I was looking through my cookbooks, trying to find some inspiration for the weekend dinners. When I found pulled pork on hamburger buns, I knew I had found the perfect meal for the Saturday evening. It takes some time to cook pulled pork, but most of the time it takes care of itself. You just have to add some wood chips and checking the temperature now and then. The rest of the time you can just relax in a comfortable chair drinking a beer or whatever you prefer to do.
The recipe was written by Jonas Cramby, a popular food writer here in Sweden. He has no formal chef training, I think. But he has a genuine food knowledge that he writes about with a humorous twist.
The recipe for pulled pork in this post is almost a copy of the one in his book. I just decided to replace some of the chili powder with some smoked paprika in the BBQ sauce.
There was a recipe for hamburger buns in his book as well. I decided not to copy that recipe. It was nothing wrong with it. I’m sure it tastes great and fulfills its function, but it was baked with instant yeast.
And I am a typical sourdough guy. I know that you will always get bread with more taste if you bake it with a sourdough starter than if you use commercial yeast. Therefore, I always try to replace the yeast with a sourdough starter if possible.
You can find a lot of good recipes for sourdough buns, but I wanted to do something that was my own.
A good hamburger bread should be light, soft and airy. At the same time, it must be able to withstand some meat juices without getting soggy. I wanted a brioche type of bun. But not too much brioche, so I decided not to go overboard with the butter. Feel free to experiment with the amount of butter, but whatever you do, don’t use margarine. It’s a grisly invention. Remember what Anthony Bourdain said. Margarine is not food for humans.
Milk, on the other hand, is excellent food, and it is also the secret to get soft bread. Most of the times you don’t want a soft crust on your sourdough bread, but hamburger buns is an exception. So I used equal parts water and milk for this recipe.
I used my dough mixer for this dough. I’m sure it’s possible to mix it by hand, but it’s always a bit tricky with all this butter.
On the pictures, You can see that I have made the buns quite big. I did that on purpose because I wanted to be able to load them with a lot of pulled pork. If you are planning to make these buns for hamburgers, I think it’s a good idea to make them a bit smaller. Divide the dough into ten pieces instead of seven as I did.
I was very pleased with the results when I placed the buns on a wire rack to cool. They had turned out just as I wanted them. Everything had gone according to plans. No, it was time to deal with the pulled pork. I started to apply the home made rub I had made of brown sugar, onion powder, Rosemary, pepper, and cumin. I was halfway through that process when I looked out through the window.
There were dark clouds gathering in the sky. Before I was ready preparing the meat, it started raining. And it rained a lot.
I cursed the SMHI (The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute). They hadn’t said anything about rain.
What to do now? I went back to to the recipe. I had read that it was possible to make this pulled pork in an oven. The result would not be the same of course. The author was very clear about that, but what choice did I have? Barbeque the meat in the pouring rain? It was not an attractive option.
So I pre heated the oven, placed the meat in a casserole, stuck a thermometer in it and shuffled everything into the oven. Now I only had to wait for at least four hours. That gave me plenty of time to think about the barbeque sauce. I had already found a recipe for that as well, but now I had to do some changes. Pulled pork is supposed to be cooked in a barbeque smoker. A kettle grill is OK. Then you get that tasty, rich, smoky flavor that is the whole meaning of barbeque. You can’t get that in an ordinary kitchen oven unless you decide to start a fire in it. Something that I strongly discourage you from for obvious reasons.
So I decided to add some smoke to the sauce instead. And I did that with smoked paprika and a few drops of liquid smoke. All barbeque aficionado will probably stop reading now, and in some way, I can agree. It felt a little bit like cheating. But I always have a bottle of liquid smoke in the refrigerator because it is very useful sometimes. And if you use a good quality liquid smoke which is made of smoked water only, it’s not that bad.
Making the sauce is simple. You just mix all ingredients and boil until you get a thick, sweet sticky, and marvelous sauce.
In the end, I could serve the family what I had promised. Pulled pork in hamburger buns with BBQ sauce. I also added some cole slaw and homemade french fries. Everyone was happy and said it tasted just as delicious as if I had cooked it on the BBQ smoker.I don’t agree to that, but it did taste very good. And when I went to the refrigerator for another beer I looked out through the window. The sun was shining again.
Pulled pork in sourdough hamburger buns
Ingredients
Sourdough hamburger buns
- 500 gram Wheat flour
- 150 gram water
- 150 gram whole milk
- 2 egg
- 80 gram butter
- 140 gram sourdough starter 100% hydration
- 10 gram salt
BBQ rub
- 1/2 cup brown suger
- 1/2 cup suger
- 1/3 cup paprika powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoon salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon onoin powder
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
BBQ sauce
- 1 yellow onoin chopped
- 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup japanese soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon worcestershiresauce
- 1/2 cup ketchup
Pulled pork
- 2 1/2 lbs pork shoulder roast
- BBQ rub
Instructions
Sourdough hamburger buns
- Take out the butter from the refrigerator and let it soften for 15 minutes. Mix all ingredients except salt, butter, and egg. Mix the dough in a dough mixer for 3 minutes on medium speed, or until all flour is hydrated.
- Add one egg. Save the other egg for brushing the buns. Add butter in small pieces, one by one. Wait until every piece is incorporated into the dough before you add the next.
- Run the dough in the mixer for 6-8 minutes. Add salt and run the dough until elastic. Do window pane test. If necessary run it in the mixer for some additional minutes.
- Let the dough ferment for 2 - 3 hours at room temperature.
- Pour out the dough on a lightly floured working surface. Divide the dough into pieces of appropriate size. 7 for pulled pork and 10 for hamburgers. shape each piece into a ball. I used the same technique as when I'm shaping a boule. Just make sure that the surface is taut.
- Place the balls on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Let them rise for an hour, covered. A kitchen towel is Ok, but a big plastic tray that covers all the balls is better Pre-heat the oven to 480ºF / 250ºC. Place an extra baking sheet in the bottom of the oven.
- Press gently with a finger against the dough. If the hole disappears completely when you remove your finger, the dough is under-proofed. If the hole springs back halfway, the dough is ready. Whisk the remaining egg with some milk and brush is on the balls. Sprinkle some poppy seed on top (optional)
- Place the baking sheet with balls in the oven and pour some water on the sheet below to get some steam. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn down the temperature if necessary.
- Let the buns cool on a wire rack.
BBQ rub
- Mix all spices and store in air tight container.
BBQ sauce
- Fry the onion, garlic and cumin in oil on medium heat for 1 minute. Add vinegar and the rest of the ingredients. Let it boil until you get a thick sauce.
Pulled pork
- Pre-heat the oven to 230ºF / 110ºC Apply the rub on the meat and place it in a casserole or baking dish. Cook until the inner temperature has reached 230ºF / 95ºC. Shred the meat with two forks before serving with hamburger buns and BBQ sauce.
15 Comments
Tomas, I’m looking forward to making these buns for the local chef I told you about who so adores his manyfactured, frozen buns:
Let’s convert him!
Great Idea. Do that, Gina and please come back and tell me about his response. I can’t wait to hear about it.
I followed the Sourdough bun recipe and measured exactly what was needed. I have great success with sourdough bread. These bubs were dense. They made great English Muffins though. I am wondering if it had something to do with my starter. Your photo shows that the Sandwich buns had rised.
Hi Donna,
I don’t think it has anything to do with your starter if you are successful with other types of sourdough bread. But perhaps you have to increase the fermentation time, both when it comes to bulk fermentation and final rise. There is some fat in this dough and I have noticed that it can slow down the fermentation sometimes. When I bake real Brioche bread with a lot of butter and egg it sometimes needs 15 hours for the final rise, in room temperature.
I made the burger buns. They’re just out of the oven and smell and look amazing. Plus feel super light. Can’t wait to taste them.
Great recipe. A definite keeper. Thank you.
I’m glad you liked them, Janet. I have got some comments that they are dense. I think it’s a matter of letting them proof long enough. Enriched doughs proof slowly. But it seems that you have succeeded with it.
As a novice baker I have some questions? Was the starter fed the night before baking? How long after feeding the starter should the dough be made? Could you make dough and refrigerate and bake next day? What specific wheat flour? Can you use all purpose or bread flour ? Thank you.
I’ve made this bun recipe 4 times and wanted to share my experiences and tweaks that I made. The first time was exactly per the recipe except I used KA white whole flour (I had it and wanted to use it up), but I thought the buns were bitter from the flour. I don’t like the white whole wheat flour;it was not good in another bread recipe either. My first buns were very dense,, small in diameter and very puffy and tall. Beautiful, but not quite what I was going for. After all my trials,this is what has worked the best for me and produced a great bun.
1) used 300g whole-wheat flour and 200g bread flour
2) after adding and mixing the flours, milk, water, and starter, I covered the bowl and let it rest for an hour
3) added 3 TBS honey when I added the egg
4) upped the first proof to 4 hours
5) divided dough into 10 pieces ( was using for pulled pork sandwiches)
6) shaped like a boule, but being certain to pinch the bottom together so it would be smooth after baking
7) placed 4 buns to a cookie sheet and evenly flattened them out to the diameter I desired. Proofed for 90 minutes.
8) the egg wash pooled around the bottom of my first buns and left a ring of cooked egg so I just used whole milk after that
9) I baked with and without steam and couldn’t tell a difference, so I didn’t continue to use steam. I do have a convection oven tho and baked at 425 for 17 minutes.
The buns came out the size of a large hamburger bun and about the same height. Flattening them eliminated the tall dome shape. But the dome shape would be desirable for some dishes. I put sesame seeds on one batch. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the input, Jerri. I think that perhaps the first proof can be extended even further. I have learned one thing about enriched doughs since I published this recipe, and that is that they proof very slowly.
I think that is the main reason why so many get dens buns when following this recipe.
Edit my comment to read I shaped dough into 8 pieces, not 10
As a novice baker I have some questions? Was the starter fed the night before baking? How long after feeding the starter should the dough be made? Could you make dough and refrigerate and bake next day? What specific wheat flour? Can you use all purpose or bread flour ? Thank you.
Hi Linda,
If you keep your starter in the fridge you need to feed it the day before baking. I use to feed my starter before I go to bed. Most of the time It’s read to use when I wake up in the morning. It depends of course on the health of your starter, temperature etc. It should have at least doubled in volume, preferably more. You can also use the floating test to see if it’s ready.
Most sourdough can be refrigerated overnight. Just be aware that it may get a sourer taste. Nothing wrong with that, just be aware of it.
Try with whatever type of flour you have available. You can always adjust water or flour amount to suit your circumstances. Always look at recipes (even mine ?) as guidelines.
Thanks. I made them and they are great!
I made this for Memorial Day this year, but smoked my port roast Sunday in the side chamber smoker and finished the meat overnight on the lowest setting on our crockpot. The meat was juicy, tender, and most of all smoky, and pared with Tomas’s sourdough buns, my, oh my, what a great way to start grilling season
Great to hear that, Darryl. I started my smoker 6 weeks ago. It was quite cold here in Sweden then, but I could not wait any longer.