Bread Roll: The one for every bread-lover

Bread rollsare the perfect light and fluffy snack for your evening tea time. Crustier on the outside and soft on the inside, these bread rolls are little pieces of heaven. Due to their buttery texture, they melt right in your mouth. French bread roll isa premium snack that you just cannot have enough of. Not only this, but this finger-licking good dish is super easy to make.

Origin

The French bread roll is a mix of French as well as Italian bread styles. Such bread types are crusty on the outside and have a tough crumb inside. Tracing the origin of bread roll is quite difficult because bread is present in every region of the world.

There are some variations in each type of bread, but the base ingredients are mostly the same. So if we talk about the first bread to be ever made in the history of mankind, it was around 12,000 years ago in the Neolithic era. Back in those days, course grains mixed with water formed a dough.

Baking of this dough was possible because of heated stones and ashes. Later, the Egyptians were the first to discover that wheat doughs could ferment to form gasses and expand the loaf. After world war 2, bread gained rapid momentum, and every region started creating its version of bread.

Moreover, the bread roll recipe is also found in the recipe books of the 18th century. Before the beginning of any meal, French bread roll wrapped in linen napkins were present on the table. King Charles 2nd was the one to bring this French culture to British colonies.

Gradually, the popularity of this tradition rose around the world and now every restaurant serves bread before the main course. If you wonder how to make bread roll, we have a detailed recipe for you; without any further ado, let’s get started with this recipe.

How to make bread rolls

The recipe forbread roll is pretty straightforward and contains basic ingredients. To prepare the dough, you will need ingredients like water, milk, yeast, sugar, butter, salt, egg, and flour easily available in any household. By mixing all the ingredients, the dough will be ready, which is the main element of the dish.

Adding milk to the dough ensures that the rolls become super soft. Not only this but milk adds texture and an amazing flavour to the bread roll as well. Yeast is a significant ingredient as it gives a sponge-like texture and a beautiful aroma to the dough.

It aerates the dough and can add to the overall nutritional value too. Skipping yeast can cause the bread to dry out and cook the dough very slowly. Sugar is another essential ingredient as the yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide gas and makes the dough rise. To add a structure to the bread, adding an egg becomes vital.

Butter, as well as salt, make the bread rollflavourful and soft like a pillow. Flour is the last element that binds all the ingredients together. Once the dough is ready, you simply have to punch the dough, make medium-sized balls, and put them in a baking pan.

After baking the dough, the bread rolls are hot and ready to serve. If you are looking for an easy bread roll recipe, here are the detailed instructions for you. Follow them to make this delicious mouth-watering bread roll for your loved ones. But before that, let’s have a look at the ingredients used in the recipe of bread roll.

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk

Two and a half tsp yeast

Two tbsp sugar

One large egg

Unsalted butter

One tsp salt

400 grams all-purpose flour

2 tbsp butter mixed with 1 tbsp honey for topping

Instructions

Here’s the step by step guide of making a bread roll right at the comfort of your home. Make sure to follow each step as it is.

Firstly, take the milk and warm it at medium to low flame. Add yeast and one tablespoon of sugar to the milk. Let the ingredients mix and cool down a bit for around five minutes. Do this step in a stand mixer, if you have one.

This step can be done easily in the stand mixer. However, it requires some effort.

After mixing the ingredients, add the remaining flour to the bowl and start blending them with the spatula again. If you have a stand mixer, simply beat it on low to medium speed for thirty seconds.

Once you notice that the dough is starting to come together and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, it is ready. At this point, the dough should be very soft and a little sticky.

If the dough for the bread rollis not manageable or is too wet, add flour to it gradually till it starts to come together. Apply a little flour to your hands and use them to form a smooth dough if none of the methods seems to be working for you.

For those using a stand mixer, knead the dough for three more minutes. Otherwise, use your hands to make the dough more fluffy.

To know when the dough is ready, take a small piece of it in your hands. It will be a little sticky and may even leave a tiny residue on your hands. However, you will be able to mould it into any shape easily. If not, gradually add flour to the dough to achieve this state.

Take a large bowl, brush up some oil on its sides or use a non-stick spray. Transfer the dough to the bowl and coat all sides with oil. Use a cooking brush to apply oil to the sides evenly.

Next, take a plastic wrap, aluminium foil or a clean towel, whatever is available to you. It is now time for the dough’s first rise to make a bread roll.

After covering the bowl, leave it undisturbed for around an hour or two and allow it to rise. If possible, keep it in a warmer place to speed up the process. Generally, it takes around two hours for the dough to rise.

Once the dough is double in size, it is ready for the second rise. Take the dough, punch it hard to release all the air and divide it into twelve pieces, around 2.75 ounces of each piece. Also, take a baking pan and grease it with oil.

It is now time to give a shape to the bread roll. This part can be a bit tricky, but you get better at it with practice. Take one ball at a time and shape it using your hands. You can either give them shape by using both of your palms or fix it with your fingers, whatever works for you.

Once the balls are done, place them carefully in the greased baking pan. Cover the pan with a kitchen towel, aluminium foil or any other wrap.

Leave the pan for an hour. The rising time depends on the temperature of your kitchen and how warm it is. It will rise and become soft in one hour generally.

Finally, let us bake the dough to make bread roll. Preheat the oven, put the pan in it and let it bake for twenty minutes. When the rolls are golden brownish on the top, they are ready.

As soon as you take out the pan, apply butter honey mixture as a topping on the each bread roll. Allow them to cool down for a while before you serve them. This is how you can make easy bread rolls without any complications.

Expert tips

If you want to freeze the dough, let it rise once, cover it nicely and put it in a freezer. Then, take it out and let it double rise for four to five hours on the day of serving. Then, bake it as usual, and the bread roll is ready.

If you do not have instant yeast, don’t worry. You can also use active dry yeast in this recipe of bread roll, but the rise time will be longer with this substitute.

All-purpose flour and bread flour are both great options for making bread roll. Bread flour results in more chewy bread as compared to all-purpose flour.

Notes

The bread roll recipe above is scalable so that you can make two, three or more batches of bread roll.

If you want to make the bread roll with whole wheat flour, you can replace all-purpose flour with this one. The rest of the recipe remains the same.

Non-dairy milk or low-fat milk will work just fine in the recipe. However, whole milk will add an amazing texture and taste to the dish.

If you do not have a stand mixer, simply use a spatula and your hands for making dough. Do not use any other kind of mixer for this purpose.

Nutrition Facts

This recipe of bread roll offers:

Calories: 141kcal

Protein: 5g

Fat: 1g

Carbohydrates: 30g

Frequently Asked Questions