Easy soft multi-grain bread roll

Bread baking is one of the untouchables in my kitchen. I lost count how many times I was trying to bake bread, and they are merely edible – nothing great, I don’t even want to tell anyone I baked that. But with the never-give-up attitude, I decided to give it another try this weekend.

Coming from Hong Kong to Germany, 1 thing I miss the most is the bread we have in Hong Kong. It is easy and cheap to get some soft bread rolls with sausage, ham, cha siu (barbeque pork)…etc. in any bakery in Hong Kong. However in Germany, I could only find Brotchen, Brot, and i-don’t-even-know-the-names-because-i-dislike-hard-bread. Therefore I typed ‘easy soft bread roll recipe’ on Google, click on the first result I got, read the recipe through, it looks easy enough for me to handle. So here we go, I take all the ingredients out and start making ‘soft bread roll’.

I adapted the recipe from the Kitchn, and did some small changes on the flour to make them multi-grain bread rolls instead. (I did that just because I had some multi-grains bread flour left from my last failure attempt…)

Make 12 bread rolls

Preparation time: 2.5 hours (including the time for the flour to rise)
Baking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

15 g active-dry yeast
118 mL (4 oz) warm water
118 mL (4 oz) milk
1 large egg
30 mL vegetable oil
30 g sugar
5 g salt
240 g (8.5 oz) multi-grain flour
185 g (6.5 oz) all-purpose flour + a little bit more
15 g butter

1. Prepare for the dough

Combine and mix well the milk, egg, vegetable oil, sugar and salt in 1 bowl (Wet ingredients).

Measure and prepare the multi-grain flour and the all-purpose flour in another bowl (Dry ingredients).

In a large mixing bowl, stir and dissolve the active-dry yeast into the warm water. Let them sit to dissolve. (It’s quite fast…)

Once the yeast is dissolved, stir in the wet ingredients, and mix well. Then put the dry ingredients as well, and mix a bit to form a shaggy dough.

2. Knead the dough

I don’t have a standing mixer, but I also don’t want to knead the dough for the whole time. So I took out my hand mixer with the dough hook, and started mixing it on low speed.

After mixing for 8 mins, when in the original recipe said it should almost be time to see the smooth dough, and I look at my still-super-wet-dough, I sprinkle a little bit of flour and continue to knead with my hands. If you already see a smooth dough, you can stop kneading and don’t add more flour. After around 2 mins, you will probably see a smooth dough!

If you are a beginner in kneading dough, I find this youtube video have a very clear demonstration. (We are not making the same kind of bread, but the video is quite easy to follow.)

3. Proof the dough

Keep the smooth dough in the big mixing bowl and cover it with a clean wet towel. Let it sit in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it double its size.

4. Shape the dough

Clean your work surface and sprinkle a thin layer of flour there. Put the dough on the surface and press the air out from the dough. Divide the dough equally into 12 pieces with a sharp knife or a bench scraper. Line your baking pan with a baking paper and start shaping the rolls. Put the rolls apart from one another. When you are done, put the wet towel back on top, and let them sit for another 45mins.

If you are not sure how to shape the rolls, I find it easier to watch a video than read a paragraph. I learnt the technique from this video.

5. Preheat the oven and melt the butter

Around 10 mins before the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 190 degrees. Melt the butter in a small pan/microwave.

6. Bake the rolls

When the 45 mins is up and the oven is hot enough, brush some melted butter on top of the dough. It will help to make the bread rolls brown, crispy on top and soft inside. Put them into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Once the rolls are ready, take it out and and start enjoying!

Pro Tips: If you want to have a shiny pretty finishing look, melt a bit more butter and brush another thin layer on top right after you take the rolls out of the oven. If you want to stay healthier, feel free to skip this step.

Easy soft multi-grain bread roll

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