The mad holiday dash is right on our doorsteps, making now the time to get serious with your menu planning. Assuming it’s fallen with you to do the cooking yet again (lucky you!), you’ll be dusting off your old recipes and doing the usual inventory management.
At some point, you’ll face the same dilemma as millions of other households:
Do I go for store-bought dinner rolls this year, or make the effort to bake my own?
Frankly, it’s not really an option in my home. If I produce a batch of store-bought dinner rolls at this time of year, I’d be exiled. Disowned. Disgraced for all eternity.
All of which is actually quite the compliment, as my dinner rolls tend to be the hit of the whole shebang. Fresh from the oven, fluffy as can be and drenched in butter, they’re epic…period.
But what I can say for sure is that it wasn’t always this way. I had to experiment with dozens of different recipes before nailing it with this one formula. Mostly due to the fact that unlike most, I prefer baking dinner rolls with no yeast.
Why Dinner Rolls with No Yeast?
Let’s not beat around the bush here – yeast gives you gas. Sure, it’s packed with a huge dose of iron and B vitamins, but it can also leave you feeling bloated and uncomfortable.
There are ways to slow-proof dough over the course of two or even three days to combat this particular problem. But let’s face it – who has two or three days to dedicate to baking a batch of dinner rolls over the holiday season?
Not me – I’ve better things to do!
So, having experimented with a variety of ‘dinner rolls no yeast’ recipes, I found most to be uninspiring at best. As it turned out, I (and whoever I was ‘borrowing’ my recipes from) was totally over-complicating things.
Keeping things simple apparently holds the key to baking the most delicious dinner rolls ever, with no yeast necessary.
Equipment
How to Avoid Dinner Rolls Disaster
What’s great about leaving yeast out of the mix is how it actually makes the whole process much easier. I’m no expert, but I’ve found it completely impossible to go wrong with this fast and easy formula.
Prior to which, I was no stranger to baking blunders with yeast included in the mix.
Over the course of my various trials and errors, I also learned a handful of other important lessons. Specifically, the mistakes I was making that were severely compromising the result.
Whether you go with this super-simple recipe or freestyle with your own tweaks and additions, here’s how to avoid the most common dinner roll disasters:
1. If the Dinner Rolls Dough Doesn’t Rise
First up, dough that doesn’t rise is usually indicative of one of three things. The temperature of the dough and the surrounding space may be inappropriate, the texture of the dough isn’t right or you’re using an incorrect quantity of baking powder (or yeast). The science of baking bread calls for pinpoint precision where proofing dough is concerned, so avoid straying from the recipe with this aspect at least.
2. Where the Rolls Come Out Like Leather
The goal is to produce fluffy and cloud-like dinner rolls – not those that give you jaw-ache. Rolls that come out like leather are usually attributed to either using the wrong kind of flour or too much flour. Likewise, getting carried away when mixing the ingredients together can also result in a tough roll. Kneading dough is a careful balancing act – not too much, not too little. Chances are that if your rolls are coming out tough, you could be over working it.
3. When the Rolls Look Dry, Pale and Unappealing
This is by far the easiest issue to turn around, and can be a fairly forgiving process. When dinner rolls come out looking dry and pale, generally indicates you didn’t treat them to enough egg wash. A liberal dose of egg wash prior to baking is essential for that glorious golden brown exterior. Either way, you can (and definitely should) treat your rolls to a luxurious brushing of melted butter or olive oil, right before serving. Not just delicious, but a great way of covering up any errors you made along the way.
4. When You Don’t Have Enough to Go Around
Last but not least, the only thing worse than disappointing dinner rolls is not having enough of them to satisfy everyone’s appetite. This is where forward planning can help, while at the same time saving you a ton of time and effort. Always be mindful of the fact that dinner rolls – both in the form of cooked rolls and raw dough – freeze fantastically well. You can either freeze the dough or freeze a bunch of rolls and pop them in the oven for a few minutes after thawing them. It’s always better to have more than you need than to risk disgruntled guests!
FAQs
You can substitute yeast with equal parts lemon juice and baking soda. So if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of yeast, you can use half a teaspoon of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of baking soda. Keep in mind that the bread will not need the typical proofing time and the dough will begin rising right away.
What happens if you use self rising flour in yeast rolls? ›
Baking powder(self rising flour) and yeast both leaveners and together will produce too much carbon dioxide on baking and dough will spread in the oven. Taste and texture both will suffer too.
What makes homemade rolls dry? ›
Over kneaded dough causes the dough to warm up too quickly and therefore ferment too quickly, or even over ferment, which will produce dinner rolls lacking in flavor. It also over develops the gluten which will produce tough dinner rolls with a tough exterior and dense, dry interior.
What can replace yeast in dough? ›
In baked goods, you can replace yeast with an equal amount of baking powder. Just keep in mind that the leavening effects of baking powder will not be as distinct as those of yeast. Baking powder causes baked goods to rise rapidly, but not to the same extent as yeast.
What happens if you bake bread without yeast? ›
If you don't use yeast or other leavening in your bread dough, the bread will be dense and will not rise. As others have said, there may well be a subtle taste difference since yeast forms carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. There are many breads that are unleavened and most are flatbreads.
What is the secret of soft buns? ›
The secret to soft, light rolls, if you're looking for something like a dinner roll, is an enriched dough that contains butter or other dairy, eggs, or both. If you want something more bread-like, you want a high hydration dough that's been properly kneaded and given at least two bulk fermentations before shaping.
How can I make my bread lighter and fluffy? ›
Add Sugar
Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.
When should you not use self-rising flour? ›
As a general rule, don't use self raising flour if there is another leavening agent called for in the recipe such as yeast or baking soda. The leavening in the self raising flour is usually enough. More, don't substitute self raising flour in your recipe without paying close attention to the rest of the recipe.
Will self-rising flour rise without yeast? ›
Or don't have any idea what self-rising flour is? It's just what it sounds like—a type of flour that makes baked goods rise without the addition of baking powder or yeast.
Can you use milk instead of water in yeast rolls? ›
If, for example, the recipe calls for a cup of water, use half water and half milk, or all milk instead. If the recipe doesn't call for any liquid at all, just leave out the dry milk and increase the amount of flour a bit. Incorporate it into the dough little by little, so as not to make the dough too stiff.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Why do my rolls have no flavor? ›
Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.
Will bread rise without yeast? ›
Instead of using yeast to make the bread rise, quick breads rely on other leavening agents like baking soda and baking powder to get height. "Quick breads, like banana bread, zucchini bread, and cornbread are delicious and easy alternatives to yeast-based bread and can satisfy cravings in a pinch," says Tyler Lee.
Can you proof dough without yeast? ›
If you want to make a risen Gough you need a leaveners, but you can use chemical leaveners like baking powder or baking soda. They work in an entirely different manner than yeast, but they will create tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide which expand in the heat of the oven.
How do you force bread to rise? ›
A Bowl of Steaming Water is the Key to Quickly Proofing Bread. In the winter, when your house and kitchen are at a crisp temperature and you need a warm spot for your dough to rise, create a makeshift “proof box” by placing a bowl of steaming water inside your oven alongside your bowl of dough.
What do we add to bread to make it rise? ›
Consider vitamin C. Vitamin C strengthens the gluten in flour, which can give a better rise, and help dough to rise more quickly. You probably won't need it if you're making white bread, but if you make wholemeal bread and it doesn't rise as well as you hoped, you could try a little vitamin C next time.
