Description
Low Carb Brioche Buns Made with Yeast that TASTE like REAL Brioche BREAD! They’re soft and airy inside with a perfect crumb, and a lightly chewy and shiny exterior (thanks to an egg wash)! Use a stand mixer with a dough hook and let the machine knead the dough for you! Bake them same day OR you can let these buns rise in the fridge overnight (for some REALLY amazing flavor) and then bake the morning after! These are not Gluten Free, but they are Low Carb & HUGE!:)
Ingredients
** using scale to measure any ingredient with a weight (in grams) listed is going to give you the most accurate & BEST results! Measuring in volumes (ie. teaspoons/cups) is ok for the ingredients that dont need to be as precise- these are listed as volumes. If the ingredient has grams listed, then PLEASE use a kitchen scale**
- 236 grams (1 Cup) Filtered or Distilled Water (80°F is ideal, *see note 1)
- 1.5 teaspoons Sugar (or substitute 1 Tablespoon Inulin)
- 2 teaspoons Instant Yeast (strongly recommend this SAF INSTANT YEAST)
- 100 grams Eggs (2 large eggs), lightly whisked (at room temp* see note 2 for shortcut!)
- 80 grams Lupin Flour (3/4 Cup) (this LUPINA brand will give you the BEST taste)
- 170 grams Vital Wheat Gluten (1 + 1/4 Cup) (this King Arthur Brand Vital Wheat Gluten is the ONLY brand I recommend using)
- 38 grams Oat Fiber (1/2 Cup) (only use this Lifesource brand or this Honeyville Brand)
- 3.5 Tablespoons Allulose
- 3.5 grams Kosher Salt (1.25 teaspoons) (do NOT use plain table salt- use kosher salt!)
- 2 Tablespoons Salted Butter (softened, and room temp)
For the Egg Wash/Topping:
- 1 Egg lightly whisked with 1 Tablespoon water
- Sesame Seeds Optional (or sub with Everything but the bagel seasoning or poppyseeds!)
- Pastry brush
Instructions
RECIPE VIDEO is just below these instructions (please watch!):
- Mix together your “flour” ingredients (lupin flour, vital wheat gluten, and oat fiber) in a bowl & whisk until evenly distributed. Set aside.
- In your stand mixer bowl, add instant yeast, sugar (or Inulin), and filtered (or distilled) water warmed to 80°F (*see note 1 for water temperature adjustments). To ensure that your yeast is active (& not old or bad), allow the mix to sit for 5-7 minutes until you see foamy bubbles appear (it SHOULD look like the yeast is ‘blooming’ or expanding slightly in the water). If you don’t see any bubbles, expansion or changes, then your yeast might be bad or old!
- Once your yeast is foamy and blooming, add lightly whisked eggs and allulose to the stand mixer. Using a dough hook, mix together on a low speed until lightly combined. Add half of your low carb “flour” mix and continue kneading on the LOWEST mixer speed for 2-3 minutes. Add the other half of the low carb “flour” mix and continue kneading (still on lowest speed!) for 11-12 minutes. The dough should look cohesive, smooth and stretchy (hello gluten development!)*At this point, if you were to pinch a piece of the dough and try to stretch it away from the rest of the dough, it should NOT break off easily. If it does break off instead of stretch, then it means your gluten hasn’t developed enough, so you can just continue kneading for an additional 1-2 minutes)*. Add Kosher salt & softened butter to the dough, and knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and the butter has been completely kneaded in (no greasiness should be left in the dough), which should take 5-6 more minutes of kneading. *If the butter is having trouble getting kneaded in (it will slip around kinda crazy the first few minutes while mixing, which is normal and expected!) you can pause the kneading, pull the dough off the hook, pinch the dough with your hands (like a giant crab pinching your dough all across the dough) & then flip the dough over and continue your knead to help distribute the butter in.* Once the dough looks SMOOTH and is not greasy to the touch, turn off your mixer and gather all the dough in your hands (some of your dough may appear stringy or not all in one even ball , and this is okay! It is just tight from good gluten development). Form the dough into a smooth ball shape as best you can. Put the dough ball back into the mixer bowl & cover the bowl with seran wrap or a kitchen towel. Let the dough rest/RELAX at room temperature for 30 minutes!
- After the dough has relaxed for 30 minutes, use a bench scraper (or a knife) to cut the dough into 8 equal pieces (tip: use the scale to weigh & divide by 8 if you want them all exact same size). Now, you can shape each bun! Please watch the recipe video to see the best shaping technique! *I have used many different shaping techniques on this recipe & building a MODERATE amount of “tension” in the dough will give you the most perfect buns (simply rolling them into balls may not build enough tension in the dough, and will result in slightly less fluffy buns–OR TOO much tension [the dough is pulled TOO tight) in the dough , will mean air bubbles get too trapped & you may have large hollows inside when you bake them.* TO SHAPE: Take one piece of your dough and gently flatten the dough with your hands into a square-ish shape ( a very rough square ish shape is is totally fine). Fold each corner of the flattened dough piece into the center and gently press the corner of the dough down into the middle (imagine folding each dough corner like the flap of an envelope into middle of the dough and do this for all four corners!). Then, rotate the dough slightly about 45 ° so you can do the same thing for the remaining unfolded edges. (I’m referring to the pieces of dough that were IN BETWEEN the corners and have not been pulled tight into the center of the dough) and fold them into the center of the dough same as before. Your dough should like a round little dumpling now! Pinch the seam (the seam is the place in the center where you gathered all the corners) shut. Flip your shaped, round dough ball over, so the pinched seam is facing down, and place onto a parchment lined or silpat baking mat lined baking tray. Do this for each piece of dough. Use the palm of your hand to gently flatten all the dough balls (they’ll spring back up a lot and that’s fine!). Cover the whole baking sheet loosely with a lightly oiled piece of seran wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise on your kitchen counter for 1-1.5 hours or until doubled in size. If your kitchen is a little on the cooler side (below 70-72 °F), your rise time will be slightly longer. If your kitchen is warmer than 72 °F then your rise time will be a little shorter. I actually prefer it a little cooler, because the LONGER the rise time, the BETTER the flavors that develop in your buns! *** ALTERNATIVELY, you CAN place your shaped dough balls in the fridge to rise OVERNIGHT (instead of at room temperature) – which will even FURTHER enhance the delicious yeasty flavor! SEE NOTE 3 for tips/instructions for an overnight rise.
- Preheat your oven to 375 °F before your buns are fully risen. After your buns have appeared to almost double in size (my kitchen which is usually 71- 72 °F takes 1 Hour and 15 minutes exactly), you can conduct a “finger poke” test to check if they’re ready to bake! *To do this, gently poke one of your buns and see how it bounces back. If it the poke does NOT leave a mark and the dough bounces/springs right back, then they need more time to rise. If the poke leaves a mark but very slowly and slightly starts to bounce back, then they are PERFECTLY risen & ready to bake. If the poke leaves a big flabby dent that doesn’t bounce back at ALL, then they are overproofed :(!
- Whisk together 1 egg + 1 tablespoon of water to make the egg wash. Use a pastry brush and paint the egg wash onto each bun lightly covering all surfaces besides the very bottom. Sprinkle on sesame seeds or other topping of choice. Bake at 375 °F for 18-22 minutes until they’re a deep, dark golden brown and they feel firm (they will still be soft but not doughy!) on top when touched. These will get quite dark in color (as you can see in my pictures!) and that’s perfectly normal – they won’t taste burnt unless they start turning brownish/ black in the oven! If they’re getting too dark, you can adjust oven temp down to 350 °F during baking (which may add another minute or two to your bake time). Remove buns from the baking sheet and let them cool COMPLETELY on a wire rack, BEFORE slicing into (cooling them all the way SETS the crumb & prevents deflation- it’s SUPER important!).
- I recommend only cutting the buns in half, when you’re going to eat them to keep the centers fresh & soft. Store buns at room temperature in an airtight container or ziploc bag to prevent drying out. These buns also FREEZE perfectly! I like to freeze my in individual ziploc freezer bags so that I can pull a single serving easily when needed. To thaw frozen buns, remove from the storage bag (to prevent sogginess during defrost) and let them thaw on the counter for 30-45 minutes 🙂
- ENJOY!
Notes
Note 1: We use a slightly cooler temperature of water here, because the friction caused by a long kneading time in the mixer will be heating the dough up further! You don’t NEED warmer water for instant yeast! Please use thermometer to check your water temperature! Using water that is too warm, will cause your buns to rise quicker – resulting in less flavor & potential overproofing! If you kitchen is REALLY cold (ie. below 70F, you can use slightly warmer water), and if your kitchen is warmer (ie its over 72F in summertime) you can use slightly cooler water (but NO Lower than 70F). See post for more info on WHY! 🙂
*Note 2: If you forget to leave your eggs out to come to room temperature ahead of time, then just submerge them in cup or bowl or warm water for 3 minutes -5 minutes and they’ll be the perfect temperature needed 🙂 (I do this little trick every time, because I am terrible at planning in advance!).
**Note 3: FOR A COLD, OVERNIGHT RISE —- Once you have shaped your buns, placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet, and covered them loosely (but completely) with a lightly oiled piece of seran wrap then you can move them STRAIGHT into your refrigerator! The cool temperatures of the fridge, will still make them rise (but at a snails pace!). It will not hurt the yeast, and what it will do is give them amazing flavor!!!! You can also do this if you just want a 3-4 hour (or however long) break in between shaping your buns & baking them. To Bake, just take your baking sheet with buns out of the fridge and bring to room temperature on your counter, for 30-45 minutes, or UNTIL double the original size (since shaping), and then add your egg wash and bake as directed! *if you let them rise in the fridge for only a short period time, opposed to overnight, you may need to let them come to room temp for 30-45 minutes and then still continue rising for another 30 minutes or so if they haven’t doubled in size. Just watch for over/underproofing signs via the finger poke test listed in the recipe instructions!
Macronutrients on this recipe are calculated based off the brands listed/suggested. Net Carbs are listed, and do NOT include carbs from allulose as they do not affect blood sugar levels 🙂
- Prep Time: 2 -2.5 hours
- Cook Time: 18-22 minutes
- Category: brioche/ bread
- Method: Stand Mixer + Baked
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Large Bun (1/8th of Recipe)
- Calories: 146
- Fat: 4.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 2.8 g NET CARBS
- Protein: 20.5 grams