Dinner Rolls

These soft Dinner Rolls are easy to make with just 6 ingredients. There is nothing like fluffy warm homemade dinner rolls. These are lockdown-holiday-worthy!

Makes: 22

Collect it:

·         1 1/2 cup milk (almond milk or any nut milk)

·         4 tbsp butter melted

·         1 1/2 tbsp yeast

·         1/3 cup sugar (granulated)

·         1.5 tsp salt

·         4 cups maida (more if needed) 

·         Egg for egg wash

·         2 tbsp butter melted to brush the tops of dinner rolls

Make it:

Baking is a science and precision is the key to successful baking.  Weigh out all the ingredients and keep ready. For the flour, use a knife and get an even cup of flour. Do not use heaped cups of flour. That will change the ratio and end result drastically.

In a bowl, combine warm milk, melted butter, sugar and yeast. Whisk everything together and let it sit for about 5 minutes. By warm milk is meant milk that is warm to touch.  If you put your finger in the milk, you should be able to tolerate it. If the milk is too hot, the yeast will commit suicide.

After five minutes, check the yeast mixture.  If the yeast has bloomed i.e. the mixture is frothy, you can proceed to the next step. If the mixture isn’t frothy, start over again. Do not proceed.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour and salt.  Again salt and yeast aren’t good friends. So ensure that you mix the salt in the flour well.  Pour the yeast liquid into a mixing bowl, and combine until the dough is no longer sticky. You’ll need about 4 cups of flour. I needed no more than 4 cups.  

Knead the dough for a good 15 minutes if you are kneading by hand. You could turn the dough on to a table so you can stretch the dough OR knead the dough with the dough hook in a stand mixer for 2 minutes.  Kneading the dough well is extremely important to get soft breads. When you stretch the dough it should not fall apart. Keep kneading until the dough is well stretched.  

Place dough in an oiled bowl. Cover it with a towel and let it rise for about an hour in a warm place. I use the microwave or oven for this step. Of course, without switching on the power!

Once the dough rises, remove it from the bowl onto a weighing scale. Weigh and divide the batter. I weighed out portions of 36 gms each which gave me 22 pieces. Here a digital scale is extremely helpful. If you want them bigger, weigh the dough and divide accordingly.

Shape each piece into a round shape and place them on an oiled baking sheet next to each other. Cover the dinner rolls with a kitchen towel and let them rise another 30 minutes in a warm place or until puffed.

Prepare the egg wash. Mix an egg yolk and a little egg white and beat well. If you do not want to use an egg, brush it will milk.  Brush the top of the bread with egg wash.

Preheat the oven at 180 deg C for ten minutes or until hot. Bake at 180 deg C for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Immediately brush tops with melted butter and set aside to cool to room temperature before serving.