Go ahead, tell them you'll bring the rolls to the next family dinner. Then sit back and enjoy as everyone gives you praises for these. They are SO GOOD. I know, I say that about every recipe but would I share a recipe that was SO BAD? No. No I wouldn't.
You can make these in a 9x13 or in round cake pans or two 8x8 whatever suits your fancy. I think the round cake pans make for a nice shape to the bun and present well if bringing to a dinner or even wrapping and giving as a gift!
Shaping & Dividing Buns
So, this is why we all make bread instead of buns right..? Because dividing and shaping buns is tedious and annoying. Well it can be, but it can also be a pretty quick task if you know what to do and have a nice podcast on in the back ground.
To me there are two ways to divide buns.
Option 1.) Weigh your whole ball of dough then divide that amount by however many buns you want and then weigh out each piece before shaping. I like this way because you're going to have even baking times and a perfect result. I don't like this way if its 9pm and I just wanna go back to the couch and finish this weeks episode of the bachelor. HAHA Use this way if you want to impress your Mother in law or are giving as a gift.
Option 2.) Break down your ball of dough in half until you have the desired number of buns. This way is my preferred method if my family and I are going to eat these like wild animals. Con: More likely to have some buns under and some over cooked. (feed the junk buns to the kids if any get away from ya while using this method)
Shaping
To shape your buns pull all of the sides of the bun to the bottom then pinch them together. Then put the bun bottom side down onto the counter top and roll in the palm of your hand until you feel that the bottom is sealed and the top looks smoothed out.
Soft Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk 40°C-50°C
- 2¼ teaspoon Active Dry Yeast (1 packet)
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup butter or margarine room temperature, cut into small ½" pieces
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoon salt table
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Instructions
- Combine milk, yeast and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand for 5 minutes or until the yeast has foamed up. Add in your butter and eggs, stirring until combined
- Add in the salt followed by the flour one cup at a time. Your dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl each rotation of your dough hook, if it doesn't than you need to add more flour until you have achieved this.
- Once dough is pulling away let the dough hook knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Be sure to keep your mixer on its slowest speed setting so that you don't over work your poor mixer! You can also knead your dough on a floured countertop if you're into that kind of thing.
- Once dough has passed the window pane test, oil the bowl and cover it. Let the dough rise until its double in size. This can take anywhere from 1.5-2 hours so its a good time to watch Titanic or something.
- Once the dough has risen enough you can divide and shape the buns. There are two ways to do this which I detail above in the body of this post. This recipe makes 16 buns in a 9x13" pan or 18 buns in two 9" round pans. Place shaped buns in greased pans.
- Cover and let buns rise again, about 1 hour
- In a preheated 350° oven, bake for 20-22mins. Buns will be golden brown on the top and have an internal temperature of 190° F when baked completely.
- Once baked, remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in a plastic bag in the freezer until ready to eat so that you don't eat the whole batch with butter and jam on the same day you baked them.
