Parker House Rolls Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you make store bought rolls taste better? ›

Brush melted butter onto your dinner rolls and add your choice of fresh herbs—I like fresh thyme leaves. Bake until the herbs and rolls are toasted, then sprinkle on some flaky sea salt. Now you have herby rolls that pair wonderfully with that holiday lasagna.

Rolls that are not light and fluffy can be the result of using too much flour (not measuring the flour correctly, as we mention above), or not using the type of flour your recipe calls for. Another reason for dense tough rolls is overmixing, which will produce too much gluten.

Parker House rolls are named after the Boston Parker House Hotel where they first originated during the 1870s. Legend has it that a disgruntled hotel baker threw a batch of unfinished rolls into the oven after an altercation with a hotel guest.

Mistake to Avoid #2: Tough Dinner Rolls

Do your dinner rolls resemble shoe leather? Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing.

Also, self-rising and cake flours are lower in gluten and therefore will not produce the best yeast bread. Yeast breads need flour with higher levels of gluten to produce a good bread structure and rise properly.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

Commercially baked breads and rolls can be stored at room temperature for 2 to 4 days or 7 to 14 days in the refrigerator. Bread products retain their quality when stored in the freezer for 3 months. Any breads containing meat or hard cooked eggs must be refrigerated within 2 hours.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

You can also use all-purpose in many bun or roll recipes, which tend to have lower hydration and rely less on strong gluten and more on butter and sugar for texture. (Though bread flour can still give you a fluffier, almost cotton-candy-like texture in most buns and rolls.)

Heat in preheated oven at 350F for 8-10 minutes or until desired browning has occurred. If you have time to thaw: Allow rolls to thaw completely in plastic bag. Preheat oven to 350F.

How to tell if dinner rolls are done? ›

The internal temperature of a loaf of crusty yeast bread when it is cooked to perfection should be 200 to 210 F. Soft breads and dinner rolls should be 190 to 200 F. The bread will pull away from the sides of the pan and will feel firm to the touch. The bread will sound hollow when you tap it lightly.

For many families, that's an original White House Roll® – a baked, uniquely soft and fluffy roll that is topped off with a tiny dusting of flour. From their start as a home-baked experiment at the Ukrop's company picnic in 1986, White House Rolls have become a part of plates nationwide.

Butter basting: Rolls can be brushed with butter before, during, or after baking. While it doesn't brown the surface as much as egg wash will, it does promote browning and adds a lot of flavor.

Stay fresh: Both the fat from the milk and butter preserve the freshness of these soft dinner rolls and keeps them soft for a days. The fat keeps the rolls from drying out!

An egg wash can be applied to shaped bread or rolls before or after proofing, but it should always be added before baking. When applying after proofing, use a very light touch with the brush to avoid deflating the bread.

While bread flour is more than adequate for everyday breads, some professional bakers use high-gluten flour with a 14% protein content to provide extra strength to dense, chewy doughs like bagels and pizza dough. High-gluten bread flour gives milk bread it's taut structure and compact (but tender) crumb.

There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.

Stale Bread Method: Spray with Water and Start in a Cold Oven. Most of the methods suggest running the bread under the faucet to get it wet, but this method, from All Recipes, said to brush or spritz the water onto the bread before reheating, so I used a mister with fresh water to moisten the loaf.

Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F. Place rolls in a baking dish or arrange on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt, if desired. Bake until warm, 7 to 10 minutes.

Butter: adds flavor, body, texture and softness. Do not substitute butter – it is integral ingredient for these dinner rolls. Salt: any rolls or bread would virtually be flavorless without salt! Garlic Salt: is my secret ingredient in both my homemade pizza dough and this dinner roll recipe.

How to heat up store-bought rolls? ›

OVEN: Wrap dinner rolls in foil and place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F until warmed through, about 10 to 15 minutes. MICROWAVE: Wrap dinner rolls in moistened paper towels and place on a microwave-safe plate.