There is not one person I know who doesn’t enjoy a great bit of homemade bread with dinner. Not one! But because most of us don’t eat bread with dinner every evening, dinner rolls especially have become kind of a specialty item with nostalgic overtones.

Thick slices of homemade bread or dinner rolls were always served at dinner when I was a child, along with coffee for the adults and milk for us kids. I’m sure milk is still served to kids routinely, but as far as coffee and some type of bread product at each and every dinner, I think things have changed dramatically in that regard. At least coffee is never served with dinner here at Chez Carr, and bread only sparingly.

Personally, I would love to have bread with every meal. But realistically eating bread 3 times a day is not the best choice for continued good health. We almost always have some type of bread product with our easy over eggs for breakfast. But lunch and dinner we try to be good. Doesn’t always work out that way. Because what would I be thinking if I didn’t serve cornbread with chili, for example. (You see how this works? How I justify a bread product with dinner occasionally?)

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that for me bread is a treat. And I love it when bread is served in a restaurant. Because it’s usually pretty darn good bread. So, realizing I’m not any different than most people, I love to serve homemade bread to dinner guests. The menu doesn’t always warrant a side of bread. But when it does, I try to make it happen.

So, if you too enjoy serving bread to your family and friends, I hope you enjoy this slightly altered recipe that I was lucky enough to find on the sallysbakingaddiction.com site. (Great site BTW!) Easy rolls to prepare. No special ingredients required. Just a perfect, soft, buttery, slightly herby flavored delight. And a great recipe for entertaining because the shaped rolls must spend some quality time in the refrigerator. So, making the dough and shaping the rolls the day before is a great way to free up some of your time when you are preparing a meal for guests.

This recipe is just a bit different than the Overnight Soft Herb Rolls recipe already on this site. So, now you have a choice. And who doesn’t appreciate choices? Unless of course, it’s a choice between a freshly baked plain croissant or a lovely pain au chocolat croissant. That my friends, is an awful choice to have to make!

Peace, love, and happy baking to all.

1 c. whole milk, warmed to about 110-degrees

2½ tsp. or 1 pkg. active dry yeast 

2 T. granulated sugar

1 lg. egg, at room temperature

¼ c. (½ stick) unsalted butter, divided

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 T. finely chopped rosemary

1 T. finely chopped fresh basil

1 T. finely chopped fresh parsley

1 T. minced fresh chives

2 tsp. minced garlic

3 c. bread flour, fluffed, plus more for work surface

veggie oil

coarse sea salt, for topping

Whisk the warm milk, yeast, and sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  

Add the egg, 2 tablespoons of the butter that has been melted and cooled to lukewarm, salt, rosemary, basil, parsley, chives, garlic, and 1 cup of  flour. Using your dough hook, mix on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then add the remaining flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. If the dough seems too wet add more flour a little bit at a time. The dough should be soft and a little sticky. Knead the dough for an additional 3 full minutes with your mixer.  

Pour a bit of oil into the mixing bowl. Using a stiff rubber spatula and your hands, shape the dough into a lightly greased ball.  

Cover with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel. Allow the dough to rise on your counter for 1-2 hours or until double in size. (Takes about 2 hours for my dough to rise.) 

Liberally butter a 9×13-inch baking pan.

When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Shape the dough into 24 small balls. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) Arrange in prepared baking pan.  

Cover the shaped rolls tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Remove the rolls from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise on the counter for about 2 hours before baking.  

Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven on a rack towards the bottom for 23-27 minutes or until golden brown on top. If you notice the tops browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter just before the rolls are due to come out of the oven. Remove the rolls from the oven when they are golden brown, and the internal temperature reaches at least 190-degrres on an instant read thermometer.

Immediately brush the hot rolls with the melted butter and lightly sprinkle the tops with sea salt.

Cover leftover rolls tightly and store at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

For last Sundays before concert meal in our home, to be served at exactly 1:15 pm, I prepared these whole wheat rolls and my soon to be published recipe for Savory Overnight Soft Dinner Rolls. Both offerings were well received. And the glorious thing, besides the ease of preparation and wonderful taste of both of these rolls, is that I must make and shape the rolls the day before I plan to serve them. And if you have ever made a full dinner for a large number of people, you know that every dish cannot be made the day of the event. So, every part of every dish that can be made ahead, must be made ahead. So, all I had to do Sunday morning was take the 2 9×13-inch pans out of my fridge, let them sit for about 1½ hours on the counter to come to room temperature (and perhaps rise a bit more), and then throw the pans in the oven. Done deal!

It always amazes me that people question whether I indeed made whatever type of bread I am serving. And I feel a bit bad when I have to admit that bread is just so darn easy to make. And also, so bloody forgiving. With cake, for example, you must measure the ingredients to a gnat’s eyelash. But with bread dough, you can fling just about anything into the mix, and it comes out fine.

So, as with this recipe, I added more butter than originally called for, less sugar, a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten*, and used 2 types of whole wheat flour. And the resulting dinner rolls were soft and delicious. Just enough whole wheat taste to be perfect when spread with soft butter. And as a roll to be eaten with breakfast liberally spread with either jam or honey, there is simply no equal.

So, next time you need a dinner roll that is perfect with just about any dish, give this simple recipe a try. You will not be sorry. Except of course when all the rolls have been eaten.

And as always, peace and love to all. 

1 T. active dry yeast

1¼ c. warm water

¼ c. granulated sugar

6 T. melted butter, cooled to lukewarm

1 lg. egg

1½ tsp. kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling

1 T. vital wheat gluten

2 c. whole wheat flour

1¾ – 2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

veggie oil

1 egg white, beaten

In a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes, then mix in the sugar, melted butter, egg, and salt.

With your mixer running on low, add the vital wheat gluten and the 2 cups of whole wheat flour and about a 1¾ cups of the whole wheat pastry flour. Increase speed to medium and keep mixing until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and is smooth and elastic.  (If dough seems too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until dough pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl.)

Add a bit of veggie oil to the bowl, and using your hands and a stiff rubber spatula, form the dough into an evenly greased ball. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in a warm place 1½ to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Once dough is doubled, punch down and divide into 20 pieces. Shape each portion into a ball and place balls in a buttered 9×13-inch baking pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  

Remove dinner rolls from refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap, cover with a clean tea towel, and let sit on your counter for about 1½ hours. Brush with the beaten egg white and lightly sprinkled with kosher salt just before placing in the oven.

Bake rolls in a pre-heated 375-degree oven for 20-23 minutes or until golden brown. The internal temperature of the rolls when taken with an instant read thermometer should be at least 190-degrees. (And yes, with bread of any sort, I always take the internal temperature before declaring it ready to be removed from the oven!)

* Vital wheat gluten is not technically flour. But rather a flour-like powder that contains nearly all gluten and minimal starch. It is produced by hydrating wheat flour, which activates the gluten protein, and then processed to remove everything except the gluten. Afterwards it is dried and ground back into a powder.

Since vital wheat gluten is a concentrated wheat protein, just a tablespoon or two in your bread dough can improve its texture, elasticity, and create a better crumb and chewiness in the final product. Vital wheat gluten is especially helpful for bread recipes using low-protein flour varieties, such as whole wheat or rye flour. It is also good for breads containing mix-ins like nuts or fruits. Vital wheat gluten helps provide more structure and stability to the final product.

Early yesterday afternoon while deciding what to cook for dinner, I decided Savory Navy Bean Soup would be perfect. (Recipe to be published in the near future.) But ever the bread lover, I wanted a quick and easy roll to slather with butter, then dip into my soup. (Decadent and hardly healthy, but none the less, that’s what I wanted.) (And yes, I was stamping my foot at the time. Just like any other spoiled brat.) So, off I went in search of a recipe for a fast and easy roll to complete our meal. And with the most luck I’ve experienced in a long time, I found this recipe on the jennycancook.com site.

But frankly, I hesitated before making these rolls because they looked just too darn simple. But because I was in a bit of a time constraint, I decided to dive right in. And I shall forever be grateful that I prepared this recipe. Because these rolls are the bomb.

And for all you bread baking challenged folks out there, this recipe is absolutely perfect for you. No mixer required. No guess work as to exactly how much flour to use. Simple, simple, simple. And absolutely delicious.

So, do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Just make these rolls and be done with it. And a huge thank you to Jenny Jones for this fantastic recipe. You are a treasure!

Well, that’s it for today. But I want to leave you with this quote from Henri Nouwen. “If there’s any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality.” So, to all you cooks out there who provide your family and guests with good food and good drink, please know that you are making a difference. Because when it comes to feeding your family and friends, nothing should be too good for them. There is simply no better way that I know of to prove in how high a regard you hold your family and friends, than by serving well prepared food in an attractive manner.

Peace and love to all.

2½ c. bread flour, fluffed* (plus more flour for shaping the dough)

1½ tsp. instant or RapidRise yeast

1 tsp. kosher salt

1¼ c. very hot tap water (116 to 125-degrees)  

Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the water until well combined. (This produces a very loose dough.)

Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 1¼ hour.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and sprinkle with a little flour. Using a dough/bench scraper, fold dough over 10-12 times, adding flour as needed and shape the whole mess into a rough ball.

Using the scraper, cut dough into 8 pieces. With floured hands, shape each into a ball by folding and tucking the dough under itself to produce a smooth surfaced top to the ball. (You may need to dip a bit of the dough into more flour while creating this smooth surfaced ball of dough.)

Place smooth side up on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and cover with a clean tea towel. Let stand at room temperature for as long as it takes to pre-heat your oven to 450-degrees. (The dough balls will not double in size. Not to worry.)

Bake for 22-23 minutes for a softer roll, or a bit longer for a crispier exterior. Either amount of time will result in a lovely, puffy golden-brown roll.

Remove from oven and let cool a bit before eating. To re-heat, pre-heat the oven to 325-degrees and place the rolls directly on the oven rack for 10-15 minutes.

*Fluffing the flour for this recipe is unusual. When baking most yeast breads, you are given an amount of flour in the recipe, but how much you actually use is at the discretion of the baker. And of course, the look of the dough provided in the instructions. (Soft and elastic, a bit of the dough clinging to the bottom of the mixing bowl, etc.)  

So, if you are not familiar with ”fluffed” flour, this commentary should help you understand the concept. And BTW, for any baked goods (besides most breads), cake, cookies, pie crust, etc., I ALWAYS fluff the flour. ALWAYS!

Flour settles easily, becoming tightly packed inside a bag or jar. In order to make sure you’re not scooping up packed flour (too much flour), you should stir it with a spoon before lifting it with the spoon (kind of shaking it) as you place it into your measuring cup or cups. Then level off the top of the flour even with the rim of the measuring cup.