Small Batch Dinner Rolls - Small Batch Rolls Recipe makes 4 rolls (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.

Before warming the store-bought rolls in the oven, brush them generously with melted butter. As the rolls warm, they'll soak some of that luscious flavor, making them extra moist and tender.

First, weigh all of your dough using a digital kitchen scale. Divide that number by 12 (about 2 ounces for each roll if I use my standard dinner roll recipe). Divide dough into 12 pieces with a dough scraper and use the scale to make sure they're the same size, making adjustments as needed.

Sugar – Sugar feeds the yeast and helps the bread rise faster. Egg – Additional fat content which makes these rolls soft and delicious. Butter – Room temperature butter is added in chunks to the dough. This is key for making soft, pillowy rolls.

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.

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.

The dough was under or over proofed. This is the most common reason for dense bread because it can be hard at first to determine when dough is ready to bake.

These unbaked dinner rolls can be refrigerated for up to 18 hours before baking. Remove from the refrigerator an hour and a half before serving.

Butter basting: Rolls can be brushed with butter before, during, or after baking. While it doesn't brown the surface as much as egg wash will, it does promote browning and adds a lot of flavor.

The liquid was too hot, or not hot enough.

The water temperature should be between 110 - 115 F degrees. If your liquid is too hot (i.e. boiling) it will kill the yeast and prevent the rise.

What to brush on rolls before baking? ›

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.

There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.

Too much flour makes yeast dough too stiff to rise correctly. Be careful measuring flour. When flour is "scooped" into the measuring cup directly from the container, it compresses or becomes packed. This means you will be adding more flour than called for in the recipe.

The Dough Is Too Sweet

That's because sugar absorbs the liquid in the dough, leaving very little for the yeast to feed on. Subsequently, the yeast dries out, becomes ineffective and the overall product comes out flat.

One of the most common reasons for dense bread is over or under-kneaded dough. Kneading your dough directly affects gas production, as it increases the rate that fermentation occurs. Without kneading, bread dough will take much longer to ferment fully.