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.

Use around 5% sugar (percentage of flour), use of milk and honey in the recipe keeps the bread soft and moist after baking if kept covered and protected from dry environments. Use of oil in the recipe also keeps the bread softer.

Brush the rolls with butter.

Melt the butter and brush it over the risen dinner rolls. This helps the tops to brown and keeps the crust soft.

Don't over flour the dough. Knead for 5-6 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth. Let the dough rise in a warm spot until doubled, about an hour or so. (I usually let the dough rise right in the mixing bowl, but you can transfer to a lightly greased bowl and cover.)

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.

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.)

How do you know when homemade rolls are done? ›

The internal temperature of a loaf of crusty yeast bread when it is cooked to perfection should be 200 to 210 F. Soft breads and dinner rolls should be 190 to 200 F. The bread will pull away from the sides of the pan and will feel firm to the touch. The bread will sound hollow when you tap it lightly.

Commercial bread is softer due to the steam process used by bakeries, which is made to keep bread hydrated and fresh. Use cold water in a pan and put it on a rack beneath your bread to create steam.

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.

Place the rolls in a baking dish or on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter. Bake until warm, 7 to 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can reheat dinner rolls in the microwave or slow cooker.

Thanks to a very thrifty bread roll enthusiast on the Budget Friendly Meals Australia Facebook group, we now know all you have to do is to quickly run your stale bread roll under the tap, then simply pop it into the oven for a few minutes.

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.