Homemade Dinner Rolls Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade dinner rolls dense? ›

The dough was under or over proofed. This is the most common reason for dense bread because it can be hard at first to determine when dough is ready to bake.

Too much flour makes dough too stiff to rise properly, creating a dry texture.

The main difference is that the bread rolls are typically rounder, softer, and smaller.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

You can also use all-purpose in many bun or roll recipes, which tend to have lower hydration and rely less on strong gluten and more on butter and sugar for texture. (Though bread flour can still give you a fluffier, almost cotton-candy-like texture in most buns and rolls.)

Does Rising Bread Affect Its Texture? For a fluffy bread texture, the key is to let the bread rise long enough.

Because gas is created as a result of yeast growth, the more the yeast grows, the more gas in the dough and the more light and airy your bread loaf will be.

And remember egg wash isn't just for pie crust; use it on any dough you'd like to give high shine, including dinner rolls, hand pies, brioche buns, and puff pastry or croissants.

For the softest dinner rolls, use whole milk. Nondairy or low fat milks work too, but whole milk produces phenomenal flavor and texture. Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise times will be a little longer.

What is the secret of soft buns? ›

Originally Answered: What is the secret behind baking soft and light roll buns? The secret to soft, light rolls, if you're looking for something like a dinner roll, is an enriched dough that contains butter or other dairy, eggs, or both.

Scientists reveal the most popular terms across the UK - with 'bun' the favourite of the North East, 'bap' preferred in Wales and 'cob' ruling in the East Midlands - but 'bread roll' the overall champion.

"Roll" crops up everywhere, but it's most common in the south, with "bun", which also shows up throughout the country, being the favoured word in the North East. "Barm" is very localised to the Manchester area, and "batch" is incredibly specific: this is used just by residents of Liverpool and Coventry.

For baking light and fluffy bread, it is necessary to choose flour that has high levels of protein. If you choose to use flour with lower protein levels, you'll be left with the bread being dense.

It's a common mistake, especially for newer bakers. When there's too much flour and not enough liquid, the whole rising process is thrown off. The dryness of the dough will prevent the yeast or another rising agent from activating properly, leading to a stunted rise (or it may not rise at all).