Soft Homemade Bread Machine Dinner Rolls Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you soften dinner rolls? ›

Cover the rolls with a slightly damp, clean kitchen towel. Wrap the entire plate in a dry tea towel. Microwave until just warmed through, 30 to 45 seconds. The rolls should not be piping hot, or they will turn tough and chewy as they cool.

If your dinner rolls aren't fluffy it could be because of one of two reasons. Either, you added too much flour or you possibly used all bread flour. Alternately, not giving your dinner rolls enough time to proof and get puffy before baking could yield dense rolls.

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.

All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result. Using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten works to improve the texture and elasticity of the dough and elongate the strands of gluten. Doing so allows more room for the gas in the dough to develop and rise.

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.

Stay fresh: Both the fat from the milk and butter preserve the freshness of these soft dinner rolls and keeps them soft for a days. The fat keeps the rolls from drying out! Soft: The perfect ratio of flour to fat to liquid makes these dinner rolls uber soft.

The secret to soft, light rolls, if you're looking for something like a dinner roll, is an enriched dough that contains butter or other dairy, eggs, or both. If you want something more bread-like, you want a high hydration dough that's been properly kneaded and given at least two bulk fermentations before shaping.

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 results in a dry, crumbly dough that's unpleasant and difficult to work with. It doesn't stick to itself and tends to fall apart when kneaded.

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.

Which is better for rolls bread flour or all-purpose flour? ›

You can also use all-purpose in many bun or roll recipes, which tend to have lower hydration and rely less on strong gluten and more on butter and sugar for texture. (Though bread flour can still give you a fluffier, almost cotton-candy-like texture in most buns and rolls.)

Short, Dense, and/or Dark Loaf

Cause: typical of too much flour (or other dry ingredients) or not enough liquid; less often a result of too little yeast, too little sugar, too much salt, or old ingredients. Here's what you can try doing to improve your loaf: Reduce your flour* or increasing your liquids.

The yeast releases carbon dioxide, which fills the dough and increases its volume. Due to the heat, more gas bubbles emerge when this dough is baked. The bread rises and becomes soft and fluffy as the gas leaves.

All you need to do is place your bread inside a damp paper towel, and microwave it on a plate for 10 seconds. The water will revive the starch molecules in the bread's flour, the reaction between the two will occur again, and you'll have your soft bread back.

Defrosting bread in the oven

Preheat the oven to 320°F/300ºF fan oven. Wrap the loaf in a piece of aluminum foil (i.e: Reynold's wrap on Amazon), put it on a baking tray (like these Wilton sheet pans on Amazon), and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

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.