Lowell's Soft Burger Buns (Egg-Free and Dairy-Free)

Better than the store

This recipe is my attempt to make perfectly soft burger buns similar to what you can buy in the store except without the weird chemicals. Instead of using egg and milk to make the buns soft, they use a combination of olive oil, sugar, and extra gluten flour.

Ingredients

350g of very hot but not boiling water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
553g of King Arthur bread flour
2 teaspoons of table salt (not kosher)
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of gluten flour (this could be omitted but the result won't be as good)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Technique

Add the ingredients to your bread machine pan in the order listed. (Note: you could use a stand mixer or your hands to mix and knead this, and allow to rise for an hour before proceeding with step 3)
Select the dough recipe (#11 on my Zojirushi machine)
When the dough is done, separate into ~20 balls around 50g each. Stretch the dough into a firm circle and roll around in your hands until you have a nice tight ball.
Put all 20 of the balls on a half sheet pan an inch or two apart (they fit in 5 rows of 4 for me). Press the balls down slightly until they are more of a disc shape. It's very helpful to use parchment paper underneath.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Cover the sheet pan with another sheet pan, or with cling wrap, and let them rise for 45 minutes to an hour depending on the temperature in your kitchen. Tip: Use a large heating pad under the pan to get really consistent and superior results.
Bake the buns for ~15 minutes depending on your oven, rotating halfway through until you have a nice brown on the top. My oven is terrible so I do 385 degrees for 18 minutes.
Pull the buns off and onto a wire rack to cool.
Once fully cool, put the buns into a ziplock bag so they don't go stale, but also because they will soften up after a few hours in a plastic bag - by the next day they'll be the same as store buns. They will last for 4-5 days, although they won't actually last that long.

Shaped dough ready to rise
Heating pad under the pan
The tray of burger buns going into the oven after rising
Burger buns on the pan right after coming out of the oven