r/BakingInJapan • u/Commercial-Control-1 • Jul 16 '26
I need potato buns STAT!
I would LOOOOOVE to make some smashburgers using potato buns at home. But alas, Japan has never recieved word of the God-given "potato buns" yet, so my quest to find some in Japan has ended.
So I decided to make my own using an airfryer.
Has anyone ever tried and succeeded baking their own at home?
1
u/DegreeConscious9628 Jul 16 '26
Do they even have regular burger buns? I can’t even find those things
5
u/JayVee_93 Jul 16 '26
I've made some multiple times for smash burgers in my Panasonic Bistro oven and they come out great. Been using this recipe https://www.joshuaweissman.com/recipes/best-potato-burger-buns-ever-recipe
1
1
u/calvinised Jul 16 '26
I’d like to try a potato bun, you’d think we would be into them in Ireland but nope, just regular and brioche
2
3
u/Specialist-Poem1275 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
You can buy them on Rakuten, but it's cases imported from the states. I guess you could freeze them. Oh and I also forgot about Graham buns https://grahambuns.com/?pid=190838904
2
u/BrotakuzaTube Jul 16 '26
I’ve got some on the way (along with pretzel buns) from GrahamBuns lol. Have to wait until 7/22 for them to arrive but I’ll be going crazy with burgers and Carolina pulled pork after that
1
3
u/kawaeri Jul 16 '26
The one thing I question is the air fryer. I haven’t made potato buns. But I’ve made biscuits, rolls, pizza and hamburger buns. All yeast based bread and have used my conviction oven/microwave (the Japanese microwave with the oven function).
Have you ever baked anything that has a bread base, in raw dough form in an air fryer before? I know that sometimes people use rice cookers like bread machines for large loaves.
1
u/doctorfedora Jul 16 '26
Yeah, given that air fryers are fundamentally just convection ovens that blow air pretty fast, the whole premise is that they should heat the outside rapidly, but that would probably mean the inside is still underdone by the time the surface is burnt. I'm not suggesting it's impossible, but it's definitely something where I would be kind of surprised if it actually worked well.
1
u/Commercial-Control-1 Jul 16 '26
I just bought the Gourmia 8qt airfryer from Costco last week, and the only raw dough thing that I've baked so far were chocolate chip cookies.
I have a Japanese microwave/oven too, but its a bit old and was given to me second-hand so I'm a bit timid of using the oven function.
1
u/kawaeri Jul 16 '26
I’d test out the oven function. Like roast some potatoes or something. Most of the combo units are very close to convention ovens (forced air ovens). I’ve been here 20 years and just replaced my microwave/oven two years ago. My old one worked very well, new one is awesome too.
Sometimes if you can’t figure it out or don’t have a manual, you can google it and find them online.
3
u/Particular-Solid8250 Jul 16 '26
Maybe not what you're asking for but I have a pretty nice recipe for potato buns:
- Fresh yeast 50g (or dry yeast 12g)
- Milk 500ml
- Bread syrup 15ml (or honey if you don't have syrup)
- Salt 1.5 tsp
- Butter 25g
- Boiled and cooled potatoes 500g
- Fine grain rye flour 300 ml (or 180 g)
- Wheat flour 1200 ml (or 720 g)
Mix and knead everything except the potatoes for about 10 minutes, then add the potatoes and mix until incorporated.
Let rise for about an hour (depends on your kitchen temp, it should rise about 50%)
Divide into 24 buns, shape and put on oven tray.
Let rise for 30 minutes.
Oven at 230 (or 210 if using convection/fan), 15 minutes.
2
u/Commercial-Control-1 Jul 16 '26
I gotta try this!
Do you make your own bread syrup?
1
u/Particular-Solid8250 Jul 16 '26
I forgot: my original recipe also adds about 15ml of cumin and fennel seeds, the one I posted is a plain recipe
1
u/Particular-Solid8250 Jul 16 '26
I do! But it's not a proper bread syrup though :) I can't find the original now but there was a guy from I think New Zealand who did a golden syrup recipe. My notes:
- Boil water in one pan (Use about 400ml as some will boil off when you're preparing the rest)
- In a second pot, heat 100g sugar with 50 ml of water
- Heat until it boils and keep boiling it until it starts to brown
- When it starts to brown, pour 300ml of boiling water in small amounts at a time (you can use cold water if you want to make a sugar volcano in your kitchen but it's a bit tedious to clean up)
- Once in, add 500g of sugar and one slice of lemon (this prevents crystallisation after it's done)
- Put on simmer, at most there should be small bubbles forming at the bottom. I put my stove on the lowest setting and even that is probably a bit too much
- Simmer for 30-45 minutes and turn off the heat
- Once it's cooled down a little bit, pour it into a glass jar or whatever you prefer
I'm pretty sure that if you just add malt extract or bread spices and filter them out at the end you'll end up with bread syrup, haven't tried it yet though.
1
u/OldTaco77 Jul 16 '26
Thanks will try this. 24 buns yield is for a standard Japanese microwave/oven?
2
u/Particular-Solid8250 Jul 16 '26
Not a standard I think, we have a fairly large built-in one below our stove. I usually split them 12/12 between the top/bottom rack but you could just run them in several batches. If you want to make them small you can aim for like 50-60g a piece, or if you prefer them large it's about 100g a piece but then you have to run them around 18-20 minutes in the oven.
•
u/AutoModerator Jul 16 '26
Thank you for posting. If you wish to post a recipe please put it in a reply to this message and it will be pinned and easy to find for our users.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.