading the dough with a mixer with dough hook at medium-low speed for 5-8 minutes (or by hand for about 10-15 minutes). Every mixer (or arm strength) is different, so check the dough rather than the time. Towards the end of kneading, the dough might stick a little bit to the sides of the bowl. But you should be able to form a ball with the dough. The dough will be soft and supple.

If you're unsure how to tell if the dough is kneaded enough, check out this article on The Kitchn.

4. Lightly oil (or butter) the inside of a bowl where the dough will rest. Cover the bowl with a wrap and place it in a warm place until the dough rises almost double. This could take 30 minutes (in summer) to 1 hour or even longer (in winter) depending on the temperature of your kitchen. So check on the dough every 15 minutes after 30 minutes if you're unsure.

5. Once the dough has risen, gently defat (punch down) the dough, and divide it into 10 pieces. You can either weigh the dough and divide it into 10 equal pieces (which I would highly recommend if you have a scale) or just eyeball it. Roll each piece into a ball shape, and place it on a lined baking sheet.

6. Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C).

7. Loosely cover these balls with a lightly greased plastic wrap, and wait until they're almost double in volume and noticeably puffy. Again, this could take anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour. You do not want them to be overproofed at this stage, so watch carefully.

8. Once the balls are proofed and ready to be baked, brush them lightly with egg wash and sprinkle the seeds on top.

9. Bake them for about 15 minutes (with a fan) to 18 minutes (no fan).

10. When they're out of the oven, make sure they're placed on an oven rack as they cool. (Otherwise, condensation is going to make the bottom of the buns soggy! Trust me- you don't want that!)

Tips

• If you're using active dry yeast, you must proof the yeast in the warm liquid mixture first. Leave yeast out of the flour mixture in Step 2, and add it to the warm liquid mixture between Step 2 and 3. Leave it for 10 minutes until it begins to foam. Proceed with Step 3.

• The dough is going to look dark-greyish. Don't be tempted to add more squid ink. The color of the buns will turn pitch black as they bake! (You can see the color change after baking in the pictures above.)

• If the room temperature is too low, you can heat up the oven to about 60°C (140°F) for 10 minutes, turn off the heat, and place the dough (in a tightly sealed bowl) in the oven with the oven door ajar. Close the oven door after 10 minutes and leave the dough there to rise.