Forget everything you know about making dinner rolls. With this recipe, there’s no kneading. No waiting for the bread to rise twice. Only a few simple ingredients: honey, flour, salt and yeast.
And if you’re a beginner bread-maker, these are for you.
The Basics for No-Knead Dinner Rolls:
1. Mix the ingredients into a soft (but not too-sticky) dough.
2. Let the dough hang out on the counter for anywhere from eight to 12 hours! This totally hands-off process and it doesn’t take up refrigerator space.
3. Divide dough into 16 pieces using a serrated knife. (This dough is easy to work with — it’s not sticky.)
4. Shape dough into rolls, then place into a pre-heated baking dish. Tightly cover with foil. The foil keeps moisture inside the dish and takes the place of the second-rising-step used in (almost!) every bread recipe.
5. Remove the foil. Finish baking for a few more minutes; removing the foil lets the rolls gain a beautiful golden brown color and a crusty top.
6. Enjoy fresh, hot, homemade rolls…with butter and a drizzle of honey if you prefer!
Easy Honey Whole-Wheat Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 cups (about 8.8 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting counter
- 2 cups (about 8.5 ounces) white whole-wheat flour
- 1¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon melted butter, optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flours, salt and yeast.
- Add 1¾ cups warm water (as close to 110°F as possible) into a 2-cup measuring cup (or a small bowl) and stir in the honey; stir until nearly dissolved.
- Pour water mixture into the bowl with the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until most of the flour is mixed in and a soft dough is formed, scraping down the sides.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap; set bowl aside on the counter (keep away from drafts, the temperature in my kitchen was about 69°F) for about 8 to 12 hours.
- Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the inside of the bottom a 9-by-9-inch baking dish or baking pan. Place the dish/pan into your oven and heat the oven to 400°F.
- While the oven heats, liberally sprinkle your counter with flour and then use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the dough onto the flour. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of flour onto the top of the dough and fold it in half. Flip the dough over and press it into a 9-by-9-inch square.
- Using a serrated knife, gently cut the dough into 16 pieces; shape each piece into a ball.
- Using oven mitts, remove the baking dish from the oven and place the parchment paper inside. Spray the inside of the baking dish with cooking spray. Place the rolls in the baking dish and using oven mitts, carefully securely cover the dish with aluminum foil, pressing to seal the foil.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Using oven mitts, carefully remove the foil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until rolls just begin to show a bit of golden color.
- Remove pan from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Brush top of rolls with melted butter, if desired. Remove rolls to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
The bread dough can sit aside for 8 to 12 hours; my bread sat for about 12 hours. I also tested it at 8 hours. At 12 hours, the flavor was a bit better as the yeast had a longer chance to react, but the rolls also had larger craggy holes.
I also tested setting the dough on the counter for about 4 hours, then refrigerating overnight, then bringing to room temperature for about 2 hours. This also worked very well.
