Indulge your family and friends this holiday season with the softest, fluffiest and most delicious dinner rolls ever. I guarantee.
Rolls have never (Yes, NEVER) appeared on my family’s dining table.
For one, growing up, my family didn’t have an oven. Two, it’s uncommon to eat rolls with our meals.
So to me, rolls were a specialty. Something I only get to eat at steakhouse restaurants (which is a rare affair). Birthdays…. Anniversaries… Straight As… Yes, we’re Asians after all. 🙂
Little did I know it was a regular affair in the Western world.
I love rolls. They’re small and cute. They’re a good size for me to enjoy some carb but not too big that it fills you up. Of course, I don’t eat em with rice. That would be weird.
I do have one pet peeve about rolls. Some of them can be hard as a brick. Like if someone would to throw one at me, it’d knock me out cold and leave me bleeding to death.
Death by rolls.
All this drama ends here with this delicious Japanese Milk Rolls which employs the tangzhong method where a pudding like roux (made up of flour and milk) is first cooked and then added to the rest of the ingredients for the dough.
This small extra step is all we need to make the most amazingly soft, fluffy & pillowy rolls. Best part, it continues to stay soft after a couple of days unlike regular homemade rolls.
Tips:
1. To read in depth about this TangZhong method or how to easily convert any bread recipe to make soft, fluffy bread, click here.
2. The rolls are shaped this way to increase height and fluffiness to the rolls. If you’re pressed for time, just shape them into balls, let rise and bake. They won’t rise as high but they’ll still be soft and fluffy.
Lastly, if you haven’t already check out my last post One Pan Chicken in Spicy Tomato Sauce. A classic Malaysian dish, chicken is seared & braised in a thick spicy, sweet sourish sauce made of a flavorful spice paste & tomato sauce. All in one pan!
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- Tangzhong
- 3.25 oz milk
- 0.65 oz bread flour
- Dough
- 5.25 oz warm milk
- 2 tbs sugar
- 2¼ tsp (1 pack) active dry yeast
- 12.1 oz bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 large room temperature egg
- 1 tbs unsalted butter, softened
- Egg wash
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- Activate Yeast : In a small bowl, add the warm milk, sugar and yeast. Give it a stir and let sit for 10 minutes. This is to activate the yeast.
- Tangzhong: In a small pan, over medium low heat, combine the milk and flour. Whisk until the consistency's like a thick pudding. It takes a couple of minutes. It's ready when the temperature is 149 F or line streaks stay visible. Set aside and let cool.
- Make Dough: In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt together. Crack the egg in, add the yeast mixture and the tangzhong. Stir until it comes together.
- Knead: If kneading by hand, turn it over a work surface and knead for 5 minutes. You may need to keep work surface and dough lightly floured if dough is too sticky. Add the butter and continue to knead until butter is well incorporated another 7-10 minutes. If using a stand mixer, knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Add the butter and knead for another 5-8 minutes. After adding the butter, the dough hook may not be able to pull up the dough stuck to the bottom of the bowl. Scrape it up so that the dough is evenly kneaded. To know if dough is ready, dust some flour on the dough and poke it. It should spring back immediately.
- First Rise: Allow the dough to rise (covered) in a warm, draft free place for 1 - 1½ hours or until double in size.
- Shape: Punch all the air out and knead the dough a little. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and shape each into a ball. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it becomes a long oval. Fold one side (lengthwise) into the middle and then fold in the other side. Use a rolling pin and flatten it. Now, roll the dough into a cylinder. Pinch the seams. Place it seam side down on a greased 13" X 9" pan. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.
- Second Rise: Cover with a clean cloth and let rise again for 1 - 1½ hours or until double in size. 30 minutes before the rolls are ready, preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Bake and cool: When the rolls are ready to bake, brush the top with egg wash and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the rolls from the pan immediately and let it cool on a wire rack. If you want shine on the rolls, rub freshly baked rolls with butter. Rolls can be kept in room temperature in an airtight container for 3 days.
2. Reheating Rolls (rolls must be in room temperature): Preheat the oven to 300 F, loosely wrap the rolls with aluminum foil and bake for 5 - 10 minutes or until heated through. Take heed not to overheat or it will come out drier than before. If baked rolls were from the freezer, loosened the tightly wrapped foil and thaw overnight on the counter top to bring them to room temperature.
56 comments
Hi AiPing…i’ve got to say, these are the best rolls i’ve ever made! follow the recipe to the letter and the 4 times i’ve made them they’ve always turned out! Thanks for posting it! I’m making a batch right now and i expect the comments will be the same as last time…”do you have any of those leftover that I can take home?”
Thanks again!!
Mark
Hi AiPing, Do you know if your recipe works with one of the non-dairy milks? I need to “veganize” it as much as possible. Thanks for the beautiful website. It is like taking a trip around the world!
Sorry I’ve yet tried non dairy milk. I’m glad you enjoy the blog. Means a lot!!!
I love these milk rolls! I used a scale to measure the ingredients and a stand mixer, which I think makes a huge difference in the results. After baking, I brushed the tops with honey mixed with the tiniest bit of water and they give the bread a slight sweet taste that is divine. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Hi Ai Ping,
I tried baking this bread today but was somewhat disappointing.
I had to hand knead the dough as I didnt have an electric mixer, however that was fine. The results were 1. A very hard top to the bun. Ut wasn’t a soft texture like the buns i ve had.
2. The inside was soft but still not the texture I was expecting.
Trying to understand what went wrong. Is it the kneading? I used instant yeast which I had at home. I noticed it wasn’t very active, no bubbles or rise.
My dough didnt rise either when I left it to rest for the full 1.5hrs and longer. Was it because of the yeast?
Any insights is appreciated.
Thank you.
Katherine
Hi Katherine. I’m sorry to hear that this was disappointing for you. If you’re expecting the level of softness like from the bakery or grocery store, then it might be difficult to achieve that.
A hard top to the bun can be fixed by covering the buns with aluminum foil halfway. You can add milk into the egg wash so that the result isn’t as hard. I’m not sure what texture are you expecting for the inside. It should be fluffy and soft. If the dough didn’t rise, then yes the yeast is dead. Replace them with a new batch and see what happens. Not sufficiently kneading will also cause the dough not to rise and thus not having a soft and fluffy texture. Hope this helps.
Thanks Aiping for replying. I will try it again as I think several things can be improved. I usually like to review what went wrong in my head to try and figure out the steps taken etc.
Some thoughts since that day…hahaha
1. will test again with the yeast or may change completely with my sourdough starter instead.
2. Don’t preheat the oven too early.
3. Make sure the starter or yeast is strong and vigorous
3. Knead more and check room temp. Where are you based? Singapore ?
4. I noticed using the egg wash gave it that glow n sheen. I tried the water wash too but noticed the outcome wasn’t as nice.
I shall keep you posted when I rebake this again…hopefully soon 🙂
Thanks again for your help.
Cheers
Katherine
(I’m expecting the soft and fluffy texture as mentioned in your post.)
Hi AiPing, I love how fluffy and soft the rolls turned out, however the outside of my rolls are on the hard side and are chewy. I’m wondering if it’s because I left the rolls out to cool too long, or maybe I did something else wrong. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Kali. I’m so happy you tried these rolls. As to why the crust of the rolls were hard and chewy. I can think of several factors that may be the reason.
1. Leaving rolls out too long (like you mentioned).
2. Not keeping the baked rolls in an airtight container.
3. Oven too hot (different ovens though set at the same temperature may produce varying degrees of heat in the oven itself).
Also, covering the rolls with foil the last few minutes of baking to avoid over browning (which may cause crust to be too hard), brushing the freshly baked rolls with butter or loosely covering freshly baked rolls with a clean tea towel may help.
With that being said, though these rolls turn out real soft, they can’t be compared to the super soft ones in stores because the ovens used at home vs commercial ones are different and there is the addition of dough enhancers and additives in commercial ones to make them soft.
I hope this helps.
I want to try these rolls that sound yummy. Can you tell me if it`s possible to do a double batch and freeze half of them?
Yes. You can bake either free baked rolls or unbaked (after 1st proof) rolls. Let me know if you have other questions. 🙂
Aloha, AiPing!
I want to try these rolls, but don’t have a way to weigh my ingredients. Do you (or any of your readers, perhaps?) have measurements by tablespoons, teaspoons, and cups, rather than weight?
Hi there. I’m so sorry I don’t have an easier way to convert these numbers into volume. However, there are recipes out there that uses volume instead of weight. A fair warning, I’ve not tried the recipes though. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread-rolls-recipe or http://www.kannammacooks.com/sweet-and-soft-milk-bread-hokkaido-tangzhong-method/ Hope this helps.
I just made these today. They’re amazing! So soft, and fluffy, with the slightest little crunch on top. These will be a main stay in our house. 😀
Hi Nathan. I’m so happy you’ve tried and loved it. I myself can’t get enough of these rolls. So so good! 🙂
Can’t wait to try this! Quick question, your measurements for milk is in oz. is that liquid oz or by weight?
I can’t wait for you to try this too! It is by weight. Hope this helps.
These are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your secret technique too 🙂
They’re so sooooo soft. So good. Hope you try it.
I’ve seen some really interesting things about that technique – and rolls are the perfect way to use it. (I love the way you – well – rolled to rolls… to give them the layers. Neat.) They look lovely!
OMG these rolls are so gorgeous!!!!! I live in Asia so this is very close to my tastes 🙂 THanks for sharing this!
Thanks Levan. Where in Asia do/did you live in?
These are definitely going on my “Must Bake” list. I’m SO EXCITED to give this recipe a try. I hope my results are as delicious as yours.
Yay!!! I’m sure it will be delicious.
The texture on these is absolutely perfect! Beautiful!
Thanks Valentina. It’s truly the perfect rolls. 🙂
Thanks for sharing such a great recipe, AiPing! I always love having good bread recipe, makes me look like a rockstar even though I’m not the best baker:)
Lol. Armed with this recipe Raquel, you’re gonna be the best rock star out there. It’s just so so good. 🙂
I’m crazy about bread, AiPing! These look really fluffy and soft. Nomm… They would be good with anything! Can’t wait to try them! Have a happy new year! 🙂
Haha. Indeed, they would be good with anything. I actually eat soft bread/rolls with curry. Do you? 🙂 Happy new year to you too!!!
Oh my gawd! These look so wonderfully pillowy soft! I’ve been dying to make these, so thank you so much for the recipe! I have family coming in today – I know my dad will love them (he’s the baker in the family).
They’re really good. I hope your family enjoys them. 🙂
So brilliant!! I love soft rolls too, I hadn’t heard about the tangzhong method before, so interesting and thanks for sharing.
Oh, once you go tangzhong, you’ll never go back. In some ways, a curse really… but in a good way. :p
These rolls are absolutely gorgeous. So professional looking! I’ll definitely be making these, thanks for sharing!
Thanks Amanda. I don’t know about professional looking but they’re definitely delicious. Can’t wait for you to try em.
These look beautiful! Question for you – you said they stay soft and lovely for 2-3 days. How do they stand reheating? If I wereto make them a day in advance, could I pop them into a warm oven for a few minutes to warm them up for dinner without sacrificing that nice soft texture?
Hi Kirtie. Thanks! 🙂 Yup, you surely can reheat them. Preheat the oven to 300 F, loosely wrap the rolls with aluminum foil and bake for 5 – 10 minutes or until heated through. Take heed not to overheat or it will come out drier than before. Enjoy!
This looks so good! I saw it an instantly wanted to try it! I love the colour and how soft they look! Will defiantly give it a try, I hope mine turn out as good as yours. Thanks for sharing!
The egg wash gives it the beautiful color. Give it a try. You’ll not regret it.
I have a real weakness for soft, fluffy buns. I can think of a few ways of eating these, like dipping them in chicken and potato curry. Is that a Malaysian thing, I wonder? 🙂
Dipping in curry’s totally a Malaysian thing. My husband looks at me funny when I do that. :p It’s sooooo goood though, right?
No joke, these look like the most incredible rolls I’ve ever seen! I’ve already pinned this for later use. So wonderfully shaped and colored I feel like I need to eat one immediately.
Awwwww thanks Amanda. Make these… really. So so good.
I saw this on FB and I knew I needed to make this… I use Tangzhong for bread rolls too, but it’s a sweet roll with raisins in them. It’s amazing how soft it makes bread rolls!
I have such a weak relationship with bread rolls, I can’t stop eating them when they look as good as these! I love how shiny those tops look too AiPing!
Haha I guess we both have to succumb to the same weakness – rolls. 🙂
These look incredibly fluffy and soft. I pinned the recipe and will definitely make these delicious rolls
Thanks Julia. Once you use the tangzhong method, you won’t turn back. I can’t do regular bread recipes anymore. :p
Thanks for sharing this recipe! They look truly awesome! Hope I can make them that beautiful one day!!!
Oh you can. I think grilling (which you do so well) is harder than baking. 🙂
Thanks for the compliment but honestly… baking really is more difficult! It has to be much more measured and timed! But I like baking too!
In terms of measuring and all that, yeah it’s tough. But grilling, one needs to be one with the meat to get the perfect doneness and juiciness. Yum!
These milk rolls look so soft, and fluffy! I love the glossy tops!
Yeah, I can literally sleep on em. Only I’d have too much butter on my face. But then again, it should moisturize it right? :p
Wow look so yummy fluffy and soft. I did not know Tangzhong method. Thank you for sharing the recipe. My new oven just got installed and just baked first muffin with the oven. Bread will be next!!
Oh I can’t wait for you to try this. So so good!!!!