Easy Yeast Rolls Recipe (Great for Beginners!) - Grace and Good Eats (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade yeast rolls tough? ›

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.

If a recipe using instant yeast calls for the dough to “double in size, about 1 hour,” you may want to mentally add 15 to 20 minutes to this time if you're using active dry yeast.

The more yeast, the more gas is produced and the more quickly your dough rises. You may therefore think it best to add more yeast if you'd like to get your dough to rise as quickly as possible. However, whilst your dough may rise quickly, the dough will likely have less flavour and may even taste slightly of yeast.

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.

“If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape.

The shortening makes it easier to roll out, while the butter adds both flavor and flakiness. But shortening doesn't behave like butter in recipes. It has a different melting point and it changes the texture of things like tea bread and cookies. It also doesn't have the delicious creamy flavor of real butter.

Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand. If you let the dough rise too long, it will start having a yeast or beer smell and taste and ultimately deflate or rise poorly in the oven and have a light crust.

Bakers combine yeast, some of the flour and water to create a sponge that can be allowed to ferment from 30 minutes to several hours. After fermentation, the bread making process proceeds as usual. Longer fermentation gives bread stronger flavors.

For each cup of flour (125 g), that is 1.5 g of instant yeast, or 1/2 teaspoon. For salt, I add 2% of the flour weight or 2.5 g per cup or about 0.4 teaspoons of table salt if all else is unsalted.

Yeast cells require three things to thrive: food, warmth, and moisture. In the presence of warmth and moisture, yeast converts its food—sugar and starch—into carbon dioxide and alcohol through fermentation.

How much yeast is needed for 3 cups of flour? ›

If it is of any help, a typical bread recipe calling for 3 or 4 cups of flour usually recommends 7 grams of dry yeast. You can use less, of course, and the bread will be just fine; you will note that it takes the dough longer to rise when less yeast is used.

Add Milk

To make your bread soft and fluffy, another trick used by commercial bakers is replacing water with milk. Milk has fats which make bread softer.

“Because salt helps to control fermentation, it's better to catch this one sooner than later in yeast doughs,” says Laurie. Without salt, your dough will rise faster than it normally would, leading to less flavor development and a weaker structure.

If you use less, it takes longer to rise, but flavor becomes more complex. If you use more (up to 2%), the dough rises more quickly and flavor suffers, but takes on a yeasty flavor that some like. For each cup of flour (125 g), that is 1.5 g of instant yeast, or 1/2 teaspoon.

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.

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.

Your Bread Doesn't Have Enough Gluten

Once these proteins become moist, they create stretchy molecules that give bread dough its elasticity. Gluten helps bread maintain its shape and produces the "crumb" (or texture). If your bread does not have enough gluten, the crumb will not come out as expected.

Yeast is not fresh Yeast has an expiration date, and, after that date, will not be as effective. Yeast should be stored in a cool, dry place. Yeast is too hot Yeast may have been dissolved in water that was too hot, or the liquid ingredients in the recipe may be too hot, causing the yeast to die.