These all-natural squid ink black burger buns are the perfect way to impress your friends and family, as well as add intrigue to your next burger recipe!
The first thing you need to do is mix the milk, water, sugar , squid ink, and yeast together and leave this to stand for 10 minutes until it begins to foam. This takes around ten minutes as the yeast is activating.
In a mixer bowl add the flour, salt and star anise powder and mix till thoroughly combined then, using the stand mixer on its lowest setting, incorporate an egg and the squid ink mixture and leave to combine until a dough is formed.
In intervals of around 20g at a time, add 100g butter to the dough while mixing on medium, until a shiny, smooth dough has formed.
Grease a large bowl with butter and place your dough into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a cheesecloth and leave in a warm place with 1.5 hours. In this time the dough should double in size.
Once your dough has proved, weigh the dough and divide it into 12-15 pieces depending on the size of the buns you want. *
Now, shape these into balls (you can be as precise or 'loose' with these as you want, depending on how 'perfectly' shaped you want the buns to be) and place them on a lined baking tray, cover with a tea towel and leave to prove in a warm place again for around half an hour.
Mix the remaining egg with a little bit of water or milk to brush over the buns. I used the whole egg, however, you can use the egg white alone as we don't really need the 'browning' effect for these black buns.
Sprinkle the buns with black sesame seeds, a mixture of black & white or even some hemp seeds and then bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C degrees for around 15 minutes. I'd suggest checking on them at around 10 minutes, especially when making mini buns. Once cooked, leave to cool on a cooling rack.
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Notes
Note* The dough balls I made vary in weight from 30-70g as I prefer smaller, cuter buns and was experimenting with sizes.