ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

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Everybody loves a good burger. Big, juicy patties stacked with toppings; greasy little sliders with diced onions; even firm, earthy veggie burgers with avocado—they all sate the craving in one way or another. Its universal appeal—Americans alone eat about 50 billion burgers each year—makes this one big-business sandwich, and astronomical sums have been spent trying to perfect its various components, including, of course, the all-important bun. Golden-brown brioche has emerged as the hamburger roll of choice at restaurants where words like “artisanal” and “organic” are tossed around like so many housemade pickle slices. Large-scale commercial enterprises, meanwhile, have settled on buns that are flat on top with a soft, squishy texture to match the patty inside. With that in mind, we present two burger buns, both alike in dignity, from opposite sides of the spectrum. The first is a rich, durable, brioche of French descent; the second a drool-worthy slider bun, born of fast-food parents. While there are so many other kinds of buns we love (kaiser rolls, sourdough slices, and potato rolls, to name a few), these two represent some of the most interesting concepts in bread-making: Can we create a brioche that&#39;s not too stodgy, and not too buttery? Can we make a squishy, fast-food-style bun that has complex flavor? Can we do it without hard-to-find commercial dough conditioners? Yes, yes, and yes. And you can, too.Any questions? [linktocomments Ask here.]