A beef tallow brioche bun will take your burger game to the ultimate level! Just replace the butter with beef fat to amp up the beefiness for burgers!
WHAT YOU'LL LOVE
- Chilling the bowl of milk and eggs before mixing keeps the dough's base cold, which matters for properly incorporating the chilled beef tallow later in the process
- Adding the beef tallow and sugar alternately, in small portions, rather than all at once, lets each addition fully emulsify before the next goes in, avoiding a greasy or broken dough
- Pressing the finished dough flat on a sheet pan before chilling firms it up for easier, more even scaling, rather than trying to portion a soft, warm dough
- Using beef tallow in place of butter ties the bun's fat source back to beef, building a subtle beefiness that complements whatever burger ends up between the buns
Beef Tallow Brioche Buns
Britt Shoffner
Rated 3.3 stars by 6 users
Category
Appetizer
Cuisine
American
Servings
12
Prep Time
1 hour
Cook Time
45 minutes
Calories
489
Take your burgers to the next level with a Beef Tallow Brioche Bun! This recipe is packed with flavor and irresistible beefiness, making it the perfect addition to any burger! Elevate your burgers and wow your guests!
Ingredients
- 144 g Whole Milk
- 250 g (5 large) Eggs
-
625 g Antimo Caputo "00: Pizza Flour
-
16 g Jacobsen Pure Kosher Sea Salt
-
9 g (1 tbsp) Instant Dry Yeast
- 94 g White Sugar
-
281 g Beef Tallow (rendered beef fat), chilled
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon water
-
1 pinch salt
-
Cattleman's Grill Everything Bagel Seasoning, as needed
For the brioche dough:
For the egg wash/finish:
Directions
To mix the dough:
Scale your milk and eggs into the bowl of your stand mixer, and reserve that bowl in the fridge until ready to mix. Scale flour, salt, and yeast together in a separate bowl. Scale beef tallow, and keep chilled. Scale white sugar separately.
- Set up your electric stand mixer for bread mixing: dough hook for a Kitchenaid and dough roller & scraper attachments for an Ankarsrum. Place your flour, salt, and yeast on top of the chilled milk and eggs, and mix for 5 minutes on a low speed, until a homogenous mass of dough is made.
- Then, mix on slightly faster medium speed for 5 more minutes.
- After that 5 minutes, begin adding your beef tallow and sugar, alternately, starting with a third of the chilled beef tallow. Once that has fully incorporated, follow up with half of the sugar, and continue to mix in this manner until all the butter and sugar has been incorporated. Each addition must be fully incorporated before the next addition.
- If your dough starts to break or look overly greasy, have patience, and continue mixing at a higher speed to emulsify the fat and sugar into the dough. The final dough should have a homogenous texture and it should ball up when being mixed. This can take up to another 5-10 minutes of mixing to achieve.
- On a parchment-lined sheet pan, take the dough and press it into the pan to about a 1-inch thickness, cover, and place in the fridge to firm up before scaling and shaping.
To scale/shape/proof the dough:
About 4-6 hours before you would like to bake, take the chilled dough and using a scale, weigh out the dough into 115-gram portions. Round out the portions into balls, and flatten the rounds slightly into 3/4" discs.
- Space 6 brioche discs evenly onto an 18"x 13" sheet pan, lined with parchment paper. Cover the sheet pan in plastic (reference the video to do this effectively).
- Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 4-6 hours, depending on your environment. Once doubled in size, or roughly 4 inches in diameter, you are ready to bake.
To finish/bake the brioche:
Preheat your Yoder Smokers Pellet Grill to 325-350°F, with the diffuser plate in place, using the pellet flavor of your choice.
- Create your egg wash by whisking together one egg with a pinch of salt and about a teaspoon of water until totally smooth with no lumps of egg present.
- Remove the plastic wrap and brush the entire surface of the burger buns with egg wash and follow up with a heavy sprinkling of Cattleman's Grill Everything Bagel Seasoning.
- Bake centered on the top rack of the pellet grill for 25-35 minutes, rotating about halfway through the cook. The surface should have a golden brown color, with a minimum internal temperature of 190°F.
- Cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing for burger buns.
Recipe Note
Recipe FAQ
Why chill the bowl of milk and eggs before mixing in the flour, salt, and yeast?
Keeping that base cold matters later in the process, when the chilled beef tallow needs to incorporate into the dough without melting prematurely and turning the dough greasy.
Why add the beef tallow and sugar in alternating small portions instead of all at once?
Adding a third of the chilled tallow, then half the sugar, and repeating lets each addition fully emulsify into the dough before the next goes in. Adding everything at once risks the dough breaking or looking overly greasy.
Why press the dough flat on a sheet pan and chill it before scaling into portions?
Firming the dough in the fridge first makes it much easier to weigh and shape into even 115-gram portions, rather than trying to scale a soft, warm dough that sticks and deforms.
Why use beef tallow instead of butter in a brioche dough?
Swapping in beef tallow ties the bun's fat source back to beef, building a subtle beefiness into the bread itself that complements a burger patty rather than competing with it.
How indoor-friendly is this recipe?
5 out of 5 — a stand mixer and a regular oven can handle every step of this recipe exactly the way the pellet grill does here; the grill is only being used as an outdoor oven.
Recipe Highlights
Pre-chilled dough base: Sets up proper tallow incorporation later.
Alternating fat-and-sugar additions: Prevents a greasy, broken dough.
Flattened, chilled dough: Makes scaling into even portions easier.
Beef tallow fat source: Builds subtle beefiness into the bun itself.
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Nutrition
Nutrition
- Nutrition Serving Size
- 4.96 oz
- per serving
- Calories
- 489
- Carbs
- 50 grams
- Protein
- 6 grams
- Fat
- 28 grams
- Sodium
- 322 milligrams
