5 Pepperidge Farm Buns To Buy And 4 To Avoid For Your Next BBQ

Pepperidge Farm's popularity is pretty obvious. Spanning the shelves across multiple aisles in the grocery store, the company offers shoppers sweet cookies, crisp crackers, desserts, frozen puff pastry sheets, and fluffy breads. There isn't any event that Pepperidge Farm doesn't have its floured hands in, and that includes a summer barbecue.

According to any bread-obsessed hedonist basking in the warm sunlight, listening to cool jams, and savoring the smell from the grill, what is arguably more important than the burger patty is the bun surrounding it on both ends. And because Pepperidge Farm knows just what a gathering of friends, family, and lawn games needs, they make a variety of hamburger buns fit for the occasion.

With so many to choose from, I took the stress and guesswork out of the process so you can sit back and relax in your Adirondack as you sip on your hard seltzer. With a focus on taste, texture, and appearance, I tried nine different styles of Pepperidge Farm's hamburger buns. I'll recommend which ones I would be excited to buy for my own backyard barbecues and which ones I would definitely avoid like a bloodthirsty mosquito recoiling from a citronella candle. Most of the classics stayed as tried-and-true favorites, while some of the specialty options tried too hard and failed to impress me.

Here's one of the absolute must-have options for any grilling occasion, ideal for pleasing a crowd: Pepperidge Farm Bakery Classics Soft White Hamburger Buns. They are a timeless classic, a reliable comrade, an unwavering sovereign amongst the bread selection. They preside over the barbecue with dignity, simplicity, and humility. Who would dare to complain or question their righteous rule?

The perfectly browned exterior gives the mellow, subtly yeasty bread some toasty depth of flavor and just a smidgen of textural contrast. The bread on the inside was soft and fluffy, but still had enough stiff structure that it didn't come across as doughy at all. The overall mild flavor invites the opportunity to serve it with any variety of burger recipes, from a classic cheeseburger to a zesty salmon burger with curry remoulade. The smaller size could hold its own just fine with an average burger patty, but might struggle with anything thick and oversized. But the Soft White isn't built for unnecessary excess, so you should prep accordingly with a standard burger size and a normal amount of toppings.

Pepperidge Farm isn't my No. 1 brand for Hawaiian rolls. I'm a sweet sucker for King's Hawaiian rolls, and was also recently surprised by how good Aldi's half-priced dupes of those bread rolls were. But despite their lower standing against other brands, I would still include its Sweet Hawaiian Hamburger Buns on my buying list. These golden-brown beauties have their merits.

They definitely aren't as rich as King's or Aldi's, and don't have as dense/squishy a structure. They are far lighter and fluffier in texture and don't have that pull-apart quality to them as you tear them away from each other. These might seem like negatives, but for a burger base, they are all fairly decent attributes. Sweet Hawaiian rolls that actually aren't too sweet work well in the barbecue department, because they won't be too cloyingly sugary. As an example, you still get to enjoy some sweetness that would perfectly enhance a sweeter filling like a teriyaki-style burger topped with grilled pineapple.

Where there's brioche at a barbecue, there's happiness among the crowd. And if Gordon Ramsay promotes brioche as the perfect burger bun, I am very confident in saying I would recommend buying Pepperidge Farm's Brioche Hamburger Buns with that stellar celebrity chef endorsement. The Brioche is part of the Farmhouse line at Pepperidge Farm, which is a selection of breads that, according to the company, is produced with a more artisanal, slow-baked approach.

This was one of the most flavorful options I tasted, and a quick look at the Nutritional Facts proved that the Brioche Hamburger Buns have more fat, more sugar, and more sodium compared to the other buns by Pepperidge Farm. Brioche also includes actual butter as an ingredient. The texture was fluffy and pillowy, but still would be sturdy enough to house a hearty burger patty. I would consider taking Ramsay's advice to toast the Brioche. The extra prep step is a crunchy, caramelized enhancement that also prevents the soft brioche from absorbing too much liquid from any wet ingredients, like burger juice or runny condiments.

The Sesame Hamburger Buns from Pepperidge Farm are virtually the same as the Soft White Hamburger Buns, but with the addition of sesame seeds. And given how much I enjoyed the Soft White Hamburger Buns, I definitely would recommend also putting these ones on your shopping list. The bread is soft and fluffy, and is lightly speckled with untoasted white sesame seeds on the top of each golden-hued bun.

The sesame seeds are a fun, lighthearted ode to beloved fast food burgers like Burger King's Whopper or a Big Mac from McDonald's. While I would have appreciated a heavier hand applying more seeds on top, I was still happy with what I had. The evenly spread seeds provided small bites of extra texture, and I could taste their nuanced bitterness and nuttiness. Play into the theme during your next barbecue and grill up your own tasty renditions of fast food classics using this style of bun. I'll take mine with extra American cheese and extra pickles, please.

I was on the fence with this one, but ultimately decided that it should go on the buy list. Much like the Brioche Hamburger Buns, the Pepperidge Farm Butter Hamburger Buns are part of the Farmhouse line and are also made with real butter as an ingredient. I noted the heftier look and size of the buns (they are actually close to 10 grams heavier than the traditional Pepperidge Farm buns), which makes them a practical choice for grillers who prefer the impressive impact of serving jumbo-sized burgers with tons of toppings or layers upon layers of smaller, thinner smash-style burgers.

My main complaint (and one that I'll be repeating) is that they were too dense and doughy. With all that extra heft in weight and size, the buns should have been baked longer to lighten and dry out the interior crumb a little more. Plan ahead by toasting these big babes before serving to develop some much-needed crispness.

This one deserves a better explanation: avoid it for the general public, but buy it for a select few. The Black Pepper & Sea Salt Hamburger Buns from the Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse collection blew me away — I have never tasted a store-bought hamburger like this with such powerful seasoning. Every bite was straight out of an action-packed, super-hero comic book fight scene: Crack! Bang! Pow! The black pepper flavor did not hide in the corner. It was pronounced, strong, and obviously left a serious impression on me.

The bread's texture was the best of the bunch. While many of the Pepperidge Farm buns were dense and doughy, these were actually beautifully baked: firm with just the right amount of dryness, but still light and fluffy. With that kind of expertly created texture, they could hold up to all kinds of burgers and toppings.

I personally loved this one, but my husband brought up a very good point, reminding me that barbecues are most likely family-friendly events. Could you imagine an innocent little kid or an unsuspecting grammy grabbing one of these from the table, taking a big bite, only to immediately realize their mouths are on fire? If you're inviting families over, it might be best to avoid this one to prevent any surprises or mix-ups with other milder buns. But if you know your guests well and appreciate that they can handle bolder seasonings, go for it.

What a disappointment. I grew up with the best food memories of my dad coming home for a quick lunch break during the summers and weekends, barreling through the front door with piles of freshly sliced lunch meats, cheeses, and onion poppy seed buns from our local family-owned grocer. Those rolls were big and fluffy, and completely covered on the outside by chunks of caramelized onions and tons of poppy seeds. The Onion with Poppy Seeds Hamburger Buns from Pepperidge Farm were an embarrassment when I compared them to my own expectations.

There was an obvious lack of onions and poppy seeds. They weren't incorporated into the dough, but only placed on top. Both were treated as if they were an afterthought rather than the main flavor features. The amount of poppy seeds was a big joke, and I could have probably counted on just one hand the number of onions that were on each bun. When I was able to taste a minuscule onion on its own and smell its sweet, caramelized aroma, it was an amazing experience. But, unfortunately, that was so brief and so rare. The texture of the buns was also off: they were dense and putty-like as I continued chewing, not an ideal base for piling on a meaty burger and multiple toppings.

Potato bread is one of my favorite styles of sandwich bread, but I am not exaggerating when I say that the Pepperidge Farm Bakery Classics Golden Potato Hamburger Buns transformed into thick concrete in my mouth the more I kept chewing. The buns looked so normal in the bag, perhaps a little flat and squished from being stacked high on top of each other on the grocery store shelves. The golden-yellow crumb and lightly golden-brown crust were colors I hoped for with a potato-style bun, attributed in this case to potato flour, corn flour, and annatto and turmeric extracts.

I just couldn't get over the texture. They were so bizarrely dense and heavy, and I could easily foreshadow what would happen during a barbecue: the moment a hot hamburger patty would hit that bread, it would literally melt into a wet, sloppy mound of dough. I love potato bread, I really do. But there are better brands out there than this one. Instead, I would recommend trying Chowhound's favorite burger buns, Martin's Potato Rolls.

This last option was a hard and immediate no after tasting it. I thought the Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White Hamburger Buns would be better, since the sliced bread version did rather well in Chowhound's ranking of store-bought white bread brands. They looked pretty: the buns were a soft, angelic white color that, when combined with the overall fluffy appearance, looked almost cloudlike. While they looked super dreamy, they tasted super doughy. With that kind of dense texture, they would buckle under the pressure of a steamy burger patty and flatten into a gluey, gloopy mess.

The one redeeming quality here was the top half of the bun, which was speckled with an even, pleasing amount of sesame seeds. Perhaps knowing how horrible of an experience I was having with the bread on its own, the seeds apologetically extended a peace offering of some slightly crunchy texture and a pinch of subtle nuttiness.

Taste, texture, and appearance were some of the most important factors I seriously considered for this specific ranking. Above all, however, was determining how well I thought they would hold up to different styles of burger patties and a variety of toppings. Cost was not a consideration, as these were all moderately priced and were all within the same range.

During the tasting, I tried each bun on its own, focusing on taking a piece from both the top and bottom portions. I drank water in between each bun tasting. I repeated this tasting process two separate times so that I could compare my notes and develop a more thorough analysis. I also reviewed the nutritional labels for further ingredient information.

Because burgers are often served at communal events, I thought it was crucial to have a few other close friends and family members also try the buns. I supplemented my research with thoughts and opinions from my husband and a few close coworkers, all of whom are food industry professionals with years of experience in both eating and making burgers.