Soft Bread Rolls
With summer, hopefully, just around the corner - that is, if we've not had all we're going to get already - I thought I'd have a go at making a 'burger type' soft roll, minus the sesame seed 'cos I've ran out!
Time has moved on since I first made these rolls in June 2008. The recipe's changed slightly. Rather than confuse things with a new article, I've amended the recipe below.
Ingredients for 9 large or 12 smaller rolls:
600g Strong Bread Flour
120ml Hot Water mixed with:
300ml Cold semi-skimmed milk (you want the total liquid to be about 35 - 37°C when you add it)
1½ teasp Salt
2 tablespoons Cooking Oil
1 sachet Fast Action Dried Yeast (7g)
Method
I make this using a Kenwood food mixer. But it's easily amended to make it by hand.
I put the flour into the bowl, then chuck the salt in and mix it with a spoon. Then I add the yeast and mix it again. Next, I add the oil and water/milk and stir it with a spoon until the ingredients are roughly mixed together. This is for no other reason than to stop the flour splattering everywhere when I turn the mixer on!
I mix it on a low setting using the dough hook for five minutes, then I give it a rest for a few minutes and then mix it again for another 5 minutes. Then, I tip/scrape the dough onto a floured board and bring it together into a ball using as little flour as possible. Into the now empty bowl I put about 1 teaspoon of oil, put the dough back in, and rub it with the oil. I cover the bowl with a tea towel and forget about it for an hour or so.
A word about the dough: This dough has a ratio of 70% water to flour which is higher than many 'traditional' recipes. It makes a lighter textured bread which most people nowadays prefer. You could make it by hand if you want to, but be warned, this mix is very sticky! If you do make it by hand, persevere when you knead it and try not to add too much extra flour, just accept that your hands will be a sticky mess, and get on with it. Knead it for a good 10 minutes until it is a nice 'silky' texture. Don't try and cheat at this stage or it won't be any good at all.
Rising the Dough:
Recipes generally tell you to leave the dough in a warm place, an airing cupboard or something similar, for about an hour, until doubled in size. It may take an hour. It may take longer. What I do is judge by size, not time. Ideally, the temperature should be about 26°C but I generally just put it to one side in the warm kitchen. As long as it's above 4°C the yeast will still be active; mind you, at that temperature you'd be starving by the time the bread rose and was baked!
When I say "doubled in size", I mean doubled in size:
Shaping and proving the dough
Now for my favourite bit - just shove your fist into the middle of the dough. Yes, I mean it - just thump it in the middle. It'll collapse making you wonder why you bothered leaving it to rise in the first place! It's necessary, so just enjoy it!
Tip the whole lot onto a floured surface and work it around for 30 seconds or so, then shape it into a ball. Cut this into 12 even parts for small rolls, or nine for larger rolls for burgers. I flatten each piece out and fold the sides in to the middle tensioning the under-side as I work around each piece. When the under-side is smooth and 'tight' I turn it over and push it down to make a flat disk with a smooth top.
I then sieve some flour over the top. Alternatively, you could brush it with water and put sesame seeds, poppy seeds or something similar on top.
I now leave the dough to rise again. When it's about half risen I put the oven on 180°C (160°C fan) to warm up. Many old recipes give a time for the dough to rise - say 20 minutes - what nonsense! Sometimes it's fairly quick, other times it may be an hour or so. What we want is for it to nearly reach it's full size - the bigger the better - as long as it doesn't collapse! The pictured dough is of the smaller rolls after they've risen:
Cooking the bread
For a soft roll, I bake the bread at 180°C in a 'non-fan' oven; it works far better than a fan oven for soft rolls. I then cook them for 20 minutes and, if when I tap the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow, it's cooked. If you only have a fan oven, it's hard to keep them really soft; it helps to cook them at a lower temperature, maybe 170°C or even 160°C and to wrap them in a clean tea-towel immediately after cooking.
These rolls are very light, have good keeping qualities, and freeze well.
For a crustier roll, have the oven at 220°C (200°C fan) and put a metal tray into the oven as it warms up. Immediately after you've put the bread rolls in to cook, put some water, say 150ml, on to the very hot tray to create a steamy atmosphere. Remove the water tray after 10 minutes.
These crustier rolls are best eaten on the day of cooking.
There are 74 comments
Ive been searching for just such a simple recipe. Just one question though. You mention
Milk in the ingredients but dont seem to ever mention putting it into the mixture.
Fantastic rolls, have tried several recipes, all failures until now. These turn out great every time and so I felt the need to thank you for sharing your particular recipe. Love your blog too!
These make great rolls and a really easy recipe, just wish I had a mixer because kneading by hand is very messy but well worth it. Thank you
We work in cups and ounces, could you convert this to cups and ounces for me. I would love to try them.
Hi Heather,
Regrettably, the weight of a cup of flour varies depending on the supplier and as I’m in the UK, I don’t have access to US brands of flour to know what they weigh.
You can convert grams to ounces by dividing by 28.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the recipe it’s a great one! I only have a fan oven and I cooked them on 160•c they were lovley, I can imagine them to be softer with the gas oven. Thanks for the recipe :)
Hi, just made 9 sound hollow when taped underneath, but instead of looking soft they look and sound crusty? I have cut into one , it looks lovely. Plus I didn’t use my fan oven, I left them in for 20 minutes , I had the oven on the temperature on 180c as you said to do. ??
I made these on Friday. They are excellent. My wifes favourite bread rolls so far. I usually prefer the well done/rustic/country rolls.
They were great with pulled pork.
I am making some again tomorrow :)
Thanks you both for the kind comments:
Joan – perhaps your oven ‘runs’ a bit hot. Wrapping them in a towel when they come out of the oven is said to make the crust softer.
Robert – for a crusty version, half the oil, increase the temperature to 200 – 220°C and put a thick metal baking tray in the oven as it heats up; put it on the shelf below the one that you’ll put the rolls on to. When you put the rolls in the oven, tip ¼ pint of water on to the tray on the shelf below them (watch out for the steam). Close the oven door quickly. After the first ten minutes, open the oven door to let out any remaining steam and if there is any water left, take the tray out of the oven. Close the door and finish cooking.
Hope this helps
I found iyour recipe on line several weeks ago and have been making the bread rolls every weekend since! Love, love, love you can’t beat homemade. Thank you so much for sharing.
For a long time I’ve wanted to cook really soft rolls and I have tried these a couple of times with excellent results.
I don’t have a mixer but i do have a Panasonic Bread machine. I used exactly half the recipe, on the basic dough programme. 2 hours 20 later all I had to do was take the dough out, split into 4, shape and put on a baking sheet to prove for a while, dust the top with flour and bake. Perfect.
I also tried using 2/3 white to 1/3 wholemeal flour. This also worked very well and made me feel a bit more virtuous. I baked them at 160°C not in a fan over for 25 mins. Again perfect.
Thanks again for the recipe
Thanks Tim,
I’m sure that many others will find your instructions for making them in the bread-maker useful.
Best regards
Hi Andrew, I’m glad you like them.
If you don’t need them to keep well – say, if you’re using them that day – reducing the oil will make a lighter roll.
I also start these in a Panasonic bread machine
I use full amount (600 g flour), but I use the pizza dough timer (45 mins) for the mix and kneed, and after the beep I leave it another 45 mins to prove, leaving the heat still on. Then divide into nine rolls (118 g each), and bake as instructed.
Jim
Thanks Jim,
Dad makes bread using the bread machine to prepare his dough. it seems like a good way to use the machine.
We all love this recipe for your bread rolls can not make enough that’s the problem I now have can you tell me is the recipe just double if I want twice as much thanks
Lisa
Just tried this recipe today. I’ve been looking for a great recipe for soft rolls using my bread maker to leaven the dough and this is absolutely it.
A fantastic result, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the family.
Thank you for sharing this.
Angela
I just have to ask, are these the same rolls we would normally get when buying a bacon buttie in the U.K.? I’m in Canada now and the rolls here just don’t come up to snuff when I make my Lorne sausage.
They’re similar, but with a little more substance. If you want them lighter, reduce the oil to 1 Tablespoon.
Hi, I make all my own bread so have accumulated many different recipes over time, but I have to say that this always my go to recipe. I have made loaves as well as buns and all different types of flour and they always turn out amazing! Thank you for sharing.
A great recipe, I’ve been trying to match shop bought soft white rolls for my children, they loved them. Thank ou for publishing this recipe.
12’s were beautiful. I’ll try with less oil next time to try the ‘lighter’ version, just to see the difference as they won’t last long in our house anyway. May I ask, if I make them smaller, ie. 18 or 24’s would you recommend less cooking time? I noticed someone above did 9’s for 25mins. BTW I do them batch…if that makes a difference with air flow?!
I cook these on a low temperature in a non-fan oven to ensure softness, but there’s a fine line between keeping them soft and them being under-cooked. I suggest a trial bake before you make them for anything special. I’d not reduce the time lower than (say) 12 – 15 minutes. But, that’s just a ‘gut’ feeling – not based on actually doing it.
Yes, of course you can. I’d use 15 – 20 gm per 500gm of flour. Bloom the yeast in about 150ml of the liquid at body temperature (37°C or thereabouts) before adding it to the bulk of the mix.
Just found this recipe, I will not look any further for a bread roll recipe. I don’t believe I will find a better one
Hi, just to say I had a look at a number of recipes for soft rolls and plumped for yours. Made them in an Emile Henry crown baker, which I’m still getting used to. Your recipe was a total success.
I see you’re incapacitated at the moment. I hope this is just a temporary situation. Many thanks for sharing your recipes and knowledge.
Thank you for an excellent recipe. My rolls look the same as yours and im so proud of them.
I run a wee bnb in Scotland and rolls at breakfast were my last bread making challenge. Can you freeze the raw dough?
I’ll be scattering mature cheddar over and around them halfway through cooking for homemade burgers on the supper menu.
I made these buns this afternoon and am absolutely delighted with the result. I am a novice to bread making and had a bread making book for Christmas but the recipe for rolls in that book did not end in the same results so I looked elsewhere and I am so glad I did. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I did get in quite a mess when trying to portion the dough as to you say. I didn’t want to make so many so I just did three quarters of the mix and I was using dried yeast I used 4g which has worked fine. Many thanks
Aged 69 and having tried hundreds of bread recipes over the years, I’m impressed. Not just a guaranteed result, but also tolerant of temperature and timing, to quite a degree. Thank you for helping me rediscover the taste and texture of real bread
It is a lovely and perfect recipe. My husband and boys simply loves them. They can’t resist and just keep eating them. Many thanks for the recipe.
Just tried these in a fan oven, 18 minutes and they were amazing, even with regular plain flour! Thanks, Phil! ☺️
Tried these today, 2 batches of 8 , which gave a nice size., both hand kneaded,,, not a problem
1st batch 2 tblspoon oil, 17g fresh yeast,,
2nd batch 1 tblspoon oil,,
170c 25mins,,
both great,, preferred the 2nd batch as slightly lighter,,, best soft roll recipe I have tried,, thanks,
I would recommend this to everyone
Thank you for your kind comments.
It’s good to know that other people like them as much as we do and that they work with plain (non-bread) flour.
I have made them with wholemeal flour, if I recall correctly I used slightly less oil and added a fraction more water.
Love the bread from this recipe but when I bake (just about to bake my second batch), I still get a dense crumb. I had to use full cream milk. Would that make the difference? I have added an extra 20ml water to try and make bubbles bigger :) Any comments appreciated.
Jim
I don’t think the milk is the problem. It’s more likely that they’ve not had enough time rising or proving. Did the rolls fill the baking tray? The picture of the 9 risen rolls (above) is of a mix split into 12 (3 rolls are on another tray) The tray is about 12” square (300mm square) They need to be that big, without collapsing, before they go in the oven. I hope this helps.
Recipe is perfect. I mould them into 12 small rolls that’s when it goes wrong. They take the shape of the tin and merge into each other. What would be the ideal size tin and should it have low or high sides?
Many thanks
I made these and they look amazing but the tops a fairly hard/crunchy the inside seems okay still hot from the oven. I only used 1 tablespoon of oil,
This is the best bread recipe I’ve ever used, thank you for sharing! I use half of the amounts in the recipe and less oil ( as in one of the comments). As we like thinner buns I make 2 round balls and roll them out a to flatten them and I then cut each into 4 and place on tray for the second rise. They make perfect sandwich buns with a lovely bread to filling ratio. Fab result every time.
Thank you so much for this recipe. Delicious results and such an amazingly helpful guide through the process. I’d only made bread once before and really appreciated that this post was so clear and well-explained that it made me feel confident at every step.
Hi I am making these rolls but I got delivered fresh yeast from the farm shop instead of dried. How much fresh yeast would you use ?
Hi Phil
First attempt at bread roll baking (I’ve had reasonable success with sourdough loaves) and disappointed that they have turned out like rocks! They are dense with some airholes. I was given a bag of bread flour from Morrisons (60p) and an unopened tin of Allinsons yeast granules (dated 2014) . I worked the mix by hand throughout and am wondering if either or both flour and yeast may have been to blame. They are so hard I wouldn’t want to have to arrange a visit to the dentist!! I now have strong white flour from Wessex Mill which I could try but don’t want to waste it if the rolls are going to turn out the same. Tips please
Hi Sheila
Yes, you could but there’s also a bread recipe here http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=360
Thank you for your comments.
I cook them on a baking sheet. 9 rolls fit nicely, although they do join up a little sometimes. For fresh yeast, I believe that you use 25g for each 7g sachet instant – but check that online.
Hi Peter,
I’m at a bit of a loss as to why yours are like rocks when everyone else’s are OK. I would assume that the yeast wasn’t viable given the date on it but you’d have not got past the stage of letting it double in size if that was the case. For it to double in size it must have been working to some extent. I can only think that when it had done that it didn’t have enough oomph left to do the second rise and the rise in the oven. Maybe try again with fresh yeast.
Thanks Phil. I’m going to do that (get fresh yeast) and I’m also going to try your bread recipe, too.
Your recipe turned out perfect, the only thing I did ifferent was added 1/2 tsp sugar. They came out super soft. I ignored timings as per your advice and used my eyes – this is probably one of the main differences as to why I now have a great recipe that actually works. Thank you so much.
This is a great recipe, thank you. Certainly much better than my previous ‘best’ soft white roll recipe! I didn’t have fresh semi-skimmed so used whole milk UHT, I made 12 rolls and baked for 20 minutes at 170 in a fan oven and they were perfect.
I usually make brown bread, and have never made soft bread or rolls before, so made these by hand today. Used 150g wholemeal flour they came out really well and added a little more milk. I had a terrific sence of achievement and wanted to thank you for enabling me to make such a good batch. A great recipe.
Just tried out this recipe and I have managed to make the best buns I have so far made. They are light and airy but a little dry, I think my oven may be a little enthusiastic so I’ll try again for a couple of minutes less. But very good thanks for sharing.
Fantastic rolls, but I have frozen some, after 3 days took them out they were very heavy and dry, any help?
I have never tried bread baking before but saw your recipe and thought “Why not?”
This is just to say FABULOUS!
I followed the recipe exactly and the results were amazing. Everyone loved them and the left-overs kept well for 3 days in a tight container. We heated them in a warm (Fan 160) oven for 10 minutes and they were superb, hot with lashings of butter.
Thank you so much, I still bask in the praise.
Geoff Chivers.
Brilliant recipe! First time I’ve made soft rolls that are actually soft, wrapping in a tea towel whilst hot was counterintuitive but is genius! Thanks so much. Hope your incapacity is nothing too serious.
Hi just made these and they are perfect – so lovely and soft. I have tried several recipes for rolls and this is the best by far. I followed the recipe to the letter and left them for 35 mins on the second proving and They were well risen. Well done I will be making again. Thank you
I'm somewhat incapacitated at present so replies may take some time. Please post urgent enquiries at the www.sausagemaking.org forum.
Absolutely true Phil, your methods of making bread rolls and bread are the same as mine. As I read through it I kept feeling as if I had written that article myself. It’s true, great minds do think alike!
For my bread and rolls I use:
500g of flour, 300ml of lukewarm water, 1½ teasp of Kosher Salt, 2 tablespoons Rapeseed Oil, 1 sachet Fast Action Dried Yeast, and a pinch of sugar.