Honey Butter Buns

If you’ve never made fresh buns at home before, you’re in for a treat. These buns are heads and shoulders above store-bought. They’re so soft you won’t believe you made them with your own two hands. They’re warm and fresh from the oven, super soft and buttery, and brushed with sweet and savory Bachan’s honey butter. They’re irresistible.

What are honey butter buns?

Honey butter buns are soft dinner rolls that are finished with honey butter. They’re the perfect accompaniment to any meal, but especially soups and stews. They also make excellent slider buns or mini breakfast sandwiches. If you’ve never baked fresh bread before, you’ll be amazed at how easy and magical it is.

Ingredients for honey butter buns

You only need seven ingredients (eight if you count water) for these buns and most of them are pantry ingredients, making them easy to whip up whenever the craving hits:

bread flour - bread flour is the key to soft buns. Regular all-purpose flour works as well, but the extra protein in bread flour helps with gluten development, which is what makes bread soft and chewy.

yeast - Instant yeast, also labeled as quick-rise, fast-acting, or rapid-rise is a dry yeast that’s found sold in jars or small paper packets. The yeast granules are small and dry and the beauty of instant yeast is that it doesn’t need to be activated before using in recipes, meaning you don’t need to mix instant yeast in a liquid before using it. You can just put the instant yeast granules in with the rest of your ingredients.

sugar - a bit of sugar in the dough helps feed the yeast as well as gives a nice sweetness to the buns.

salt - Salt helps flavor and highlights the sweetness in these buns.

butter - There’s butter in the dough and on top of the buns too. A little bit of butter in the dough makes this bun recipe softer and richer than a dough made with just flour, yeast, and water. Of course, honey butter buns wouldn’t be honey butter buns without a generous amount of honey butter brushed on top. Good butter mixed with honey and Bachan’s Sweet Honey Japanese Barbecue Sauce takes these buns from regular to over the top.

honey - sweet golden honey is the perfect sweetener for honey butter buns.  Look for pure and natural honey. Clover honey is the gold standard in honey because it’s mild and sweet without any extra strong flavors.

Bachan’s Sweet Honey Japanese Barbecue Sauce - to make these buns even more irresistible, mix Bachan’s Sweet Honey Japanese Barbecue Sauce with butter and honey to create a compound butter topping. Bachan’s Sweet Honey Japanese Barbecue Sauce adds a savory mix of organic honey with traditionally brewed soy sauce, aged Japanese mirin, organic rice vinegar, green onion, ginger, and garlic. It’s rich, warm, and absolutely crave-worthy.

How to make honey butter buns

1. Mix - a stand mixer makes this recipe a breeze, but if you don’t have a stand mixer, not to worry, you’ve got this. In the bowl of your stand mixer (or your mixing bowl) add the ingredients in this specific order: water, yeast, butter, bread flour, and salt. Mix everything together until it comes into a shaggy ball.

2. Knead - if you’re using a stand mixer, let it do its thing on medium speed for about 15 minutes or until the dough reaches the windowpane stage. Otherwise, knead by hand, until the dough comes together and becomes less sticky, about 10-15 minutes. Take a small bit of bread in your hands and pull it apart; if the bread stays intact and you can see through the bread membrane, the dough is ready to proof (this is called the windowpane stage). If the dough membrane breaks or has a hole, you need to continue kneading.

3. Proof - when the dough is ready, gather it into a ball and transfer it to a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen cloth and let it proof in a warm spot until it is double its original size. It should take about one hour.

4. Shape - once the dough has doubled in size, it’s time to shape. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and use a knife to divide the dough into 9-12 even portions, depending on how many buns you want. Shape the dough into balls by pinching the edges of the dough towards the center, creating a taut ball. Place the roll, seam side down into an 8x8 square baking pan, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

5. Make honey butter - once the buns have been shaped, heat your oven to 355°F. While you wait, make the honey butter: add soft, room-temperature butter to a food processor. Pulse the butter and slowly stream in Bachan’s Sweet Honey Japanese Barbecue Sauce and honey. The butter will come together, slowly but surely, into a fluffy, whipped honey butter. Save some of the butter for brushing the buns. Shape the remainder into a compound butter log and put it in the fridge to firm up or simply transfer to a serving bowl as whipped butter.

6. Bake - once the buns are ready to bake, pop them in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Remove the buns and set the pan on a wire rack.

7. Brush - immediately and generously brush the hot buns with the honey butter.

8. Enjoy - serve the buns warm with the extra honey butter on the side. Heaven.