Grain-free Hamburger Buns
I’m having a little obsession with cashews lately. I had used them previously for sauces like my zucchini pasta with creamy pesto or Mexican avocado crema, but had yet to experiment with the butter or flour until recently with my sandwich bread. I think the biggest problem most Paleo and SCD people face is boredom, and I was getting bored with the flavor and texture of almond flour. That’s why you have seen a lot of recipes using both coconut and almond flours, or some without almond flour at all.
I set out to make this recipe free of almond flour, but lo and behold, it needed the little brown nuts after all. Almond are so good for you, so I shouldn’t complain I guess. I wasn’t planning on making this a 3-nut recipe, but it actually gives it a great texture and a very even taste. All of the different flours have their own properties that work cohesively; coconut – helps to prevent soggy bread and makes them sturdy, almond- lends some healthy fat, and cashews- makes them a little lighter and fluffier.
Personally, I think this recipe beats out our old rolls that we used to use as hamburger buns. They were good, but they crumbled when you ate a big juicy burger on them. These are strong and hold up to the biggest, messy burger you can concoct. They are still a little dense and not as fluffy as a standard gluten bun, but I’m pretty positive that there’s no way to achieve that with grain-free flours and without the use of yeast.
My husband seems to think otherwise. I told him he’s crazy and he doesn’t know a thing about baking. 
Seriously though, while eating these burgers we had this whole conversation about how he has faith in me that I can create an In-N-Out type burger bun that is Paleo friendly and we can get rich by selling the recipe. I love him, but that’s a little too much faith in me! He actually did really love these, especially as a way better alternative to a lettuce bun, but still can’t get it through his head that grain-free buns will never be flaky, light, and fluffy!
| Ingredients (makes 4 buns) 1 1/2 cup raw cashews 3 eggs, divided 3/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk) 4 tablespoons melted butter or ghee (coconut oil will work too, I just like the richness of the butter) 1/3 cup coconut flour 1/4 cup blanched almond flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda |
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Place the cashews, egg yolks, vinegar, milk, and butter in a food processor, and process until very smooth. Add the coconut flour, almond flour, and salt and process again until a smooth and a sticky dough has formed.
Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks have formed.
Add the baking soda and egg whites to the food processor, then pulse 8-10 times until everything is incorporated.
Using very wet hands, shape the dough into 4 buns, almost like hamburger patties. Re-wet your hands in between each bun to ensure the dough doesn’t stick to your hands and to achieve the smooth exterior you see on mine. I think this step is kind of like making mud pies. Remember those?
Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a SilPat for 25 minutes.
These are best eaten within a day, but can be frozen and toasted for later use.
We like to throw these on the grill after we’ve pulled off our hamburger patties and let them toast for a couple of minutes. Spread your favorite condiments on them and fill it with your favorite fixings!
Shared this week with Allergy Free Wednesdays
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Yum!! Perfect timing for Memorial Day Cook Out! Thank you so much for this helpful recipe! I love your blog!
Hey Danielle! I just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for an award! http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/. As a fellow Ulcerative Colitis-er, your blog is so inspiring to me!
You do deserve an award. I am definetly a food snob and I think your recipes are outstanding!!! My son has Crohn’s and we are on SCD. Your approach to a grain free diet is fantastic!!!
Thank you!
Hi Danielle,
“Mmmmm….burger” (channeling my Homer Simpson).
These look great! I love your ingredients. Can’t wait to try these, perhaps after I return from my trip.
I love your husband’s positive attitude – so sweet. It’s funny, those on the outside don’t understand the complexities to this sort of baking. But listen, if anyone COULD do it, I know it would be you! Because you’re a grain-free baking rock star.
You are filling me with so much confidence to start the SCD full time here this summer. It’s going to be great! Thank you, thank you!
You have a fantastic weekend friend.
Hugs,
–Amber
Thank you dear Danielle for another great recipe !
The hard thing is…my oldest is deathly allergic to eggs. I guess I could try, but going grain free and vegan is a toughy. Sigh
Grain-free and egg free is hard. I was off of eggs for about 3 months and tried endless times to bake things subbing flax and failed every time. There’s a couple of great sites out there though that do it!
My son is lso allergic to eggs big time. I have been successful using Chia seed or flax to replace egg in some bread liek recipes but sadlt you are right grain free and egg free dont go together=( He also has a nut allergy so we are coconut people=)
Hi-my son has a peanut,walnut ,wheat ,soy and egg white allergies..any cooking websites you could recommend? Thanks!!
Hello, Danielle!
These hambuger buns look delicious and wonderfully soft. Any chance you could sub flax “eggs” for chicken eggs in this recipe?
Thanks!
-Ali.
This is genius! Thank you for sharing!
This looks great and we have a bbq tomorrow. My girls are allergic to egg wites though….so could I just use more yolks in their place? Any ideas?
You can try that but they may get a little too dense without the whites. They help it rise quite a bit.
Oh my gosh. I just pulled these out of the oven. I was really worried they wouldn’t come out because I wasn’t able to pulse in the egg whites, I had to process for a while to get everything mixed well, so my buns didn’t rise quite as much as I think they should have. On first look, I was worried they would be dense, but no. They are so tender and delicious and there’s no eggy taste, you are a genius!
Thank you Amber!
Could you process in a vitamix instead of a food processor? Or would the batter get too thin? My food processor isn’t very powerful, so I don’t think it would get the cashews very smooth! Did you have to soak them at all? These look amazing!! As always!
I think you could do it in a vitamix. It’s just a really sticky dough so it would be hard to get it all out. Maybe process the cashews and wet ingredients in the vitamix then transfer to the food processor for the remaining steps!
My mouth is watery:))) Cant wait to try this. You said they are best eaten within a day or stored in freezer. We are going camping next week and I was thinking to make about a dozen ahead of time to take along. But keeping them forzen while camping wont be an option. Is there any reason why they would not keep for a few days in an air tight container or ziploc bag? Or why should they be consumed within a day?
They’ll keep just fine in an airtight bag for about a week, I just think they taste better fresh or toasted! I usually like to keep anything with coconut flour stored in the fridge, but they should be fine at room temperature too.
Can’t wait to make these this week! Ive followed the paleo diet for 3 years now and I miss a bun with my hamburger so much!
One of my clients turned me on to your website. She just brought me a slice of your sandwhich bread this morning and it was to die for! By far, best paleo bread Ive ever put in my mouth!
Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Thank you Alima! You just made my day!
You had me at hello on this one!! Going to making this on Sunday. Thank you!
I may give these a try with macademia nuts! Sadly, we are allergic to cashews.
They look way too good not to give it a try! I’ll let you know how they come out. 
Planning to make these now and top them with some turkey burgers. Looks like a great recipe!
They turned out really nicely with a golden brown bottom and a cracked top. The smell was incredible. I couldn’t wait long for them to cool and I think that may have contributed to them crumbling a bit. I will definitely toast or grill them as you suggested before trying to pile it so high with a juicy, cheesy burger next time. I also think this would make a great English muffin or sandwich roll substitute. I think I’ll toast one tomorrow and top it with nut butter and blueberries.
These are absolutely amazing. I have made them twice and have made a couple of changes. First of all I double the recipe because food disappears very quickly in my house. Doubling it causes it to be too hard for my food processor to handle, so I add water to thin it a bit. This works great because I don’t need to shape the buns, I just spread circles of batter onto my baking stone. They don’t get as tall as your hamburger buns, but the texture is just like bread and everyone in the family loves them. Also by adding the water until it’s a thick batter, it makes a lot more. I think I’m going to get about 25 from this batch using a 1/4 cup scoop. Thank you so much for this fabulous recipe!
Thank you for this post as I too have a family who eats a lot. My oldest son is 15 and 6ft tall.
I doubled the recipe and added water. I tried one and they are very tasty.
Just tonight my son had to eat a bun-less burger when we ate out. I am going to
surprise him with these tomorrow night. Thanks Danielle!!!
I made these tonight for the 1st time. The flavor was amazing but they fell apart as we tried eating our burgers. I didn’t care and got into it with both hands, super messy style! The kids, however, were not excited that their buns were falling apart. Anyone else have this problem? Or have a recommendation to fix it for my next batch? Thanks you so much!!
I have the same issue with the ones I make falling apart and making it very tough to eat the burger…definitely a two-hand meal! Did you ever find a solution? I was hoping someone here would have an answer!
I was wondering the same thing. They tasted good, but basically crumbled. I would really love to know what I can do to fix that.
What type of almond flour did you use? That usually is the culprit.
What should I do differently? I have only a very small food processor, so I ground the cashews with the eggs, milk and butter in that. I then moved it to my kitchenaid mixer to add the rest of the ingredients in the order suggested in the recipe. My only disappointment was that they didn’t puff up. I am looking forward to trying these cut in half and toasted…I haven’t had toast in years. Thanks for the recipe.
Your process should work ok just make sure to get the cashew mixture really smooth. Otherwise I would try doing as much as you can in a blender. As with all grain-free baked goods, they’re pretty dense and don’t rise too much, but they should have risen just a little on the top.
I use a food processor (though a bigger one- everything fits in there). I don’t see why you can’t do it t with a mixer once you have the nuts grounded and mixed with the gg milk and butter. It might actually work better when you incorporate the egg whites because i had to mix quite a bit to get all the egg white mixed in. . Maybe that’s why mine don’t puff up either but I like baking them longer than the recipe says (about extra 10 min) and next time I will try baking them at 350 instad of 325. They are still good though, especially toasted.
Your blog and recipes are great! I’ve noticed you are using a lot of raw cashews in many recipes. I don’t eat raw nuts – only ones that have been soaked and dried/dehydrated to get rid of the bad antinutrients. In addition, raw nuts can cause gastric issues. So many leave grain due to gastric issues, raw nuts may be a bit rough for them. Do your recipes work equally well with soaked and dried cashews?
that is a great question. I would love to find out too.
Hi Tina- Thanks for your question. I’ve done soaked and dehydrated cashews in my waffles and they turned out great. I have yet to try them in my other recipes but I think they will work just fine as long as they are really well dehydrated and don’t have any added oils
Danielle- Could you use cashew butter in place of cashews? If so how much? Thanks so much for your wonderful recipes!
I was wondering this too!
I actually made these and used them as toast bread (because I made mine much wider and flatter). They were SO AMAZING toasted with a little bit of butter and 100% fruit jam. It almost tasted like a PB&J because of the nuttiness of the cashew bread. Just lovely. Thank you for this!
I made these last night and they were SO delicious. I can’t wait to try your sandwich bread. Even my very wheat loving husband (he still eats it) loved it and said it was even better than regular bread. THAT is a high compliment coming from him
I made these the other night – excellent!!! Since my grass-fed burgers shrunk so much and ended up looking more like meatballs than burgers, the buns did break apart a bit. The flavor and texture of the buns was great! I think I will make 6 smaller buns though out of the recipe, instead of the 4 larger buns to help alleviate this. The leftover buns will be made into “garlic bread” tonight to go with our spaghetti (squash) dinner tonight. Thanks so much for your recipes! Love them.
I’ve made a paleo herb buns that looks similar the these but the recipe didn’t call for cashews or almond milk and they turned out ok. I look forward to trying out this recipe very soon. Bun-less burgers can get a little old at times, it would be nice to have a good tasting bun every once in a while. Crossing my fingers.
Great Idea! I have faith in you too.
I feel like this is going to be the theme of all my posts buuuuttttt- these are amazing! I’ve tried so many different paleo friendly hamburger bun recipes and never have I tasted ones as good as these! Thank you for creating this!
I made these with almonds instead of cashews (because I did not have any cashews) and they were AMAZING! They are def becoming a staple at our home. Thanks so much for all your wonderful recipes!!
Great, just made them. I accidently put the egg whites into the mix without fluffing them first. It still worked! Next time I will play around with add some coconut sugar or other sweetning agents and make shortbread (for strawberry shortcakes)!!
Hi,
I was just wondering if you’ve released a book. All your recipes are fantastic and I’d love to buy it!
Tasha
Thank you Tasha, I am currently working on a book which you can read more about here. Thank you for all the encouragement!
I only have ROASTED unsalted cashews…will that work or do they have to raw?
Raw is best. Roasted cashews have extra oils that come out during the heating.
I LOVE these buns! They are my favorite coconut flour creation of yours because they manage to be soft yet sturdy enough to hold up to a burger and they don’t taste eggy at all like so many other coconut flour baked goods do. Genius!
I tried these tonight, not sure what I did wrong but they were dense. It seems that everytime I have cooked with coconut flour it turns out dense. Kinda like when you eat pancakes and they get stuck in your throat feeling. Any suggestions?
Hmm that’s strange these shouldn’t be dry. The only thing I can suggest is to measure your coconut flour very precisely. Even an extra tsp will make a big difference.
Could you swap out the cashew butter for almond butter or other butters?
Found this recipe as I Googled “Paleo Bun”
I made a couple of changes to the recipe. For one, I follow more of the Dr. Jorgensen Primal Mind Primal Body guideline in which Cashews are shunned so I substituted some Hazelnuts instead and grinded them in the food processor.
2nd thing I did was use plain water instead of Almond Milk.
Third thing I did WHICH made a huge difference in how ‘Fluffy’ my bread came out was: Pastured Pork Leaf Lard. I threw in about 3 tablespoons of it (melted in cast iron plate and then cooled just a sliver).
Yeah the caloric and fat intake is probably nightmarish BUT I follow a caloric restrictive diet to begin with at all other times, AND place Fats at the top of my food pyramid. Besides, I only used one bun and stuffed it to the brim with ground beef LOL. Best Burger I’ve EVER had haha. I froze the other 3 buns and will be pulling one every couple of weeks when my ‘Bread’ craving starts kicking in again.
BTW Thanks a Million for the Recipe! THE ‘Buns’ were absolutely heavenly.
We just had these tonight. I made six smaller ones instead of four and used hemp milk. They were delicious. Great job on this recipe.
Thank you so much, Danielle, for sharing your wonderful recipes! My son was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s and we’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. Thanks to your SCD legal choc chip cookies, things aren’t looking so gloomy anymore!
Love those types of stories. Thanks for sharing Susan!
Hi Danielle! I posted a review of this recipe on my blog. I just wanted to let you know. I did not reproduce your recipe, I just linked over here to it. http://scdyums.blogspot.com/2013/03/recipe-review-against-all-grain-grain.html
Great, thank you!
Yummy recipe!! Instead of making hamburger patties I used my new “Whoppie Pie” pan to make them look like english muffins. Instead of buns I was making them to make mini pizzas….turned out great and very filling. It made about 2 dozen so I have plenty to stick in the freezer. Thanks for another great recipe!
I have tried and tried to like almonds and the various breads made out of almond flour or almond butter, but the nuttiness comes through too strongly and it always tastes like burnt nuts to me–eww! So, I was interested when I saw these were made out of ground cashews. I made these today using Planter’s cashews (I know, I know–but that was the only cashews the grocery store had). I left out the salt since I was using pre-salted cashews, used coconut milk, and added about a tablespoon of tapioca starch since I’ve found tapioca helps lighten coconut flour baked goods. This probably sounds weird, but the ground cashew mixture has a sort of yeast-y flavor to it which isn’t lost in the final product. Definitely the best bread-type product I’ve made taste-wise to date. As for texture–I, as you, have given up hope of light and flaky when it comes to grain-free breads. Thanks for a great tasting recipe!
Hi I was wondering if you could use all almond flour. I live out of country and don’t have access to coconut flour.
So….these were pretty much amazing. I halved the recipe and made 3 buns….I’m always wary of eating too much and overdosing on nuts when I use them in recipes!! I will definitely be making these again and can’t wait to try my 2 leftovers tomorrow; one with my eggs and breakfast and one with my turkey for lunch!
Can I make this with cashew butter instead? and what’s the measurement change if I do?
Thank you!
The cashew butter would make these hard to form with your hands but you could probably drop them like biscuits. I am not sure of the measurement change though.
Just made these tonight. They were absolutely delicious! I have been grain free for awhile now and the taste of these buns were out of this world! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Found this through Deliciously Organic. Can’t wait to try it. We’ve been on a hunt for good hamburger buns with no luck so far. Thanks for sharing!!
We can’t survive without these delicious buns. my daughter is so addicted to it that every 2 days i have to make a new batch. i was wondering if i can substitute the egg white with something else because she has egg white intolerance and she is on SCD.
I made these tonight. We had our first intentionally grain-free meal with a grain-free bread replacement. Holy crap, they are amazing. These buns singlehandedly convinced my husband and I to try Paleo. We are so excited to be able to eat foods we normally eat -like chicken sandwiches- while still maintaining a Paleo lifestyle. Wow!!! 5 stars and 4 thumbs up!