By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by Natashas Kitchen.
Six ingredients, and you probably have all of them right now. Milk, sugar, yeast, salt, butter, flour.
What stops most people is the rise. Kitchens are cold, dough sulks, nothing happens. That is fixable, and the fix costs nothing.
The dough is deliberately soft and a bit sticky. Resist adding flour to make it easier to handle - that softness is what makes the rolls fluffy rather than dense.
Active dry is why there is a proofing step. Wake it in warm milk and wait for foam. No foam means dead yeast or milk that was too hot, and you learn that before four cups of flour are involved. Instant works too: same amount, no wait, stirred in with the flour. Either way 105 to 110F is the milk window, and milk that feels hot has already gone past it.
The damp-towel microwave move is the best free proofing box there is. Run a wet towel on high for a minute, leave it in, slide the covered bowl in beside it and shut the door. An oven with the light on works, so does a switched-off oven with a pan of just-boiled water below. A radiator or a windowsill does not - they dry the surface into a skin.
Cupping the dough and dragging it against a bare counter is the difference between a domed roll and a wrinkled one. The drag pulls the outer skin tight, and the dough pushes against that skin as it rises, so it climbs instead of spreading. Flour on the counter makes the ball slide instead of tighten.
Fifteen rolls in a 9x13 dish sit close enough to grow into each other on the second rise. Touching is the point: the sides stay soft and only the tops brown. On a sheet pan you get crust all the way round instead.
This is why people look rolls up in November. The oven is full of turkey and nobody has three spare hours on Thanksgiving morning.
Overnight in the fridge. Shape the rolls, pan them, cover tightly, refrigerate up to 18 hours. Cold slows the second rise rather than stopping it. Pull the pan out 90 minutes before you bake, let it warm up and finish puffing, then bake as written. Same move works on cinnamon rolls.
Frozen unbaked. Freeze the shaped balls solid on a tray, then bag them for three months. Pan them greased, thaw overnight in the fridge, then do the room-temperature rise.
Frozen baked. Cool, bag, freeze. Reheat from frozen in foil at 300F for about 20 minutes.
Get the rolls done in advance and the oven is free for stuffing, the stovetop free for mashed potatoes and gravy.
Brush butter on while the rolls are hot so it soaks in, and salt while the butter is wet - salt on a dry roll slides off. Compound butter with honey or garlic makes the tops louder.
Dense, heavy rolls. Too much flour, nearly every time. The dough should stay tacky and pull away from the bowl while still clinging to your finger.
Dough that never rises. Dead yeast, or milk that was too hot. Old yeast from the back of the cupboard is the usual answer.
Rolls that sink. Over-proofed. Dough well past doubled that wobbles when you nudge the pan has spent its lift. Bake once they look puffed.
Pale sides, raw middle. Dough that went in cold from the fridge. Give it the full hour and a half on the counter.
Stale by the next day. Seal them at room temperature, never the fridge.
8 steps · about 10 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Combine a cup and a half of whole milk, a third of a cup of sugar and four tablespoons of butter, and warm it until the butter melts.
Let it cool to warm, not hot. Then sprinkle a tablespoon of active dry yeast over the top.
Too hot and you kill the yeast before it starts. Warm to the wrist is right.
Tip
If you have a thermometer, 105 to 110F is the window. Above about 120F you are killing yeast.
Let it sit a minute, then whisk the yeast into the milk. Set it aside for about five minutes.
You are looking for a foamy, risen head on the surface. That foam is the proof that your yeast is alive.
Nothing happening after ten minutes means dead yeast or milk that was too hot. Start again rather than carrying on.
Add the salt, then start adding flour a bit at a time, whisking as you go.
Starting with a whisk rather than a dough hook incorporates the flour much faster and saves you time later. Keep going until it is too thick to whisk.
Switch to the dough hook, set the mixer to speed two, and keep adding the rest of the flour.
Scrape the bowl down as you go so the flour incorporates evenly. Add the last tablespoon or two only if the dough actually needs it.
The finished dough should be soft and slightly moist, and it will pull away from the sides while still tacky to touch.
Tip
Err on the side of less flour. Dry dough is the single most common reason homemade rolls come out dense.
Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl and cover it.
Now the trick: put a damp towel in the microwave and run it on high for a minute. That fills the microwave with warm steam. Put the covered dough in, shut the door, and leave it.
You have made a proofing box out of an appliance you already own. It works in a cold kitchen in winter, which is when you actually want to bake rolls.
When it has doubled, punch it down and turn it out.
Divide into 15 even pieces for a 9x13 dish - five across and three deep. A different pan size means a different count; 16 or 24 both work.
Tip
Weigh the pieces if you want them uniform. Eyeballed rolls bake unevenly because the small ones finish first.
Cup the dough with your thumb and fingers, then roll it against the counter in the palm of your hand.
You are pulling the surface tight underneath, which is what gives you a smooth domed top instead of a wrinkled one.
Set them into a lightly oiled 9x13 dish and give them a second rise, about an hour, until visibly puffed. The same microwave trick works.
Bake until golden, then brush the tops with a tablespoon of melted butter while they are still hot.
Sprinkle kosher salt over while the butter is still wet so it sticks. That flake of salt against a sweet soft roll is the whole thing.
They are best slightly warm. They also freeze well.
Keep going
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How to Make Dinner Rolls
How to Make Dinner Rolls
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5 questions covering what you just read. No signup, no score saved, and you can stop after this one.
Question 1 of 5
You sprinkle yeast over the warm milk and wait. What are you looking for?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.You sprinkle yeast over the warm milk and wait. What are you looking for?
Answer: A foamy risen head on the surface
That foam is the proof the yeast is alive and worth carrying on with.
2.Why let the milk cool before the yeast goes in?
Answer: Hot milk kills the yeast before it starts
Warm to the wrist is right, and anything hotter finishes the yeast off.
3.Nothing happens after ten minutes of proofing. What should you do?
Answer: Start again rather than carrying on
Dead yeast or overheated milk will not recover, and the dough will never rise.
4.A damp towel goes in the microwave on high for a minute. What is that for?
Answer: Turning the microwave into a warm proofing box
The steam makes a warm enclosed space, which is exactly what a cold kitchen lacks.
5.Rolling each ball against the counter under your palm does what?
Answer: Pulls the surface tight for a smooth domed top
The tension you build underneath is what gives a smooth top instead of a wrinkled one.
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