The Perfect Soft & Chewy Dinner Rolls
The holidays are around the corner and these dinner rolls will surely please everyone at the dinner table. You can make them as flavorful or as colorful as your heart desire. I’m serious! These rolls are soft, chewy, and delicious. If you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy making them fresh for your loved ones. I have two young toddlers and bread is like life to them. They would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if they could. These dinner rolls can be eaten as is, or as a side. It is on the sweeter side (like King’s Hawaiian bread) so if you don’t like that, don’t add as much sugar. Try this recipe out and you may not want to go back to store bought rolls!
How To Make The Rolls
Ingredients (makes 35 rolls):
825 g bread flour
330 mL warm milk
3 eggs (room temperature)
2 ¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
9 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons instant dry yeast
1 egg for egg wash
9x13x2 baking pan
Directions:
1. Combined all your dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl (I used the stand up mixer bowl). If you use active yeast instead of instant yeast, you’ll need to dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar (don’t use additional sugar, just use 1 tablespoon of the ¾ cup) in the warm milk. The sugar is what will feed the yeast. Then add the active yeast, mix, and let stand for 5 minutes until the yeast form bubbles. Add the milk and yeast mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
2. With a stand up mixer, mix all the ingredients together using the dough hook. Start off at a low speed and gradually increase the speed to medium (3). This is to ensure you don’t have flour flying everywhere.
3. Once the ingredients are all mixed and the dough is formed, add in the butter. Knead at low (2) speed until the butter is fully incorporated into the dough. Then turn the speed up to medium (3) and knead for about 15-20 minutes.
4. The dough is ready when it passes the windowpane test. The dough will be tacky, but not sticky. You can see through the dough when stretched. See picture below.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and work it by hand until it forms a ball. Oil your bowl (I re-used the mixing bowl), and set the dough back in.
6. Cover with saran wrap and let the dough rise in a warm area for about 1 hour or until double in size. If your house is a bit cooler, you can heat your oven to 110°F then turn it off. Place your bowl of dough in the oven along with 2 cups of hot water. This will create the heat and humidity it needs for the dough to rise.
7. Once the dough double in size, deflate and remove the dough from the bowl. This recipe should yield you about 35 rolls, so divide the dough into small portion of about 46g each.
8. Line your baking pan with parchment paper. Fold the individual dough balls from the outside to the center using your fingers (see pictures below). Repeat until you get a nice round ball and set it in the pan. Repeat this process until you get all 35 balls in the pan.
8. Cover with saran wrap and let it rise for the second time until double in size. Repeat the same process on step 6.
9. Once dough doubles in size, remove from the oven and apply egg wash. Preheat oven to 350°F. When oven is ready, bake it for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.
10. After 20 minutes, take out the pan and remove the rolls along with the parchment paper. You want to let it rest in a rack, otherwise if there’s moisture, the rolls will become soggy.
12. After the rolls are cooled, you’re ready to devour them!
Happy eating! Let us know how you like this recipe. Shoot us a picture of your rolls and have it featured on Elk Grove Tribune Facebook and Instagram @elkgrovetribune.
