The first bread I remember making (apart from helping my mother when I was younger) was the Indian flat bread Chappathi. That was on a griddle on the stove-top. My experiments with baking started with a simple cake, when in high school. I became pretty good at this. I would come home from college on the weekends and bake those simple, no fuss cakes to take back with me. We had one of those ovens where the gas flames were lit at the bottom and if you weren’t careful, your cake would be beautifully burnt on one side!!!
While I managed cakes reasonably well, my dream was to bake good bread. To me, the aroma of fresh bread baking in my oven is one of those fulfilling experiences. I have finally through a lot of trial and error (more errors than I care to mention), got around to making passable bread.
That became reality when I met a neighbour, now a very good friend, who was a master bread baker. Some hands on bread making classes with her set me on the path to better breads. These Easy Dinner Rolls are now a part of regular repertoire. Every time I need dinner rolls this is my go-to recipe. The dough is very forgiving and you can shape the rolls any way you want.
You can make them with all-purpose flour, a mix of half and half plain flour and whole wheat flour or all whole wheat flour. Just remember the whole wheat flour rolls would be a little heavier in texture.
Easy Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk warm
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsps dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Add the sugar and yeast to the warm milk, mix and allow to prove for about 5 minutes.
- To the flours, add all other ingredients and the milk-yeast mixture. Knead well, by hand or with hand mixer, till smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball and place it in a an oiled bowl, turning it so the dough is well coated. Cover and keep to rise till the dough has doubled in size. This should take about 1 1/2 hours or so.
- Punch the dough back and divide into 10 equal portions. Shape each portion as desired, using lightly oiled hands. Place on greased sheet and allow to rise slightly (about 10 minutes). Brush with water.
- Bake at 200C (400F) for about 20 minutes till nicely browned. Cool on a rack.
Jeena says
Oh I love this recipe, I could eat all of your bread rolls up now yummy. 🙂
Sig says
Nice blog you have here Aparna! Making bread is soo fulfulling, I’ve only done it once, and I was so proud 🙂
Linda says
Hi Aparna, good for you, a post just because you want to! Your rolls look beautiful 🙂
PASSIONATE BAKER....and beyond says
Great looking dinner rolls, Aparna. Am still wary of trying yeast as hve has some disastrous results in the past. Which yeast do you use? Yr rolls look so good!! O…the feeling of actually writing a post just for the sake of the blog and not an event. I know the feeling…those are a result of my butterfly posts etc! Just my own feelings sometimes…
Aparna says
Thank you, jeena, sig, linda. Hope to be im”prove” my efforts with yeast breads!
Aparna says
Do appreciate your comment. “Disaster” is too mild to describe my earlier forays into breadmaking! I use an active dry yeast my cousin got me from the US.
Mansi Desai says
these are very nicely done Aparna! I bet everyone enjoyed them a lot!
Passionate baker...& beyon says
Came back to check the DB post (not up yet) & a dinner roll recipe which I saw ages ago. Hope to try either this or a herb bread from Asha’s today. Lets see how far I get!!
Passionate baker...& beyon says
Aparna…I finally made these 2 days ago…messed up the recipe a bit, but they were fabulous! Thanks for a great post!! Will blog it in a few days!
PG says
The dinner rolls look so good! A nice blog you have here! Have been wanting to try out my recipe of bread rolls again which did not turn out as soft. Will try to modify using yours. 🙂