If any of you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen my bread-making baking spree results from last weekend. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to take a bread recipe which I was pretty sure already made two loaves – and double it. There was so much bread that I ended up getting a workout kneading it by hand. It was too much dough for our stand mixer!
We love bread in our household so I knew it would disappear, although I thought I detected some spots forming on the leftover rolls last night. There was enough bread dough I made two loaves of regular bread, one pan of rolls and third loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. While they were all good, I’m still a bit ambivalent about that recipe. It’s ok. The bread makes really good toasting bread but it’s not as great for I-want-to-fill-my-belly-with-buttered-bread.
On the other hand, THIS recipe is phenomenal! I have made it numerous times and can’t remember a time when it failed. That’s saying something as it seems I get at least one bread failure per year.
These rolls definitely live up to their name: they are soft, they are buttery and oh-so delicious!
This is what you need to make them:
- bread flour
- dry yeast
- salt
- sugar
- one egg
- butter (and more butter)
- warm water
I suppose it’s not required but it helps if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. You’ll also need a pan to bake the rolls in.
A brief word about the flour. Yes, bread flour is required. While it’s possible to make bread or rolls with regular all-purpose flour, I have had much more difficulty creating a no-fail recipe this way. It’s just worth it to purchase bread flour if you are serious about making good homemade bread. Our family? We buy 20 lb bags of the stuff 🙂
This recipe is a bit different from some that I’ve used in the past. Instead of putting the yeast and sugar into the warm water to activate it, all the dry ingredients are combined together. The warm water is used to melt the butter.
Sometimes hardest part about baking bread is the wait. This dough has the typical rise once for an hour and then piece apart into balls and rise for another hour. Just remember, during those rise periods don’t put a dampened towel over the top. Learn from my mistakes. (In my defense, I thought the moisture might help the top of the dough not to dry out) A clean, dry flour sack towel works best.
Most of the time I “eye-ball” the size of the rolls and just try to make sure they are approximately equal in size. One time I actually weighed each one; it didn’t take long before I could tell just by looking at them. Although, they weren’t all perfectly 2 ounce balls, let me tell you. I don’t aim for perfection when baking. “Close enough” is good enough for me.
After they rise a second time, pop them into a preheated oven, bake, brush with a little more butter and enjoy. In our house, several disappear long before they’ve cooled completely! There’s something about having (even more) butter melt on freshly baked, still-warm dinner rolls.
Wow. I’m getting hungry.
Soft Buttery Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 5 cups unbleached bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp dry yeast
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup butter cut into pieces
- 1 1/2 cups warm water about 115-120°F
- oil for coating the rising bowl
- 1 Tbsp butter for brushing on top optional
Instructions
- Combine the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook.
- In a large measuring cup, combine the warm water with the butter pieces and stir until melted.
- In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg and add to the butter mixture.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and combine until a dough forms. Knead on medium speed (or by hand) until the dough is smooth and elastic, approximately 10 minutes. The dough should barely stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour 1-2 Tbsp at a time. If it’s too dry, add more water, 1-2 Tbsp at a time.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean, dry towel and let rise in a warm spot for 1 to 2 hours or until it is doubled in size. Once the dough has risen, divide into approximately 20 pieces, 2 ounces apiece. Shape each piece into a round ball, place on a baking sheet that has been greased or lined with parchment paper. Cover with a clean, dry towel and allow to rise in a warm spot for an hour or until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and bake for 15 – 18 minutes or until golden brown. While still hot, brush with additional butter, optional.
- Allow to cool completely. Stored covered.