It was Richard Turner, the chef at Hawksmoor in London and co-author of the new Hawksmoor At Home (Preface Books, £25), who got me into these very cool mini burgers from the US. That said, I've based my version of the bun on Taiwanese author Yvonne Chen's more complex "65 degree" roux method that my friend Graham Dunton showed me. Don't be scared of the custard powder – it just gives the buns a creamy, neutral flavour and colour without the need for egg, so they can easily be made vegan. Add a little water to make the dough softer, if you like, but keep it on the firm side. Don't over-bake, because the residual heat continues to "cook" the crumb once the buns are out of the oven. To serve, split, toast and fill with mini cheeseburgers, fishcakes, falafel – in fact, whatever takes your fancy like, really.
50g custard powder (or corn flour)
550ml milk
2 tsp sugar
25g unsalted butter
750g strong white flour
1 7g sachet fast-action yeast
2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten, or milk, for glazing
Seeds, for sprinkling on top
In a saucepan, whisk the custard powder with the milk, then place over the heat and cook, stirring often, until boiling. Stir in the sugar and butter, pour into a mixing bowl and leave until warm.
Add the flour, yeast and salt, mix to a firm, even dough, cover and leave for 10 minutes. Knead the dough lightly until smooth, then return the dough to the bowl and leave covered for an hour and a half.
Divide the mixture into 50g pieces for small slider buns, or into 125g pieces for medium-sized buns or even into 175g pieces for extra-large burger buns. Shape each piece into a ball and place them on a tray or trays lined with nonstick baking paper. Cover again and leave to rise for about an hour, or until they have doubled in size.
Brush the tops of the buns with egg wash and scatter over different seeds, or just dust with flour, and bake at 220C (200C fan-assisted)/425F/gas mark 7 for about 12 minutes if making small slider buns and up to 18 or 20 minutes for much larger ones. Remove from the oven the moment they're barely golden on top, and wrap well as soon as they're cool.
• Dan Lepard's new book, Short & Sweet, is published by Fourth Estate at £25. To order a copy for £17 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop, or call 0330 333 6846.