1 Hour Dinner Rolls Recipe - Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking (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.

For size reference, the pre-bake weight of dinner rolls typically falls between 60g to 80g each. Imagine a 60g roll as the size of a plum when baked, while a baked 80g roll is closer to a Granny Smith apple. Moving up in the ranks are burger buns, which weigh around 100g or so pre-bake.

Speed Thaw Method – Use with Caution

Preheat oven to 200°F. Then turn the oven off. Boil 2 quarts water and put in a pan on the lowest rack. Put rolls in the oven and let thaw and rise until double in size.

If you want a lighter fluffier bread loaf just add 2 Tbsp of dry milk to the flour per loaf of your bread. Vinegar has a very similar effect to the dough as the ascorbic acid. It helps hold the dough together and strengthens the bubbles so they won't pop.

Dense or heavy bread can be caused by not kneading the dough enough, not letting the dough rise enough, or using too much flour. To fix this issue: try kneading the dough for longer or allowing it to rise for a longer period. You can also try adding a little more liquid to the dough or using a higher protein flour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and move the oven rack to a low position. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly golden brown, rotating the pan halfway. Let the rolls cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

If the bread is kept in its baking pan, it will become soggy and look and taste doughy. If the bread has not finished baking by the maximum time indicated in the recipe, the oven thermostat may be off. Oven thermostats can vary over time, requiring adjustments by the baker or calibration by a professional.

“If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape.

Arrange the Dough For Baking

Arrange the rolls closer to each other, with enough room for them to expand into each other as they rise and bake. More traditional dinner rolls might be arranged on a baking sheet with lots of space in between so you get little orbs of golden brown goodness that don't touch.

I suggest using parchment paper to line the baking dish to ensure that the rolls are easy to remove from the pan to serve. Once the homemade dinner rolls are formed and placed in the baking sheet, let them rise again until they are doubled in size (30-60 minutes).

What happens if you put too much yeast in rolls? ›

Putting too much yeast in bread dough will make it double in size very quickly during the bulk ferment and even more quickly during the proofing of your loaves. As long as you don't let the dough more than double in size at either stage, you should get a reasonable loaf of bread.

This can affect the bread by adding a "yeasty" taste if you put too much into the dough. General amounts of yeast are around 1 - 2 % of the flour, by weight. Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand.

You can also put hot water in a heat-safe dish and place it on the floor of a cold oven (or on a lower shelf). The steam and heat from the water will help the temperature rise just enough that the yeast is active. The steam will also assist in keeping the surface of the dough moist so it will stretch as it rises.

Incorrect Activation or Wrong Yeast. For the bread to appear soft and fluffy, You must ensure that your yeast ferments correctly. It's not just the temperature in your kitchen, but also the activity of the yeast. Also, you must add the yeast to warm water to activate it.

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.

If your dough feels dense and tough to handle when you stop the mixer, it is a sign that it is becoming over-kneaded. Over-kneaded dough can become very hard to work with and produce a more flat and chewy bread.

Your bland bread could be the result of rushing the process. Try a slow overnight rise in the refrigerator. Plan ahead to proof your loaf overnight. This hands-off time in the icebox will slow the fermentation process in your dough and result in a complex-flavored loaf.