Perfect Sweet Dinner Rolls (Better Than Bakery!)

Tray of freshly baked dinner rolls with shiny golden crusts, one roll torn open on a plate to show the light, fluffy interior, served with butter and milk.

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Perfect Sweet Dinner Rolls (Better Than Bakery!)

These tender, fluffy sweet dinner rolls are the result of years of testing and perfecting. Follow my step-by-step instructions, you can also make these soft, pillowy rolls for your next family dinners, holidays, or anytime you want homemade bread that everyone will love.

Prep Time1

Cook Time18

Proofing Time15

Total Time1 10

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American, Asian

Servings: Rolls

Calories: 125kcal

Author: Edwina

Equipment

Stand mixer
9 x 13 cake pan

Ingredients

Tangzhong Roux

25 g bread flour
125 g water

Dinner Rolls Dough

375 g bread flour
100 g cake flour
40 g sugar
20 g dry milk powder
180 g cold milk
20 g honey or condensed milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon sea salt
50 g unsalted butter(soften) cut into 6-8 pieces
1 teaspoon instant yeast ideally saf instant yeast

Butter for Brushing

2 tablespoons melted butter

Instructions

Make Tangzhong

In a small saucepan, whisk together the flour and water until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture just begins to thicken. As soon as it starts to thicken, remove the pan from the heat and continue whisking for another 20–30 seconds. The tangzhong should be loose and pourable, more like a slurry than a thick paste.
Pour the tangzhong into a small bowl or container, cover it, and place it in the freezer for 20–30 minutes. It should be completely cooled, ideally with a thin layer of ice having just formed near the edge. You can also let it cool in the refrigerator for 1–2 hours, or overnight if you’re preparing ahead.

Make the dough

In a stand mixer, mix all the dough ingredients except yeast, sea salt and unsalted butter until a rough dough is formed. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes (in the fridge, if possible).
After resting, Add salt and knead for 2 minutes.
Add unsalted butter, one piece at a time, and knead for another 6-8 minutes until the butter is well incorporated with the dough and the dough starts to look smoother.
Mix instant yeast with 1 tablespoon of water and stir until well combined.Add yeast mixture and knead on medium high speed for 6-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and able to pass the windowpane test.
Form the dough into a ball, place it in a greased airtight container or gallon sized ziploc bag and store in the fridge for around 12-18 hours

Shape the rolls

Take the dough out from the fridge, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 20 equal portions with a dough cutter (don't tear it!)
For each piece of dough, flatten with your palm before folding the edges in to the center, pinch them together to form a ball and flip it over so that the seam side is down. When finished, cover the dough balls with a damp tea towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.
After resting, tighten the dough balls again. To do so, form your hand into a C shape, roll the dough with your hand (against the working surface) by pushing the ball up with the side of your palm that's close to your thumb and pulling it back with the other four fingers in a circular motion. Do this for two to three times and let the tension between the dough and working surface tighten up the dough ball. See video for a demonstration.
Place them in a 9 by 13 cake pan lined with parchment paper. Cover the cake pan with a damp towel or greased plastic wrap and let them proof in a warm place (82°F / 28°C~ 95°F / 35°C) for an hour to an hour and a half, until the rolls look noticeably larger and puffier, filling in more of the gaps between them.

Bake the rolls

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) in the last 20 minutes of the second proof.
Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until golden brown. Once it's done baking, take the cake pan out from the oven, and If you like, brush the tops with melted butter.
Carefully lift the rolls out of the pan by holding the edges of the parchment paper, then set the whole batch on a cooling rack. Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before enjoying.

Notes

Measure your ingredients with a kitchen scale! This is especially true for flour and liquids, because your one cup can be very different from my one cup.

When making Tangzhong for this recipe, make sure you remove it from the heat once it starts to thicken up, you don't want to bring it to a boil.

Start with cold liquid - I learned this from professional bakers in Taiwan. Since the dough needs a lot of kneading, using cold liquid prevents the final dough from becoming too warm (which negatively impacts the texture of the bun). In summer, I would even place the milk in a freezer until a thin layer of ice forms near the edge before I use it.

Since we are adding yeast towards the end, it's important to make sure it dissolves in water completely before adding it to the dough.

Letting the dough rise overnight in the fridge slows down the fermentation, which helps develop a deeper flavor. The chilled dough is also much easier to handle and shape, and it spreads the bread making process over two days, so you don’t have to finish everything at once.

The best temperature for final proofing is between 80 - 90°F (26.5 - 32°C). If your indoor temperature is too low, you can proof your dough in the oven over a separate tray/pan on the bottom rack that's filled with water brought to a boil.

If your oven has a proofing function, then for the first proof, only use this function for the first 20 minutes so that the temperature won't be too high. For the second proof, however, you can turn on the proofing function for the whole time as we need a higher temperature for the second proof.

Don't overproof your dough! This will affect the texture and the taste of your buns.

Nutrition