SOFT NO KNEAD Dinner Rolls
Recipe video above. These soft dinner rolls are like magic! Just mix the ingredients in a bowl - no kneading, no stand mixer, no special ingredients required. These are soft, fluffy and moist, nicely salted with a touch of sweet. This requires 2 hrs 15 minutes+ rise time.
Ingredients
Buns:
- 1 tbsp dry yeast (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup caster/superfine sugar (, or sub with normal white sugar)
- 1/2 cup warm water (Note 2)
- 4 cups bread flour + extra for dusting (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt (, cooking/kosher salt)
- 1 cup milk, (lukewarm, whole or low fat, (Note 2)
- 50g / 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (, melted and cooled)
- 2 eggs (, at room temperature, beaten with fork)
Instructions
- 1Place the yeast and 2 teaspoons of the sugar in a medium bowl, then pour in water. Leave for 5 minutes until it froths.
- 2Place flour, remaining sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix to combine.
- 3Make a well in the centre. Add milk, butter, eggs and pour in the yeast liquid, including all froth.
- 4Mix until combined with wooden spoon - it will be like a thick muffin batter. Not pourable, but thick and sticky.
- 5Rise #1:
- 6Leave dough in the bowl, cover with a wet (clean) tea towel and place in a warm place (25C/77F+) to rise for around 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until almost tripled in volume. See Note 4 for how I do this (you will laugh - but it works every time!). Dough surface should be bubbly (see video or photos in post).
- 7Forming Balls (watch video, it's helpful):
- 8Line a 31.5 x 23.5 cm / 9 x 13" tray with baking paper with overhang.
- 9Remove tea towel and punch dough to deflate, then mix briefly in the bowl to get rid of the bubbles in the dough.
- 10Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough on work surface. Dust top of dough then shape into a log. Cut log into 4 pieces, then cut each piece into 3 pieces (12 in total).
- 11Take one piece and press down with palm, then use your fingers to gather into a ball, flip (so smooth side is up) then roll the dough briefly to form a ball. This stretches the dough on one side and that's how I get a nice smooth surface on my roll. (For this step, use as much flour as needed to handle dough and avoid piercing inside into the wet dough)
- 12Place the ball with the smooth side up on the tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Line them up 3 x 4.
- 13Rise # 2:
- 14Spray surface of rolls (or cling wrap) with oil (any), then place cling wrap over the tray.
- 15Return tray to warm place and leave for 30 - 45 min, until the dough has risen by about 75% (less than double in size).
- 16Partway through Rise #2, preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) or 180C/350F (fan/convection).
- 17Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, or until the surface is a golden brown and the roll in the centre sounds hollow when tapped. The surface colour is the best test for this recipe.
- 18Remove rolls from oven. Brush with melted butter.
- 19Use overhang to lift rolls onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool to warm before serving.