For Bread 44, I decided to try something I don't usually make - dinner rolls. I made a batch of soup over the weekend and thought that rolls would be a nice accompaniment. I wasn't entirely sure what to make, but sometime in November I bookmarked Big Batch Quick Dinner Rolls from King Arthur Flour, and although I looked around, I couldn't find an alternative recipe that I wanted to make more than this one.
The recipe makes a large batch of rolls (24), and also gives instructions on freezing them. Since there are nine days left in the year (including today), and I need to make and write seven bread recipes, I thought the prudent thing to do would be to both halve the recipe and still freeze a portion of what I made.
Before I write up this recipe, I want to give you one big caveat - I'm not actually a huge fan of dinner rolls. Unless it's sweet, I prefer my bread crusty, with heft, rather than soft and fluffy. This recipe worked well enough, though - pretty much as you would expect. I will try (for real, this time) to give you an update later on the freeze-and-bake-later aspect.
The recipe worked as written, and the rolls were certainly quick for a yeast bread. They rose and baked as expected. The rolls themselves were light and fluffy, exactly what you would expect dinner rolls to be. As I said before, I'm not actually a big fan of dinner rolls. Dinner rolls are good for mini-sandwiches (like at Thanksgiving), or for slathering butter on, and I'm not a fan of either. But that's part of Alex's job - taste-testing and letting me know if things are good or not if they're not things I usually eat. Alex reported that it was a good example of a dinner roll - definitely a positive. With that endorsement, I can say that I'd definitely make this recipe again if I needed dinner rolls - and particularly if I needed 24 of them.
📖 Recipe
Quick Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water
- 1 cup warm milk (between 100-110F)
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ¼ tablespoons yeast (I used active dry)
- 3 to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- butter for brushing (optional, but recommended)
Instructions
- Combine water, milk, butter, sugar, salt, and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Stir and let rest for about 5 minutes, until the yeast becomes foamy.
- Add 2 ½ cups of flour and stir on low speed with the dough hook until dough begins to form. Add additional flour, spoonfuls at a time, until a ball of dough begins to form. Knead on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, until a smooth, tacky dough forms, adding flour as necessary. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl and should barely scrape the bottom of the bowl.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes, until the dough is puffy.
- Turn dough onto an oiled or plastic-lined surface. Pat into a 4x12 inch rectangle. Cut down the center lengthwise, then cut into 6 to create 12 pieces of dough. (My pizza cutter worked well here.) Shape each piece of dough into a ball. Place dough balls into two greased 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans. (8-inch work better, but 9-inch are fine too.) Cover with plastic wrap.
- If you will bake the rolls later, let the dough proof for 10 minutes, then place into zipper bags and store in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking.
- If you will bake the rolls now, let the dough proof for 20-25 minutes. They will grow appreciably.
- Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until rolls are a light golden color and register at least 190F on the inside. Brush with melted butter if desired. Serve warm.
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