Eggless Burger Buns

I love recipes on the Kingarthurflour website as most of my experiments from there so far have been successful. Besides there is an opportunity to learn beforehand whether the recipe genuinely delivers what it promises, by going through user reviews. The  suggestions / tips provided by the reviewers to improve the original recipes turn out useful as well. These burger buns seem to be one of their popular entries and for BM #45, 'Taming the Yeast' theme,  Gayathri suggested her eggless version of these beautiful buns. These soft, subtly sweet buns work great for burgers and sandwiches. I halved the original recipe and made six buns instead of four. I accidentally added milk instead of water and probably that' why the color of the buns turned a shade darker but the taste and texture were very good.
 
Ingredients:
1 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp. sugar
A pinch of baking soda
1.5 tsp instant yeast (I used dry active yeast.)
1 tbsp. melted butter
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 to 1/2 cup water (I added 1/4 cup warm milk + 1 tbsp water.)
1 tbsp. melted butter to brush 
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Method:
* Combine all ingredients except water in a mixing bowl. Don't add all the water at once. Start by adding about 1/4 cup of water and knead the mixture into a soft, smooth dough. Add extra water if needed, in tbsp. increments. (I needed about 5 tbsp. water.)
 
* Knead for about five minutes, cover and let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles. 
 
* Deflate the dough and divide into 5 - 6 portions. Roughly shape them into balls. Place one ball on the work surface. Cupping the ball with your palm and not lifting the dough from the work surface, roll the ball until it is smooth with a flat bottom. Repeat the steps with the remaining balls.
 
* Place them on a parchment paper lined or a lightly greased baking sheet and flatten to about 3 inches across.
 
* Cover them and again allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until puffy.
 
* Preheat the oven to 375 deg F / 190 deg C.
* Brush the tops of buns with melted butter and sprinkle sesame seeds.
* Place them in the preheated oven and bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until golden. Mine turned to a light brownish hue by 11 minutes. However I baked them for up to 15 minutes to make sure that buns are baked well and they turned a few shades darker.
 
 * The original recipe mentioned to brush them again with melted butter to get a satiny crust but when I did my sesame seeds topping were no where to be seen. :)
* Cool the buns on a rack.

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