Easy soft white rolls
These rolls are perfectly soft and great for sandwiches, dipping in soup or to have with burgers for tea.
Servings: 8 rolls
Equipment
- Big mixing bowl
- Big baking tray
- Greaseproof paper or silicone baking mat
- Tea towel or cling film
- Weighing scales
- Measuring jug
Ingredients
- 450 g plain flour You can use strong bread flour if you like, but these work really well with simple plain flour
- 7 g instant yeast
- 35 g sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 42 g butter (melted)
- 1 egg
- 240 ml warm water
Instructions
- Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a big bowl and stir together.
- Add in the melted butter, egg, and water and mix together.
- Bring the dough together in the bowl and then tip it out onto a floured surface.
- Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it's soft and elastic. The dough will be a little bit sticky but shouldn't get stuck all over your hands. If it feels too sticky then add a little more flour.
- Gather the dough up into a loose ball and pop it back in the bowl.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel or some cling film and leave it somewhere warm to rise. You want it to double in size which generally takes between 1 and 2 hours, depending on how warm the room is.
- When the dough has doubled in size tip it out again onto a floured surface.
- Gently pat it down to knock some of the air out of it, and then divide it into 8 equal-sized portions.
- Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Form each of the portions of dough into bun shapes, gently tucking the ends underneath so the tops look nice and smooth, then place them spaced out on the baking tray.
- Dust them lightly with flour and cover loosely with a piece of cling film.
- Leave to rise again, for about an hour.
- Pop the oven on at 190° (170° fan oven).
- Sprinkle the buns with a little more flour and then bake for 13-15 minutes.
- Once they're baked and lightly browned on top, take them out of the over and leave them to cool slightly on the baking tray.
- Gently separate the buns if they've joined together during baking and move them to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Don't be put off by the number of steps in this recipe - it's really not as complicated as it might look at first!
It's basically just mix the ingredients and knead the dough, leave it to double in size, split the dough into 8 equal pieces and form them into bun shapes, leave them to rise again on the baking tray and then bake.
You can make these into more classic burger buns by skipping the part about dusting them with flour before baking, and instead brush them with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with a tablespoon of milk) and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.