Easy Dinner Rolls or Pao
The best dinner rolls or pao that are fluffy and soft. Irresistibly soft pao for any dinner ideas or meals. They stay fresh and soft for a couple of days.
Servings: 12 servings
Ingredients
- 3.5 cups All purpose flour or Bread flour
- 4 tbsp milk powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 ½ cup mix warm milk and water 3/4 cup each
- 2 ¼ tsp yeast active dry or instant dry yeast
- 1 tbsp honey
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2-3 tbsp heavy cream or egg yolk brushing on top
Instructions
Activate the Yeast
- Take lukewarm equal parts milk and water (about 100 -110 F) and add honey to it, sprinkle active dry yeast in it. Give it a light stir. Set it aside to bloom for 5-7 minutes. The mixture will look foamy, and you can see bubbles that’s a sign that yeast is active. (Read notes)
Knead the dough
- In a bowl of standing mixer with dough attachment, add flour, salt, milk powder and give it a rough mix. Once the yeast is activated or bloomed, add it to the flour while the mixer is running. Mix until the dough comes together.
- At this point, add the butter in batches. Keep the mixer running until all the butter is incorporated. It’s going to be slightly sticky dough. Once the dough forms, transfer it to a greased bowl (large enough for the dough to double up).
Resting/Rising
- Cover it with plastic wrap and leave it to rise in warm space in your kitchen. Let it rise for 1 - 1 1/2 or until the dough has doubled in size. I usually keep it in the oven. (OFF oven)
Shaping and proofing
- Once the dough is risen or doubled in size, you can see the difference and you can also do a poke test to make sure it has doubled. Punch down the dough and deflate it.
- Transfer the dough on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. I weighed each dough ball to make sure it comes to right size and proportion. You can eyeball it too. Roll each dough ball by flattening out first and then pinch the ends in the middle, turn it upside down. Roll with your palms moving in a forward rolling motion. Rotate your dough ball and repeat several times until you get a smooth round surface.
- Place each shaped dough ball in a lightly greased the 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Leave some space in between each one of them as they will rise again. (Check images)
- Let the pao/dinner rolls double in size for another 1 – 1 1/2 hour or until they have doubled in size. Do not over proof it either.
Bake the rolls/pao
- Place a rack in the middle of the oven. Pre-heat the oven at 375 F.
- Once the pao/dinner rolls are doubled in size, brush them gently with some heavy cream or if you eat eggs then with one beaten egg yolk. It will give them some color while baking.
- Place the baking pan in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Mine were done by 20 min mark. A good test is to tap on them, if they feel crusty and hollow, they are done.
- Once they are baked, remove them from the oven and immediately brush them with melted butter.
- Once they cool down slightly about 5-7 minutes, cover them with a cotton towel. Finally, when they cool down completely, transfer them to an airtight container.
Notes
- I took 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water and that makes 1 1/2 cups liquid.
- The liquid should not be hotter than 110F, it will kill yeast. It would waste your time and energy and rolls too. If you warmed it up too hot, wait for it cool down slightly. Test the liquid by dipping your finger, it should be warm like bath water or baby’s milk. Liquid cannot be cold either. So, 100-110F is important factor.
- Salt is also an enemy to yeast. Sugar helps yeast.
- Butter should be at room temperature.
- The dough can be sticky to work with, so lightly flour the surface before rolling it out. Make sure to remove excess flour once they are rolled with the help of the brush. Do not use too much flour while rolling out the pao/buns. You can use neutral oil to keep dough from sticking.
- Do not use whole wheat flour please. Use bread flour or all-purpose flour. Whole wheat would make them denser. I haven’t tried them with whole wheat.
- Every oven is different, so you might need few extra minutes or few minutes less.
- Do not over proof the dough. When they have doubled in size, you can poke them lightly and if it springs back then they are perfectly proofed.