Fluffier than the average dinner roll, these sweet yeast rolls are reminiscent of Hartz Chicken or Ryan's Buffet. If you'd like to read how I arrived at this recipe, see the accompanying blog post.
What you'll need
Ingredients
- 540 grams bread flour
- 11 grams active dry yeast
- 126 grams (9 tablespoons) granulated white sugar
- 20 grams nonfat dry milk powder
- 296 grams (1¼ cup) warm water
- 6 grams (1 tsp) kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 15 grams honey
- 2 tablespoons salted butter, softened
Equipment
- Muffin tin
- Pastry brush
- Plastic wrap
- Stand mixer
Instructions
- Add 360 grams of the bread flour, yeast, salt, sugar, milk powder, and honey to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk briefly to combine.
- Whisk the egg and water together into a measuring cup.
- Turn the stand mixer on to low, and slowly pour in the egg + water mixture until no dry flour remains. The mixture will be extremely wet, but that's expected.
- With the stand mixer still on low, slowly stream in the melted butter until fully incorporated.
- Increase the speed of the mixture to medium-low, and slowly add in the remaining 180 grams of bread flour. Once no dry flour remains, increase the speed to medium-high for about 10-15 minutes.
- The dough is ready when it fully clears the sides of the bowl and passes the window pane test. Be patient - this can take as long as 20-25 minutes in a stand mixer, depending on your kitchen temperature and humidity.
- Grease the inside of a large bowl and transfer the dough inside. Cover and let rest until roughly doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
- Using a pastry brush, brush the insides and top of a muffin tin with the softened salted butter. The top needs to be brushed as well because the rolls will rise and spread across the top of the muffin tin – the butter makes it easier to take them out later.
- Once the dough has risen to roughly double, divide and shape the dough into 12 equal balls (about 90 grams each) and place each ball into the muffin tin. Since the dough is pretty sticky, I usually shape them by tucking the dough towards me, repeating the motion after rotating the dough 90 degrees several times. From my testing the rolls will be ok without shaping, though the tops will look less smooth.
- Oil one side of plastic wrap before using it to very loosely cover the muffin tin (the rolls need room to expand). Let the rolls rise until they have more than doubled in size (about 1.5 - 2 hours).
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
- Once the rolls have finished rising, bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
- After taking them out of the oven, immediately brush the tops with the remaining salted butter.
- Serve warm or toasted! Enjoy!
Left/Right: Before/After rising
The edges of the rolls should almost touch.
