Freshly baked dinner rolls are perfect for family dinners. Moreover, the meals become especially more enjoyable when the dinner rolls are soft and fluffy. That said, many people find it challenging to achieve that perfect level of puffiness. Thankfully, the recipe to bake these fluffy, delectable treats is not as daunting as it may seem to be. With just a few adjustments, the right ingredients, and techniques, one can make the most flavorful dinner rolls.
Gather all the essential ingredients
The first step to making pillowy dinner rolls is choosing the right ingredients. Before one proceeds to knead the dough, it is important to understand the two types of dough one can prepare. Among these, the first kind of dough is called lean dough, which only requires flour, yeast, water, and salt. Even though this dough can be used to make dinner rolls, the final product will not be fluffy, but rather crusty. This is why lean dough is mainly prepared for making baguettes and plain varieties of sourdough. For a fluffier roll, one would need to prepare the second type of dough, known as enriched dough. For this, one would need a few more ingredients, which are eggs, butter, milk, and sugar, along with basic items like flour, yeast, water, and salt, of course.
Yeast is among the most important baking ingredients in the dinner roll recipe. After all, it makes the dough rise and gives the rolls or the bread their required fluffiness. That being said, when using yeast, one must ensure that it is fresh. Usually, if yeast is older than six months, it is better to avoid using it and buy a new pack to ensure proper results.
When gathering ingredients, one must ensure the use of two types of flour – bread flour and all-purpose flour. While some recipes call for only bread flour, combining it with all-purpose flour helps achieve the desired level of fluff for the dinner rolls.
Make sure the liquid ingredients are at the right temperature
Before one proceeds to mix all the ingredients to prepare the dough, one must make sure that the milk and water are not too hot. It is recommended to use warm water for the recipe, but it should not be hot. The same applies to the milk; if its temperature is higher than 100°F, allow it to cool down first. This is important because the heat from these ingredients can destroy the yeast, preventing the dough from rising properly. In simple words, using hot liquids in the recipe can result in dinner rolls that are not fluffy.
Mix the dough well
After all the ingredients are gathered, one can start mixing them in the required amount to make the dough. Now, in this process, it is essential to keep mixing the ingredients for some time so that the dough comes out smooth and stretchy. This will also contribute to getting the perfect texture and fluffiness of the dinner rolls.
Knead the dough carefully
The next step in the process of making homemade fluffy dinner rolls is to knead the dough. Before beginning, however, one must ensure that no excessive amounts of flour are added to the dough. The addition of enrichment ingredients – mainly milk, butter, and sugar – will delay the development of gluten in the dough. As a result, it may feel a little sticky to knead. Usually, when this happens, one must immediately add flour to the dough. However, if one plans on making fluffy bread rolls, this would not be a good idea. This is because adding too much flour will make the dinner rolls denser instead of light and airy. So, it is better to add only a little bit of flour at the time of kneading. Also, it is crucial to knead the dough slowly until it becomes smooth. It may take around 10 to 20 minutes, but the result will be worth the time and effort.
Give the dough enough time to rise
One of the most important tips to follow to make dinner rolls light and airy is to give the dough enough time to rise. This “rising” process occurs due to the yeast present inside the dough consumes the sugar and starches, and releases carbon dioxide, which then gets trapped inside the dough. However, this process does not happen too fast. So, it is usually recommended to let the dough rise for at least one hour, before proceeding to cut and bake it.
One can also consider letting the dough rise overnight inside the fridge. Refrigeration will slow down the yeast’s activity but also won’t stop it. This will help in getting even fluffier dinner rolls.
Perform the poke test
To check if the dough has set and risen properly, one can perform the “poke” test. Lightly poke the dough with the index finger or a fork, and observe what happens. If the dough springs back too fast, it might need more time to rise. If the dough does not spring back at all, and the poking leaves a dent, it means the dough has been over-proofed, which means the yeast has consumed a lot of sugar and gluten. The ideal result for the poke test is when the indentation slowly springs back, indicating that the dough is perfectly proofed and ready to be shaped into rolls.
Be mindful of the baking period
Baking the dinner rolls for more than 15 minutes will dry them out. So to maintain the right level of fluffiness, it is better to bake only for 15 minutes, maximum.