French Bread Rolls are so great for any bread-lovers! The outside has a crusty texture and the inside is soft and chewy…perfect for a little bit of butter to sit on. This recipe is the perfect accompaniment for Italian dishes, holiday dinners, and just about anything else!
Sydney is our bread-lover (if you guys didn’t already know that). She would make a whole meal out of different types of bread if she could! When we came across the idea for French Bread Rolls, she was all over it.
Make Ahead
The wonderful thing about this recipe is that you can make the dough up to two days in advance! Then, when you are ready to bake them…just take them out of the refrigerator, allow to rise while the oven preheats, and pop them in the oven. This is a huge time saver if you don’t want to mess with the rising of the dough on the day of your meal. But…if you just can’t wait the whole two days, go right ahead and make them the same day (just make sure you allow enough time for all the steps).
Tips For French Dinner Rolls
The first time we made these French Dinner Rolls, we made them a tad too small. So we decided to make them a bit larger the next time around. We liked this way a lot better. It allows for more sauce dipping surface, as well as more area for butter to melt inside!
Shaping Your Rolls
For shaping your rolls, you are basically going to put all the ugly edges underneath to the bottom. When you cut the pieces of dough to size, it leaves obvious edges. For this recipe, you really don’t want those edges; you want a round, smooth shape. So just pull all the edges to the bottom, pinch them together, and place the pinched part down against the pan. You’re good to go!
Add Some Spices
Feel free to add in your favorite spices to switch things up. We prefer these plain, but I’m sure there are great spice combinations that would go really well with certain dishes! Let us know what you come up with!
French Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 tsp raw honey you can substitute regular honey if you prefer
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water under 110 degrees
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- butter for greasing your bowl and baking dish
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix honey, yeast, and water. Let this mixture sit for 8 minutes to allow the yeast to activate (it will start to have a foamy look towards the end of the 8 minutes).
- Add in the flour and sea salt and knead for 8-10 minutes on medium-low speed.
- Place your ball of dough into a well greased bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for 45 minutes. (Tip: We always place our rising dough on a heating pad on low to help with the rising process.)
- Pull each side of the dough (picture the bowl to be a square with four sides) to the middle and cover again with the towel. This allows the gluten to realign. The texture and flavor will really develop with this step!
- Allow to rise another 45 minutes and repeat the above task.
- Allow to rise once more for 45 minutes (we promise it will be worth it!).
- Grease with butter 2 round cake pans or a cookie sheet with an edge (to allow for cling wrap to cling).
- Dust your surface with flour and start dividing your dough. Divide the dough in half, then both of those in half, and then those four in half. You should end up with 8 total.
- Take each piece of dough and start shaping them into rolls. Pull all the edges of the dough to the bottom, pinch them together, and place the pinched part down against the pan. Cover with cling wrap.
- Place the pan(s) into the fridge for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days.
- When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. Remove rolls from the refrigerator, discard the cling wrap, and place the pan of rolls on top of oven. This will allow the rolls to rise with the extra heat (you want them about doubled in size).
- When they are ready to go into the oven, mist each roll with water.
- Bake them at 500 degrees F for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400 degrees F and bake for 17-25 minutes (based on how crispy/chewy you like them). They should be browned and have a hollow sound if you tap on the tops of them. Enjoy!
Inspiration for this recipe came from Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch. Thanks Serena!!
We hope you have a wonderful carb-filled day and give these French Bread Rolls a try!
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These look absolutely dreamy… what a great recipe!!
They truly are!
Ooh, yum! Those French bread rolls look so tasty, and I love how easy they are to make!
Yes! And even better, you can freeze the leftovers and enjoy them later!
I’m with Sydney – love all kinds of bread!
This looks so good!
I just can’t stay away from bread no matter how hard I try! 🙂
You had me at bread. I love bread of all types and I would totally eat a meal of just bread if I could. I have never made French bread before so I am super excited to give this recipe a try. I hope I can make these soon as they look fantastic and quite easy to make.
Did you say a meal full of bread?! I’ll be there! I just can’t stay away from it…the yeasty smell, the pillowy softness…bread has my heart! 🙂 Let us know what you think after you try these.