Thanksgiving Vegan Dinner Rolls Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade dinner rolls hard? ›

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

Yep, you can always sub water for the milk in bread recipes. It does affect the texture a bit, though. Bread made with water will not be as soft or fluffy as bread made with milk, the crumb won't be as fine, and it will go stale faster as well.

If you want a lighter fluffier bread loaf just add 2 Tbsp of dry milk to the flour per loaf of your bread. Vinegar has a very similar effect to the dough as the ascorbic acid. It helps hold the dough together and strengthens the bubbles so they won't pop.

Carbon dioxide is responsible for all the bubbles that make holes in bread, making it lighter and fluffier. Because gas is created as a result of yeast growth, the more the yeast grows, the more gas in the dough and the more light and airy your bread loaf will be.

Avoid adding too much extra flour to the dough.

Your instinct might be to add extra flour; however, any extra flour will create a denser, tougher roll instead of the light, fluffy, soft dinner roll we want.

You can also use all-purpose in many bun or roll recipes, which tend to have lower hydration and rely less on strong gluten and more on butter and sugar for texture. (Though bread flour can still give you a fluffier, almost cotton-candy-like texture in most buns and rolls.)

Don't rush the rising time.

For flavor and texture, these fluffy dinner rolls need an initial rise and then a second proof after they're shaped. This ensures that your rolls are light and fluffy and not dense bricks.

For most uniformly shaped pull-apart rolls, bake them in a round or rectangular pan. For non-pull-apart perfect spheres, bake rolls free-form. Though in the end, how much difference does it really make – so long as there are hot rolls, brushed with butter, on the table when dinner is ready?

This trick helps create better-looking rolls. We have three reasons for baking rolls such as our Oatmeal Dinner Rolls or our Fluffy Dinner Rolls in the confined space of a cake pan versus individually on a baking sheet.

Baking Pan: I prefer baking the rolls in a glass 9×13 inch baking pan because I find they brown a little too quickly in metal. As long as you bake the rolls on a lower oven rack and keep your eye on them, any pan is great.

Why add scalded milk to homemade rolls? ›

The whey in milk can actually prevent yeast from doing its job — causing bread to rise. But scalding milk weakens whey, allowing yeast to work. In fact, scalded milk actually speeds up the rate at which yeast causes bread to rise because yeast starts working more quickly in warm liquids than cool ones.

besides the nutritional benefits there are a few other good reasons to use egg in breadmaking. It makes the bread lighter and fluffier. The reason for that is the fat in the yolk that inhibits gluten formation just as any other fat would. This results in a looser dough that can expand and puff up more.

Sure. Plan on using 1/3 cup (76g) heavy cream for each 8” round pan of rolls; increase the cream by 20g (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) for a 9” round or 8” square pan. If your recipe calls for a 9” x 13” pan, double the amount of cream to 2/3 cup (152g).

For baking light and fluffy bread, it is necessary to choose flour that has high levels of protein. If you choose to use flour with lower protein levels, you'll be left with the bread being dense.

The dough was under or over proofed. This is the most common reason for dense bread because it can be hard at first to determine when dough is ready to bake.

Over-kneaded dough will be tough and dense, and it will not have the soft and springy texture that properly kneaded dough has. The dough does not rise well. Over-kneaded dough may not rise as well as it should, resulting in a loaf of bread that is dense and heavy.