Easy Dinner Rolls Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade dinner rolls hard? ›

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

Add Sugar

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.

Cast iron can be used on the stove top or directly in the oven. If you don't have a large 11 inch cast iron pan, you can use a glass baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray. A 9×13 size would work well. It's best to have the rolls all touching each other when you arrange them in the pan, and I'll tell you why…

Avoid adding too much extra flour to the dough.

These ingredients slow down gluten development and can make the dough a little sticky. Your instinct might be to add extra flour; however, any extra flour will create a denser, tougher roll instead of the light, fluffy, soft dinner roll we want.

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. If you want something more bread-like, you want a high hydration dough that's been properly kneaded and given at least two bulk fermentations before shaping.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

But not all homemade bread recipes call for bread flour. When it's an ultra-tender, fluffy bread dough we're after—as in our recipes for no-knead focaccia, challah, and cinnamon rolls—we reach for all-purpose (AP) flour. AP flour can provide adequate structure to delicate bread doughs while keeping them soft and plush.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Brush tops of rolls with egg wash and bake until golden brown on top, about 20-25 minutes. Remove rolls from oven and immediately brush with butter. Serve warm.

(Though bread flour can still give you a fluffier, almost cotton-candy-like texture in most buns and rolls.) You could even technically substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour if you add less water, mix the dough more gently and for a shorter period of time, and don't expect the same results.

There's something magical about the bread you get at your local bakeries - they're always sooo soft and fluffy. Many of these breads, especially packaged ones, are made with a ton of chemical additives such as calcium propionate, amylase, and chlorine dioxide which help keep them soft, light, and fluffy for days.

What happens if I put too much yeast in my bread? ›

General amounts of yeast are around 1 - 2 % of the flour, by weight. Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand.

Yeast feed on sugar and it's the gasses produced by yeast that causes the dough to expand and “rise”. More accurately stated though, it's the yeast that has the effect but it's a symbiotic relationship. Too little sugar will impede the rise by not having sufficient nutrient for the yeast.

Starting with dead yeast will yield flat rolls, so if that packet has been in your fridge for a while (especially if it is past its expiration date), test it before mixing up your dough. Check its vitality by adding some yeast to lukewarm (not hot!) water combined with a little bit of sugar in a small bowl.

Weigh the whole dough with a kitchen scale. Divide the total weight by the number of rolls you need. For example, if you've got 24 ounces of dough and need 12 rolls, each piece should weigh 2 ounces.