Soft Dinner Rolls

There’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked buns in the house. It reminds me of how excited we all were when my grandmother used to bake buns. We couldn’t wait to dig in! Serve these beautiful buttery, soft, and fluffy rolls along side a comforting stew or your favorite homemade soup.

How to make dinner rolls

• The first thing you want to do is waken the yeast. to do this; pour one cup of warm Milk (95°–105°F) into a bowl and add 2 1/4 teaspoons of dry active yeast, and two tablespoons of sugar. Give it a stir and let this stand for 5 minutes until its nice and foamy.
• In a separate bowl add the flour, salt, softened butter, and egg.
• Add the milk and yeast mixture into the flour and mix it with your hands until a nice shaggy dough forms. Keep mixing until a dough ball comes together.
• Once the dough starts to comes together, pour it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until you get a nice smooth ball. you can also do this in your stand mixer with the hook attachment. Note that you may need to sprinkle your working surface with flour a few more times until the dough ball no longer sticks to your surface. just be careful not to add too much flour or you will compromise the texture of your rolls.
• Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with saran wrap and let the dough rise in a warm location in your kitchen until it has doubled in size. about 90 minutes.
• After it has doubled in size, punch out the air and place the dough on your counter.
• Divide the dough into 9 equal sized pieces. I eye-ball it, but you can certainly use a kitchen scale to get equal sized pieces.
• Roll each piece into a ball (make sure the top of the ball is nice and smooth) and space equally apart in a lightly greased 9×9 baking pan.
• Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350F
• Brush each roll with egg wash and place them in the oven to bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
• Remove from oven and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt while still warm.

Tips for SUCCESSFUL dinner rolls.

Making bread can be intimidatingly. especially for a beginner. So lets go through the essentials together so you can make these incredible soft and fluffy dinner rolls.

• First thing is first, make sure your yeast isn’t expired. Yeast that is past its prime will take much longer to grow and rise your dough. Yeast should be stored in a cool location such as a cold room, refrigerator, or freezer.
• Make sure your milk isn’t too hot. If the temperature of your milk is too hot (over 130F) it can kill the yeast. Which means it wont produce the carbon dioxide needed to rise the dough. Using a thermometer is essential to getting the perfect temperature between 95F – 105F. I used a standard kitchen thermometer I picked up at my local grocery store. To warm your milk, zap it in the microwave in 30 second increments, checking the temperature in-between. If your temperature is over 105F, let the milk stand on the counter until the temperature comes back down.
• Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature before adding to any bread recipe. If the butter is cold, it will be difficult to knead it into the dough. Bringing your butter to room temperature is a very simple step, but an important one.
• When it comes to kneading dough, I like to do it with my hands. The best tip for kneading dough it by using the palms of your hands. I also like to use a silicone pastry mat as the bottom of the mat will stick to your counter, and it has an incredibly smooth surface which makes kneading really easy. This is the pastry mat I have.
• kneading the dough for 10 minutes by hands seems like a really long time, but trust me when I say that it is worth it. To knead dough, place the dough on a lightly floured surface (or pastry mat) and use the palm of your hands to push into it. fold the dough over and into its self as you knead. You may need to sprinkle more flour onto your surface until it doesn’t stick . just don’t add too much! (1 tablespoon at a time) The reason that dough needs to be kneaded for 10 minutes its to create structure and strength in the dough. As you knead, the proteins in the flour form up strands of gluten that allows for the trapping of carbon dioxide gases from the yeast that makes the dough rise.
• After the first rise, its time to shape your dough into dinner rolls. Cut into 9 equal sized pieces. This is another reason why I love my pastry mat, it has measuring lines, which helps to cut the pieces evenly. you can use a knife to cut the pieces, or you can use a bench scraper like this one. Once you have your pieces cut, roll each of them into a ball making sure the top of the roll is smooth. Stretch out the dough on the top of the ball and pinch it under the bottom of the roll.
• Before you pop your dinner rolls into the oven, brush each roll with an egg wash. The egg has additional fat making the rolls delicious, and giving them that nice golden brown color.
• Once you take your rolls out of the oven, brush each roll with melted butter, and sprinkle with sea salt. This gives the dinner rolls that melt in your mouth, savory salty butter taste we all love. Enjoy!

Store in a zip lock bag at room temperature for 2-3 days. or store in the freezer for up to 1 month.

^{Recipe source: Andy’s east coast kitchen}