Recipe Notes: Fluffy Dinner Rolls #2

2 September 2019

Recipe from Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 63; recipe also available online from December 2006 Cook's Country.

This is the second recipe I've tried titled "Fluffy Dinner Rolls". The first one is actually more recent and uses the tangzhong method to result in a moist, fluffy dinner roll that also keeps very well. This method is also used in my favorite recipe for white sandwich bread which I make regularly. Both dinner roll recipes set out to create a soft roll that can be made ahead of time and frozen, yet still taste fresh, moist, and fluffy when thawed and warmed. With just two of us for dinner most nights this is a very desirable quality in a dinner roll. It worked out well with the first recipe, will it work here, too?

The dough was made using standard methods. The dry ingredients—AP flour, yeast, and salt—were whisked together in the bowl of a stand mixer. The wet ingredients—milk, honey, egg, melted shortening, and melted butter— were whisked together then slowly added to the dry ingredients using the dough hook on low speed. The mixer speed was increased and the dough kneaded for about 8 minutes. I added a few additional tablespoons of flour as the dough seemed too wet and sticky. It then rose until doubled in size. It was divided into 15 equal pieces; I used a scale, each portion was about 90 grams. Each portion was formed into a ball and placed in a prepared 13x9-inch baking pan. The dough was slightly tacky which made it very easy to form into balls. These rose until almost doubled in size, brushed with an egg wash, then baked in a 350° oven. Total time was 3 hours, 15 minutes and they were ready to eat after just 15 minutes cooling.

We have had these rolls several times now, both fresh and reheated from the freezer. In every case they have been flavorful, soft, tender, and moist. They're a little on the large size but given how fluffy they are this has not been a problem, though we have never been tempted to have more than one each with a meal. They were very easy to shape as each was a sphere and they were baked in a baking pan. Some dinner rolls can be difficult to shape but that was not the case here. These are worth making again and again, it would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison with the tangzhong rolls, if I ever do that I'll try to amend this post.