Du Pain: I Learned Making Dinner Rolls for My Grandpa

Duration: 2 h 32 m - 3 h 32 m (manual kneading)

Preparation (15 Minutes)

Mixing (5 minutes)

Kneading (12 minutes)

1st Proof (1-2 hours)

2nd Proof (30 minutes)

Baking (30 minutes)

Yield:

9-12 Dinner rolls.

Three days before my Grandpa passed away, he asked for some "soft round bread that is mildly sweet and easy to chew."  Dinner rolls popped in my mind at that time. Did he get it? Yes, but it was from the local bakery. The day he asked for it, I couldn't make it right away. I need to get back home (we live in different cities), learn the recipe, test the recipe, pack it, and finally bring it to him. Even though I didn't make it in time for him, at least now I know how to make some Dinner Rolls.

Almost every recipe I found online requires light dusting of corn starch onto the bread just before it gets baked and it makes me wonder. What will a dusting of corn starch do on top of fluffy soft buns? I've tried a recipe with corn starch dusting and another recipe with an egg wash. In this blog post, I'll show you how I made the one with an egg wash. The recipe belongs to Joshua Weissman, check out his video for the detailed information on measurements and the other things.

A. The Ingredients

Wet Ingredients:

Whole Milk

Water

White Sugar

Instant Dry Yeast

Eggs

Butter

Dry Ingredients:

Bread Flour

Salt

Let's talk about yeast. You can use any dry yeast available in your local stores, just make sure that you use it as suggested in the packaging. Before this, I tried Emma Goodies recipe for the starch dusted ones. The recipe stated that she added 7gr or one packet of dry yeast into the warm milk, while Weissman added 9gr. The yeast I used is packaged in an 11 gr sachet. It is stated in the packaging that one sachet of yeast is to pair with 1000 gr flour. After calculating, it means that I only need 3-4 grams of yeast for the recipe. I was torn whether I should go with the direction or with the recipe instead. In the end, I followed the recipe. However, because Emma said that we may use one packet of instant yeast, silly me actually added all 11gr of yeast into my dough. The result? The dough turned out dry, even after I added more milk. I kept on baking the bread, but it didn't rise well and the smell was too strong in the first batch. In this attempt, I went with the recipe again since Mr. Weissman only put 9gr of yeast into his dough. 

"2 grams difference eh? maybe it will turn out better," I said to myself.

Well, while the texture did improve, the smell was still too strong. Lesson learned, go with what's directed in the yeast' packaging, the producer knows their products best.

B. Preparation Step

1. Preparing the butter

• For kneading: The butter has to be at room temperature so that it incorporates better into the dough. If you are living in a place with a warm climate, simply measure out the amount of butter you need and let it sit outside the fridge for a while before anything else. Otherwise, put the butter in a microwave for seconds (some newer generation microwave even has the option to soften butter).  Another option is to put the butter in your oven, heat off but lights on. For another option with more dishes to wash but less electricity consumption is to put the butter in a small bowl and then put it in a slightly bigger bowl filled with warm water. Make sure that you have enough warm water to surround the butter bowl, but not so much that the water flows into the butter.
• For coating: Minutes before the bread finished baking, take a teaspoon of butter and set aside. This butter will be smeared on top of the bread after it's baked.

2. Blooming the Yeast

1. Warm up the milk to 30-35° C,
2. Add in the dry yeast, stir until all the yeast soaked in milk, 
3. cover it and set aside.

3. Making Tangzhong

1. Add in the bread flour, water, and milk into a small saucepan,
2. Bring it to a stovetop, turn on medium heat,
3. Continuously whisking until the mixture thickens,
4. Remove from the heat, transfer it into a small bowl, set aside, and let cool to room temperature,

C. Baking Process

In this entire process, I will be kneading manually using my hands. Kneading duration might vary, depends on how quick you are moving your hands. 

1. Add in the bread flour and sugar into a medium-sized bowl, mix until just combined,

via GIPHY

2. Add in the tangzhong, bloomed yeast, and egg, whisk for a while to break the egg and then start to knead,

via GIPHY

3. Continue kneading for 5 minutes,
4. Gradually add in the salt, continue kneading
5. Gradually add in the softened butter, continue kneading for 7 more minutes,

via GIPHY

6. After you get smooth and supple dough, form it into a ball, put into a greased medium-sized bowl, cover it with a damp towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size (1st proofing),
7. After the dough has risen up, gently push the dough (or, punch it once, lol) to release excess air,

via GIPHY

8. Measure out your dough and divide them into smaller pieces (I divided the dough into 9 pieces),
9. Form the divided dough into balls,
10. Put it in a baking pan (i used an 18x18 pan) like so,
11. Cover the pan with a damp towel and let rise for another 30 minutes (2nd proofing),
12. Prepare the egg wash while waiting for the dough to rest: beat an egg and add a splash of whole milk, stir until well combined,
13. Add in a layer of egg wash on top of your dough,
14. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 ° C for 30 minutes,
15. Take it out from the oven, smear butter on the upper surface, let cool down.

Please make sure that you knead the dough until soft and supple BEFORE doing the first proofing. Because I feel like the dough was not supple enough in my first try (there were weird air pockets all over my dough, later I found out that is because I used too much dry yeast), I kneaded it again after the first proofing,*sigh*. 

Kneading the dough after proofing will toughen the gluten up, resulting in a dense bread. I got a rock-hard "weapon" instead of fluffy soft buns in my first try, lol. In this recipe, gently pressing the dough several times and forming into desired shapes are the only acceptable things to do after the first proofing.

There are actually more steps in the original recipe. However, since my goal is only to make plain dinner rolls, I'm skipping the garlic butter. Although steep 15 is also optional, smearing butter on top of the bread adds a pleasant aroma to it, I really recommend not to skip this step.

D. The Yield

They taste amazing! Best served while warm and with some butter, divine. They really remind me of the dinner rolls served in my local steak house and it was nice to be "reunited" again with the homemade version of it. Thank you, Mr. Weissman. Good luck to all of you who want to learn this recipe!