Pumpkin buns – soft pumpkin shaped burger buns

Fluffy and flavourful at the same time: pumpkin buns. My soft pumpkin-shaped burger buns for hearty vegan autumn burgers. A delicious recipe for homemade burger buns with fresh, seasonal pumpkin in the batter.

Thanks to the pumpkin shape of the buns, your burgers will be an eye catcher on the menu! A delicious, tasty highlight! In this recipe, I am also explaining to you how to form the pumpkin shape out of the dough.

The consistency of the burger buns is very reminiscent of brioche batter, as I made them with Tangzhong batter. Tangzhong is a Japanese batter technique that is used for milk rolls.

These soft burger buns are suitable for many delicious burger variations. I developed the recipe specifically for my seasonal autumn burgers. A vegan hamburger with mushrooms and beets in a meaty patty.

Pictures of the pumpkin buns:

Photos of the preparation of the burger buns:

See how soft my vegan pumpkin burger buns are:

Ingredients for 8 pumpkin buns:

Pumpkin puree:

150 g Hokkaido pumpkin

Tangzhong:

50 ml of water
50 ml soy milk
20 g of flour

Main dough:

400 g of flour
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
30 g fresh yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
50 ml soy milk
50 g vegan yoghurt
100 g pumpkin puree
1 high tablespoon of chickpea flour, mixed with 50 ml of water
90 ml of oil (sunflower, canola oil)

2-3 tbsp soy milk to brush the buns

Preparation:

Pumpkin puree:

For the homemade burger buns, preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C) top and bottom heat.

We’re starting with the pumpkin puree.

Place the piece of Hokkaido squash on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake on the middle rack for 35-40 minutes. Turn once in between.
Take the pumpkin out of the oven and let it cool down. Cut into small pieces and puree those into a fine pulp. You should receive about 100 g pumpkin puree.

Tangzhong:

Next, I prepare the Tangzhong. Tangzhong is a type of pre-dough that is used in Japanese milk rolls. This pre-dough binds the liquid better in the flour and our burger buns become much softer and fluffier.

Mix the water and flour in a small saucepan with a whisk. There sould not be any lumps left over. Then stir in the soy milk.

Gently heat the Tangzhong while stirring. The dough is not supposed to boil. It should reach a temperature of 140-160°F (65-70°C). You can take the pot off the flame every now and then to keep the heat low. The pre-dough is good if it has a custard-like consistency. That takes a few minutes.

Take the pot of the stove and let cool down.

Main dough:

Put the flour in a large bowl and mix it with the vital wheat gluten, salt and turmeric. Now form a deep hole in the flour. The vital wheat gluten gives the flour a higher gluten content, which makes the dough rise better and airier. If you don’t have any vital wheat gluten, you can just skip this step.

Crumble the yeast in the hole and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on top of it. Gently heat the 50 ml soy milk , until it is lukewarm. However, it must not be warmer than 100°F (40°C), as that destroys the yeast cultures. It is at the right temperature if you hold a fingertip into it and the soy milk is neither cold nor warm to the touch. Pour the soy milk over the yeast-sugar mixture, then stir it in gently. There should only be little flour inside the liquid. Let the yeast pre-dough rest for 15 minutes. The yeast must have risen nicely at the end and the soy milk should be full of bubbles.

Knead all the other ingredients for the dough in as well. Including the Tangzhong and the pumpkin. This is best done by hand. At first, the batter for the pumpkin buns is very sticky, but after a while it gets smoother.
If the batter is too dry, add a little more soy milk. If it is still sticky, knead in some additional flour. All in all, the bun dough is easy to knead, smooth, a bit moist and only slightly sticky.
In order for the dough to rise well, you should knead it for several minutes.
Afterwards cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let it rise at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Then knead it again shortly.

Shape the burger buns into a pumpkin shape:

Form the dough into a roll and cut into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a round ball of dough. Let these dough balls rise again for 15 minutes. It is best to cover them with a kitchen towel so that they do not turn dry.

Now it’s time to shape the pumpkins out of our yeast dough. Simply cut off a piece of cooking twine and wrap it relatively loosely around a bun. Squeeze the risen bun as little as possible. The best way to do this is to wrap the kitchen twine around the dough ball once. Then you make a simple knot in the yarn and repeat this 3 times. Always leave a little space to the previous strand of yarn. In the end, you should have a raw dough pumpkin.

Spread the pumpkin buns on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Then brush them with some soy milk.

Baking the vegan burger buns:

Preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C) top and bottom heat.
Bake the pumpkin buns for about 20-25 minutes.

Let them cool down. As soon as they aren’t to hot anymore, you can cut them open and turn them into wonderful vegan burgers of your choice.

Alternatively, of course, the pumpkin buns also taste great as soft pumpkin rolls for breakfast or as hearty sandwiches.

Bon Appetit!