Hamburger Buns Lab · Calculator

Design your own hamburger buns

The sliders start at the typical batch: the median of 143 recipes for each ingredient, in grams per 100 g of flour. Move any of them within the range that 90% of recipes use (the 5th to the 95th percentile) and the grams update, with where your choice sits among the recipes and what that ingredient does.

This scales ratios; it is not a tested recipe. Each ingredient moves on its own against the flour, and a combination no recipe uses may not bake the way you expect. For the method, pan and oven, follow the real recipes nearest your numbers.

Flour

Flour weight (g)

500 g, about 4 cups, makes one typical batch.

Start from a recipe

Load a real recipe's percentages into the sliders. Search by title or site.

Grams per 100 g of flour

Liquid
275 g · 55%about 1 1/4 cups
In the middle: 49% of recipes use more, 48% less.
Milk or water; a softer, wetter dough bakes into a squishier bun.
Fat
50 g · 10%about 1/4 cup
In the middle: 42% of recipes use more, 46% less.
Butter or oil keeps the bun soft enough to squash around a burger; brioche buns sit at the top.
Sugar
31 g · 6.2%about 2 1/2 tbsp
In the middle: 51% of recipes use more, 48% less.
A little sugar for a golden top and a faint sweetness.
Egg
65 g · 13%about 1 1/2 large eggs
In the middle: 48% of recipes use more, 48% less.
Eggs enrich brioche-style buns; plain buns often use none. The egg wash is an extra.
Salt
9 g · 1.8%
In the middle: 44% of recipes use more, 46% less.
About 1.5 to 2%.
Yeast
8 g · 1.5%
In the middle: 46% of recipes use more, 48% less.
Quick recipes use plenty of yeast for a one-hour rise.

Your hamburger buns

Your hamburger buns in grams, with approximate volumes
Ingredient	Grams
Flour	500 gabout 4 cups
Liquidmilk, buttermilk, yogurt, cream and water	275 gabout 1 1/4 cups
Fatbutter, oil and shortening	50 gabout 1/4 cup
Sugarwhite sugar, brown sugar, honey and syrups	31 gabout 2 1/2 tbsp
Eggwhole eggs, yolks and whites	65 gabout 1 1/2 large eggs
Salt	9 g
Yeast	8 g
Total	938 g

938 g in all from 500 g of flour, counting only the groups above.

Closest real recipe: Panini per hamburger (cucchiaio.it).

BakeThe median of 117 recipes is 375°F (190°C), most for 14 to 23 minutes at their own size. A bigger or smaller batch, or a different pan, changes the time.

The 3 real recipes nearest your numbers

Measured on liquid, fat, sugar, egg, salt and yeast at once. These are published, tested recipes: follow one for its method, pan and timing, or load its percentages and adjust from there.

1
Panini per hamburger · cucchiaio.it
liquid 63% · fat 9.8% · sugar 6.5% · egg 11% · salt 2% · yeast 1.5%
2
Classic Hamburger Buns · foodnetwork.com
liquid 59% · fat 8.5% · sugar 7.5% · egg 17% · salt 1.6% · yeast 1.4%
3
Hamburger Bun Recipe · baking-sense.com
liquid 53% · fat 6.7% · sugar 6.7% · egg 12% · salt 2.1% · yeast 1.6%

How the calculator works

Every recipe is reduced to baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient group per 100 g of flour. The starting point is the median of all 143 recipes for each group separately, so no single recipe is exactly the starting batch. Grams are your flour weight times each percentage, rounded to the nearest 5 g above 50 g and the nearest gram or half gram below.

“More than 80% of recipes” counts the recipes with strictly less of that ingredient per gram of flour. The nearest recipes are measured on every ingredient at once, each scaled by how much recipes vary on it, so a wide-ranging ingredient does not outweigh a narrow one.

Only the groups listed are counted. Vanilla, spices, mix-ins and toppings are left out unless they have their own slider. Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.