Super soft white bread rolls recipe

There are times when only a super soft pillowy bread roll will do. These delicious rolls are perfect for lunch boxes and make excellent burger buns – or hotdog rolls if you shape them differently.

Not everyone is a fan of really crusty bread and being able to make your own super soft bread rolls can seem an impossible task but now we have a super easy recipe for super soft rolls!

This recipe is just as easy as our ever popular ‘How To Make Delicious Homemade Crusty Bread With Your Stand Mixer’ although it does have an extra couple of steps and is a much richer and softer dough so it is a bit stickier to deal with but your stand mixer does most of the hard work for you.

This recipe uses a method known as Tangzhong – it’s not at all difficult I assure you, it’s just an extra step that mixes a little of the flour with some of the milk from the recipe, which is then cooked in a saucepan until thick. It is a basic roux that, when added to the bread dough will add tenderness and will also increase the keeping qualities of the bread.

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Ingredients

For the tangzhong

• 25g strong white bread flour
• 100g full fat milk

for the dough

• 225g full fat milk, warmed to hand hot
• 5g salt
• 475g strong white bread flour
• 7g easy blend yeast
• 50g butter, cubed small and very soft but not melted

How to make super soft white bread rolls

1. Start by making the Tangzhong. This is very easy! All you do is mix together the flour and milk in a small saucepan. Place the pan on a medium heat and stir continuously until it thickens – it will get quite stiff.
2. Put the cooked Tangzhong onto a large plate and spread it thinly so that it cools down quickly. It must by cool before it is added to the dough.
3. For the dough, heat the milk to hand hot then pour it into your stand mixer bowl.
4. Add the salt to the milk followed by the flour.
5. Sprinkle over the yeast and set your mixer, fitted with the dough hook, to a low speed until the dough has come together.
6. When the dough has formed, add in the Tangzhong and continue to mix for another minute.
7. Increase the speed of you mixer to speed 2 and leave to knead the dough for 10 minutes.
8. After the 10 minutes is up gradually drop in the cubes of softened butter and keep mixing until they are all incorporated – this can take 3-5 minutes depending on how soft you butter is. Keep mixing until you can no longer see any of the butter.
9. When the dough is ready, lightly oil your work surface and, using a dough scraper or silicone spatula, tip out the dough.
10. Now, this is where it all gets a bit sticky but do persevere as the results are well worth it! To stop the dough from sticking to your fingers, generously oil your hands.
11. Next, we are going to form the dough into a ball ready for proving. Gently pinch the dough on the edge and stretch it outwards slightly before bringing it to the centre of the dough.
12. Keep doing this all the way around until you have a a smooth ball.
13. The dough now goes back into the bowl to prove. The easiest way to do this is to place your hands palm side up on either side of the dough then bring them together so that the dough is then in your hands.
14. Cover the bowl with oiled polythene or clingfilm and leave to prove until doubled in size – about an hour or so depending on the warmth of your kitchen but it may take longer.
15. When the dough has doubled in size we now treat it differently from our normal bread dough – do not knock it back as we don’t want to lose the air inside but instead gently tip it out onto your lightly oiled work surface using your dough scraper or large silicone spatula to get it all out.
16. Gently divide the dough into roll size pieces – how big or small you make them is entirely up to you but I usually make the about 85g each. If you want to be super accurate, weigh your dough and divide the weight by the number of rolls you want to make to give you the individual portion size.
17. When you have all of the dough weighed out, shape the buns in exactly the same way as we shaped the dough earlier for proving.
18. Now each ball of dough needs to be flattened slightly so either use you oiled fingers to press them down or use a rolling pin to roll them – either way they should be about 50% wider than when you started. Do this gently as we want to preserve the precious air that is inside!
19. Place the rolls about 2cm apart on a lined baking tray, cover with oiled polythene of clingfilm and leave to rise. They will be ready when they just start to touch. This may take an hour – 1 1/2 hours or more depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
20. When they are nearly ready, pre heat your oven to it’s highest heat.
21. Carefully brush the tops of the rolls with a little milk then bake for 5 minutes on this high heat. Reduce the temperature to 200°c fan / 220°c / gas 7 and continue to bake until the rolls are a lovely golden brown.
22. Cool on a wire rack, the crust will soften as they cool.

These easy to make rolls are ideal as Burger Buns – you can sprinkle on some sesame seeds when you brush the tops with milk just before baking if you like or leave them just as they are.

We have the most delicious homemade juicy burger recipe too that is quick and easy to make and best of all you know exactly what has gone in them – after tasting these, you’ll never go to MacDonalds again!

These buns taste so much nicer than anything you can buy mass produced and are well worth the small amount of effort to make them so do give them ago and let me know in the comments how you get on or do ask if you have any questions.