It’s taken me several tries, but I’ve finally found the dinner roll recipe I’m going to go with. It’s drop-dead simple, doesn’t require any special ingredients, doesn’t need to be sliced, and doesn’t require that bane of my existence: the slash in the top.
If that last piece doesn’t make any sense to you, think about the slice (or slices) in the top of most large bread loaves. No, not sandwich bread. I mean a nice crusty loaf, the kind you serve with a fancy dinner. You slice the dough after it’s risen, but before baking, so that it will rise more in the oven. And Every. Single. Time. I do it, I end up deflating the dough.
I’ve gotten a few tips on how to get it right, but I’d love to hear any other ideas you’ve got down in the comments.
Ingredients
3½ cups white flour
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons active dry yeast (or one packet)
½ cup lukewarm milk
¾ cup lukewarm water
Directions
The milk needs to be lukewarm before adding the yeast, so measure it out into a bowl and warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Just enough that it feels slightly warm to the touch. (105°-115°F) Then stir in the yeast.
While the yeast is dissolving, sift the dry ingredients together.
Stir the dry ingredients to distribute the salt evenly. If you leave it all in the center, the salt can kill the yeast before it has a chance to rise. Then make a well in the center.
Once the yeast starts bubbling in the milk, pour it into the well in the dry ingredients. Pull a little flour from the edges over the top of the milk, but don’t stir it in.
In about 10-15 minutes you should see bubbles starting to form in the flour. That means the yeast is active and starting to eat the sugar and ferment the milk. Add the warm water and stir everything together to form a loose dough. (The water looks cloudy because I put it in the bowl I had used for the milk and yeast. No point in washing good yeast down the drain.)
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. The more you stretch it, the more you will develop the gluten, the long strands of protein that give bread its spongy volume.
Put a few tablespoons of oil in Great-Grandma Winnifred’s bread bowl. Oh, you don’t have that? Okay, any large bowl should do. Roll the dough in the oil so it is completely covered, then cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap.
Set the dough someplace warm to rise for about an hour-and-a-half, until it has doubled in size.
Imagine I didn’t forget to take that picture, and you see a picture of risen dough here.
Turn the risen dough out onto your floured surface and punch it down to deflate it. Cover it again with the plastic, which should still have the oil on it from the first rising.
Oil a baking sheet.
Once the dough has rested for about 10 minutes, cut the dough into 10 equal pieces. If you’re not an experienced pizza cutter — which I obviously am not — and the pieces aren’t even, feel free to divide some of the larger pieces and add it to the smaller ones.
Roll each piece of dough between your palms until it is a rough oval.
Set them on the oiled baking sheet, with as much room between them as possible. Leave the pan in a warm place to rise again for about a half hour. When it’s almost ready, pre-heat the oven to 450°.
Place a shallow baking dish half-filled with water on the lowest rack in your oven before turning it on. The steam from the water will make the crust of the rolls … crustier.
When the dough has doubled in size, press down with the side of your hand along the long direction of each roll.
Bake on the middle rack at 450° until the tops are golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.
Serve hot from the oven with butter.
And that’s it.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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10 Comments
They look delicious. I like that you don’t have to shape them into perfect little circles like with regular dinner rolls – I’m terrible at shaping bread dough.
Looks good to me! I almost never make rolls since I’m usually cooking for two, but I will snag this recipe for the next time I’m entertaining.
Stephanie, I’m a huge fan of “close enough”.
Bob, you could probably cut the recipe in half. But if not, these freeze really well. For a coupe of days anyway.
Yum! There was nothing better than going to grandma’s house when she had bread in the oven! I like the “free form” roll idea… I also dislike forming the dough into uniform and smooth little balls!
Drew
1) love these, especially the last pic with the butter mmmmm
bookmarking this for later
2) I’ve never actually heard of slitting the dough after the loaves have risen. I’ve read several different recipes, and while the dough rises once in a greased bowl, then you form the loaves and run slits in them and let them rise again, then bake. In fact it was REALLY weird. When your email came into my inbox today I had two loaves of Italian bread in the oven (with slits! LOL). They came out great, I’ll be blogging about them later this week. yummy!
Barb, I just did them again tonight. And got my older daughter involved in the process. She can’t quite knead the dough yet, so I think I’ll teach her to use the dough hook on the stand mixer. Then I’ll let her make the bread.
Amanda, I might try that next time. But all the ones I’ve seen say to slit it just before baking. Of course half of them also talk about a special tool to do it with, which I don’t have.
I want to marry that last photo, it’s so yummy! Is there anything better than hot bread with melting butter?
Yes, there are things better than hot bread with butter. But that’s a different kind of website.
One of my bread books (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day maybe?) suggests using a serrated knife to make the slits. In the past I have used either a really sharp knife or a razor blade and have experienced this deflating of which you speak, but truly, the serrated knife works like a charm!
~ Peggasus
Okay, I’ll definitely try the serrated next time. I has assumed since most sources recommend a razor blade that a very sharp straight blade was better.