WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS RECIPE

This whole wheat dinner rolls recipe will help you make super soft and fluffy wheat dinner rolls in almost around two hours.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS RECIPE

We need only seven basic ingredients to make this whole wheat dinner rolls.

Whole wheat rolls are made with whole wheat flour and so we can, not only enjoy delicious rolls but also the goodness of whole grain; nutritious and rich in fibers.

These wheat rolls are pillowy soft and cotton light…they are super delicious.

For this faster whole wheat dinner rolls recipe,we don’t need to proof the dough two times..thus we can save a lot of our time.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED IN THIS WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS RECIPE

1. Flour :357 g (2 3/4 cups)
2. Slightly warm milk (not hot) :178 ml (3/4 cup )+15 ml (1 tbsp)
3. 1 Egg
4. Butter :50g (3 1/2 tbsp)
5. Yeast :1 and 1/2 tsp instant yeast and 1 and 3/4 tsp if Active dry yeast
6. Honey/Sugar :2 tbsp
7. Salt:1 tsp

HOW TO MAKE WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS

We can make quick dinner rolls in 4 simple steps.

1.Prepare the dough

2.Divide and shape the dough

3.Proof the dough

4.Bake the wheat dinner rolls

HOW TO WORK WITH WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR

Though the process of making whole wheat dinner rolls and regular dinner rolls are very similar, there are differences and challenges while working with whole wheat flour.

We can’t expect same result from both white flour and whole wheat flour.

We need to make sure If our whole wheat flour is fairly “strong” otherwise it is very difficult to get a soft and fluffy whole wheat dinner rolls.

When flour is moistened with water and kneaded, glutenin and gliadin combine and form gluten.

Gluten is responsible for the stringy strands that give dough its elastic and stretchy structure and bread products their characteristically chewy mouthfeel.

So if our dough is not elastic and stretchy after kneading for about 10 minutes, we need to knead for longer time and we may not be able to make a very soft and fluffy whole wheat dinner rolls.In such case,if you are okay, its better to add a small part of flour as bread flour or all purpose flour.(Here in this recipe we can modify as 257g whole wheat flour +100 g all purpose flour)

1.PREPARE THE WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLL DOUGH

Into a bowl,lets add all our ingredients together and mix them to form a shaggy mass of dough.

Add the milk,honey,yeast,egg,salt ,butter and flour and mix them together.

Transfer the dough onto a clean work surface and knead the dough until the dough become soft and elastic.Only a well kneaded dough can produce soft and fluffy whole wheat buns .

How should you know your dough is kneaded well?

We can test the doneness of dinner roll dough :If properly kneaded, the dough should stretch, without tearing or breaking, into a thin membrane that you can see through.

It will be so much easier if you are using a stand mixer to prepare the dough.In a stand mixer,just knead the dough for 8-10 minutes using the dough hook attachment.

2.DIVIDE AND SHAPE THE DOUGH

Once our whole wheat dinner roll dough is ready,divide the dough into 15 equal pieces.For more precision,I weighed each of them and they were 44-45 g in weight.

Roll each piece of dough into small balls.Tuck in the edges towards the centre and roll the balls into small round balls.

Place the rolls into a nonstick baking tray or on to parchment lined baking tray or on to a well greased baking tray.

Size of my baking pan 18 cmx 28 cm or 7 in x 11in. Slight variation is ok.

3.PROOF THE WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLL DOUGH

Let the dough ball sit in a warm environment for about 60 minutes or until they puff up and get doubled in size.

After an hour,brush the top of those rolls with an egg wash to make our rolls shiny and golden brown in colour when they are baked.

Now they are ready to to go into the oven.

4 BAKE THE WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS

Bake the rolls in a 375 F preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.

Top of rolls may get burned too fast;

How to prevent the top of rolls from over browning ?

1. Place an aluminum foil on top to prevent over browning,whenever you feel so
2. You can place the baking tray way from the heating coils to prevent this issue..(I placed my baking tray in the lowest rack of the oven as the heating coils were on the upside)

If the dinner rolls are underbaked,the inside will be doughy and they smell yeasty.So bake sufficiently for 18-20 minutes.

HOW CAN I SUBSTITUTE EGG IN THIS WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS RECIPE?

Role of egg in bread making:

Eggs added to dough help with rising. A bread dough rich with egg will rise very high, because eggs are a leavening agent (think genoise or angel food cake). As well, the fats from the yolk help to tenderize the crumb and lighten the texture a bit. Eggs also contain the emulsifier lecithin. Lecithin can add to the overall consistency of the loaf.

So it is difficult to substitute something else for egg to get the same result.

At the same time, I can say that ,as we have used only one egg in this quick dinner roll recipe,we can easily replace the egg to make dinner rolls without much difference in texture and taste of the rolls.

As one egg is approximately 45 ml,just replace the same volume with milk or water.So you can add 3 tablespoon of water or milk in place of one egg.

Remember, this will not be equivalent to adding an egg,but I can promise you that it will be difficult to find any difference between the one made with and without egg in this particular whole wheat dinner roll recipe.

HOW TO STORE WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS?

Once the wheat rolls are completely cooled,place the dinner rolls in a plastic storage bag, or wrap in foil and store at room temperature.

Properly stored, these wheat dinner rolls will last for about 2-3 days at normal room temperature.

In extremely warm, humid temperatures,the dinner rolls should be frozen for longer-term storage.

For freezing: Place the buns in a heavy-duty freezer bag or wrap the buns tightly with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap and freeze.

Properly stored, they will maintain best quality for about 3 months.

HOW TO REHEAT WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS

Thaw the wheat dinner rolls and then brush/spray some water on the dinner rolls and place them into a 350 F preheated oven for 5 minutes.

The wheat dinner rolls or whole wheat buns will be soft and fresh and they smells too good.

WHAT IS WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR

There are some important considerations we must take into account to make things work. So let’s start by understanding the “whole wheat flour”.

Whole wheat flour is essentially made from the entire kernel of wheat ground up into flour form. It is packed with nutrition and flavor.

Whole wheat flour can come in a variety of consistencies from extra coarse to extra fine. The various levels of grinding will result in bread with different textures. 

A whole wheat berry,consists of three parts: the germ, bran and the endosperm.

Whole wheat flour is made from grinding all of these three parts.

Endosperm is the white part of kernel, which is comprised of starch and proteins.This endosperm which contain “gluten” help us to create a dough with a lot of strength that is able to trap the gas produced by the yeast and this in turn gives the dough, volume. 

White Flour or all purpose flour or plain flour is made up almost entirely of the endosperm.And as it contain a good amount of gluten, it can produce bread with good volume and structure.

Additionally, white flour is often bleached with a whitening agent, often chemical, to make it look clean and white. The absence of the germ also increases the flour’s self life which favors its wide acceptability.

One main drawback of this white flour is that we lose out on all the vitamins, minerals, fats and fibre that are contained in the germ and bran.

The term “Wheat” flour can be confusing though. Some companies label their flour as “wheat flour” even though it is really just white flour because technically all flour comes from wheat. It’s always good to check labels and nutrition facts too. 

How to store whole wheat flour

Whole wheat flour contains more fats and nutrients compared to white flour.The germ part of wheat is mostly fat and so there are more chances that the whole wheat flour will turn rancid, If it is left at room temperature for longer period of time.

It is best to store it in the fridge or freezer if you don’t plan on using it within a month or so. 

Is all whole wheat flour the same?

No,its not.

The properties of Whole wheat flour may vary for different brands.

I tried making whole wheat bread using three different whole wheat flour (I mean ,from three different brands)

Surprisingly,these three different wholewheat flours performed in a variety of ways.

I noticed a wide difference in their water absorbing power.

There was a huge difference in the gluten development as well.

And hence the resulting bread structure and texture was also different.

One thing I learned is that, if our flour is not “strong”; not having enough gluten development, then our bread will be not very soft and fluffy.

Here is my experience ,making whole wheat bread using whole wheat flour which is not “strong”.There are some chances that you might also find this kind of flour as whole wheat flour in grocery stores.

Test No:1 

Made Dough with whole wheat flour which is not strong.

Kneaded the dough for about 15 minutes and it didn’t show a strong gluten development.

Result :The bread made turned dense and heavy.

Test No:2

Just out of curiosity,I thought if, autolysing the wholewheat flour might work.So I hydrated the flour with 90% water and kept overnight in fridge.The next day morning, it showed a slight gluten development but not good enough to get a good rise.Made bread using the autolysed dough.

Result:The resulting loaf was very similar to the previous one though the crumb was a little more softer.

Test No:3

The next time,I thought of kneading the dough until it passes the window pane test. It took me almost 60 minutes of kneading to get into stage where the dough is showing a comparatively good gluten development .But not strong enough to pass the window pane test.

Result :The resulting loaf had a bit more rise and structure.It was softer in texture too.

Test No:4

I tried making bread by using 28% of flour as all purpose flour and it got very good gluten development when kneaded for around 15 minutes .[257g whole wheat flour +100 g all purpose flour]

Result: The resulting bread had a good rise, soft and fluffy texture too.

Test No:5

We have used mashed potatoes in making potato dinner rolls earlier and they turned out so soft and fluffy.So I thought of making wheat bread using mashed potatoes.[357 g whole wheat flour+100g mashed potatoes,I adjusted the amount of water accordingly]

Result :The resulting bread was not very satisfactory ,it did not had a good rise but the texture of crumb was soft and moist.Adding mashed potatoes will make the dough very sticky to handle.

Test No:6

So My last attempt was using 28% of flour as all purpose flour( 257g whole wheat flour +100g All purpose flour) and by using 100g of mashed potatoes.

Result :The resulting bread was super soft ,fluffy and delicious.

And so my inference from my kitchen experiments is that, if our whole wheat flour is not strong enough, it is difficult to get a loaf with good rise.

While dealing with such “hard” wheat dough, if you are okay, you can add a small part of flour as bread flour or all purpose flour ,if you want a soft and fluffy wheat bread.If your priority is a healthier loaf ,then you don’t need to add any all purpose flour.Though the resulting bread will be slightly denser in texture, it tastes great and is packed with vitamins and minerals.

WHOLE WHEAT DINNER ROLLS RECIPE :VIDEO

This whole wheat dinner rolls recipe is adapted from the whole wheat sandwich bread or Brown bread recipe.

MORE FAVORITE BREAD RECIPES

Interested in doing some more bread-baking?  Here are a few of my favorite easy bread recipes on the blog

Quick and Easy Dinner rolls Recipe

Artisan Ciabatta Bread Recipe

Easy No Knead French Bread recipe

Cranberry Walnut No Knead Dutch oven Bread

Easy Cinnamon Rolls in Muffin Pan

Quick One Rise Cinnamon Rolls recipe

How to make Perfect Coffee Buns

Softest Potato Buns Recipe

Soft and fluffy white bread recipe

Softest Pita Bread Recipe