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These mini veggie burgers are a smaller version of traditional veggie burger sliders. Mini vegetarian sliders are perfect as hors d’oeuvres for a party or to bring to a potluck. The naturally-colored black burger buns add some spooky intrigue. They contrast with the bright colorful fillings. The gothcore aesthetic makes them perfect for world goth day, halloween, Friday the 13th, or a trendy dinner party.

This mini vegan slider recipe makes 36 appetizers.

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Ingredients
• Mini Black Buns Recipe
• Baby Veggie Burgers
• Tips and FAQ
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Video
• Nutritional Information
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

These aren’t really what I would call veggie sliders because they’re smaller than a slider. Imagine Russian nesting dolls but with burgers. These would be the burgers inside the slider burger.

If you’re looking for a full-sized naturally-colored burger bun recipe, I have a quick burger buns recipe you can use instead. Just swap out the superfood powders with activated charcoal. I made the normal sized version of these cute goth buns for my friend Danielle for World Goth Day. We ate them before going to a goth dance night. (Well, I ate mine, and Danielle nibbled hers because she eats like a cute squirrel.)

Ingredients you need for Black Burger Buns

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• ¾ cup (175g) warm water (100º F)
• 1 tablespoon (16g) organic, vegan, or raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5g) active yeast
• 2 cups (260g) bread flour
• 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
• 1 teaspoon (3g) black charcoal
• 1 tablespoon black tahini (15 grams)
• nondairy milk and black sesame seeds for garnish
• 6 vegan veggie burgers

How to Make Black Buns

prep time: 20 min | rise time: 60 min | bake time: 7 min

Measure ¾ cup (175g) warm water in a glass measuring cup. I try to aim for 100º F (38º C). If your kettle doesn’t have a temperature reading and you don’t have a thermometer, just heat it like you’re heating a baby bottle. Test the water on the inside of your wrist.

Whisk 1 tablespoon (16g) sugar and 1 teaspoon (5g) yeast into the warm water. Let sit for around 5-10 minutes, until the yeast has dissolved and gets kind of foamy or creamy looking. This should take the same amount of time as weighing or measuring out your other ingredients.

Measure or weigh 2 cups (240-260g) bread flour into a medium bowl. See the substitutions section for information on flour substitutes.

Stir 1 teaspoon (6g) of salt and 1 teaspoon (3g) of black charcoal into the flour.

Attach a dough hook to a stand mixer and combine your liquid and dry ingredients together in the mixing bowl.

Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes, adding 1 tablespoon (15 grams) of black tahini while it mixes.

Put the dough in a bowl and cover it with cling wrap or a lid, if your bowl has one. It takes me about 10 minutes to make the dough.

Rise the dough. Set it in the sun or a warm place in your house. If it’s winter, set it by the fire or on top of the clothes dryer. If it’s summer, it only takes an hour to rise because it’s 82º F in my kitchen. If it’s winter, it could take as long as 90-120 minutes because it’s closer to 72º F.

Cover your surface and rolling pin with flour before this next step. This will keep the dough from sticking to your hands, rolling pin, counter, or rolling mat.

Roll the dough to ¼ inch.

Cut as many circles as you can using a 1 ½ inch (38mm) biscuit cutter. This is the smallest one (the purple one) from my biscuit cutter set. Dip your biscuit cutter into flour if it sticks when you punch out the buns. I found the best method is to press down and then twist left and right while pressing the cutter onto the counter.

Reroll any leftover dough and cut out more.

Set the baby buns on your flour dusted silicone mats as you cut them out.

Heat oven to 400º F (205º C).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Stretch the dough for each baby burger bun over itself and tuck the edges under on the bottoms. This will form each little round burger bun in a way that makes them shaped like a ping pong ball. They may not look perfect, but don’t worry. Most imperfections disappear when they bake. This step takes me about 10 minutes. If you’re short on time, you can skip this step and the mini burger buns still come out nice. They just aren’t as tall. See the picture below for a side-by-side comparison. The one on the right uses my stretch and tuck method. The one on the left is just straight out of the biscuit cutter.

Set the buns onto the baking tray leaving a little space in between each one so they don’t grow into each other.

Optional: Apply some nondairy milk to the tops of the baby buns. I used my finger, but if that creeps you out, you can use a spray bottle or a silicone brush. Sprinkle black sesame seeds on top. This step takes 5 minutes.

Bake for 7-9 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven. If you bake them on the top rack, the tops of the buns may turn brown. This is less of an issue when we’re working with black dough. It’s good to get into the habit of baking buns on the lower rack for when you make different colored buns though.

Cool the buns for a few minutes before slicing them.

Serve with sloppy joe filling, vegan chicken nuggets (I like the Not Co ones), or veggie burgers. If you’re using veggie burgers, jump to the next section to see an easy way to do it.

How to Make Baby Veggie Burgers

prep time: 12 min | cook time: 12 min

Defrost your favorite veggie burgers by putting them in the fridge the night before. Or if you forget (you’re in good company because I forget alllll the time), leave them on the counter while you make the dough for your buns. If you prefer to make the mini burgers from scratch, you can use my millet bites recipe.

Cut out 1 ½ inch (38mm) circles from each veggie burger. The number you get from each will depend a lot on the brand of veggie burgers you buy. I cut circles out of Actual Veggies veggie burgers (using the same biscuit cutter I used for the buns). I used the purple (beet) and orange (carrot and sweet potato) varieties because I was trying to stick with the Halloween color palette. I was able to cut out 4 circles from each burger patty. I was able to make 2 other mini burgers with the scraps leftover from cutting out the 4 circles. So, I got 6 baby burgers from 1 standard veggie burger patty. It takes about 20 seconds to make each baby burger patty, so plan for this step to take 12 minutes.

Bake in the oven, sauté in a pan, or cook in an air fryer. I used my air fryer on 400º F and cooked them for 7-8 minutes, flipping after 4 minutes. In the air fryer, I could only cook 6-8 mini burgers at a time, so if you want to save time, you can bake all of yours at once in the oven at 425º F for 12-15 minutes. I avoid cooking things on the stove whenever possible because my cast iron pan is hand wash only and I’m allergic to washing dishes by hand.

Tips, Troubleshooting, and Questions and Answers

Storage Tip

Store these burger buns in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you don’t think you’ll eat them within 3 days, you can refrigerate them.

Can I freeze these burger buns?

Once the buns cool to room temperature, transfer them to a ziplock freezer bag, and freeze them for up to 3 months. On the day you want to use them, remove them from the freezer and leave them on the counter for an hour to defrost.

I usually make things in advance when I’m having parties, so I made these the weekend before my party and froze them for a week. Everyone was so surprised to hear that they had been frozen.

Can I use this recipe to make black bean sliders?

You can use any kind of filling you want in these baby buns. Bean burgers are delicious and fairly easy to find in most freezer sections of grocery stores. Actual veggies makes a black bean burger. You could even use vegan bacon and make mini BLT sliders.

Can I eat these as a meal instead of an appetizer?

These can definitely be a meal if you eat 5-6 of them. Or just serve 3-4 of them with my sweet potato tots or vegan potato salad.

Can I make normal sized burger buns with this recipe?

To make normal sized black burger buns, divide the dough into 6 equal pieces instead of rolling it. You can use a kitchen scale for this step to make sure they’re all the same size, but I usually just eyeball it, and they all still bake evenly, even if they’re not all the same size. Bake them for 12-13 minutes instead of 7-9 minutes.

Homemade buns will spread a little when they rise and when they bake. You can minimize that spread by following the technique I recommend. Pull the dough tightly and pinch it tougher at the bottom. Repeat that technique 5-6 times on each bun.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Sugar: You can use organic, vegan, or raw sugar. Just be careful of conventional granulated sugar, because it’s sometimes not vegan.
• Yeast: If you have instant yeast at home (instead of active yeast) you can skip all the steps where we activate the yeast. This means you don’t have to warm up the ¾ cup (175g) water or mix the yeast with the water and let it sit. If you’re using instant yeast, just combine all ingredients together in one step.
• Flour: I use bread flour for my buns, but I have used all-purpose flour in the past too. If you do choose to use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, just add an extra 1-2 teaspoons of flour. You can also make your own bread flour (this is what I do). Just remove 8 grams (1 tablespoon) of the flour and replace it with 8 grams (1 tablespoon) of vital wheat gluten.
• Nondairy Milk: Adding plant milk and sesame seeds is optional, but if you do, you can use any plant-based milk you prefer. I used pistachio milk because that’s what I had in my fridge. If you don’t avoid oil, you can use an oil sprayer for this step to save time. You could also use melted vegan butter.
• Activated Charcoal: The activated charcoal is just to make the dough black so that you can have goth burger buns. If you’re just trying to make normal mini burgers and you don’t care about the color of the buns, you can omit this ingredient.
• Black Tahini: I know black tahini isn’t exactly a household ingredient haha. You can replace it with 1 tablespoon avocado (or any) oil, 1 tablespoon mashed avocado, or 1 tablespoon of regular tahini. If you do buy black tahini for this recipe, you can use it to make my black tahini crackers.
• Black Sesame Seeds: Black sesame seeds are optional. I buy mine in the bulk section at the local natural foods co-op because then I can just get the amount I need. You can replace them with normal sesame seeds, or omit them altogether.

Video

Nutrition Facts

This nutritional information is for one serving of just the homemade oil-free burger buns. I’m assuming that a serving is 6 mini burgers.

• Servings: 6
• Calories: 191
• Fiber: 2g
• Saturated fat: 0g
• Total fat: 2g
• Cholesterol: 0g
• Sodium: 370mg
• Sugars: 3g
• Total Carbohydrates: 37g
• Protein: 6g
• Calcium: 32mg
• Potassium: 65mg
• Iron: 2mg

Comments or Questions?

If you make this recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like this recipe, you might also like my pink and blue naturally colored burger buns. They’re the normal sized buns though so if you want them to be mini, just follow the same method I describe here.

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I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook. I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to buy only organic ingredients. So, I only specify organic on the ingredients that matter: when buying the organic version is the only way to ensure that an item is vegan.

This post links to items I used when I made this recipe. If you click on the purple Buy Now button on a product page, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the same product I used. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy the ingredients to create these recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

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