These vegan dinner rolls are so easy to make, buttery soft and taste amazing with pretty much everything!
Dinner rolls are a staple that you simply cannot live without, right? But wait. Finding those perfect dinner rolls that are vegan can be a challenge. Well, let me change that now. Because it is time to share the recipe for some amazing vegan dinner rolls.
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Ingredients
This recipe uses plain flour as its main ingredient. Apart from this, I have used non dairy milk, oil, yeast, sugar and salt. Yep. That is all is required to make these soft pillows of bliss.
Vegan dinner rolls without butter
Let’s admit it, a block of vegan butter can be quite expensive and a tad bit difficult to source, depending upon where you live. When I began experimenting making vegan dinner rolls, I realized that I needed a recipe that uses regular pantry ingredients. If you are like me, you probably do not want to buy that one ingredient for that one recipe, only to leave it unnoticed for months after.
And that is how these dinner rolls without butter or vegan butter were born.
Recipe Notes
- Non-dairy milk– I have used unsweetened almond milk in this recipe. You can also use any unsweetened nut milk. However, oat milk and coconut milk will not work just as well in this.
- Oil– I have used good old rice bran oil in place of vegan butter. Canola oil and vegetable oil is a good substitute.
- Because I did not use butter to brush the tops of my shaped rolls before baking, they did not bake into golden brown rolls. Instead, they were a pale golden. I just got greedy for a bit, turned on the top heating element and let the rolls bake for 4 mins. What I got was an unevenly browned crust. However, this did not change the texture or the taste of the rolls. In the picture below, I have placed both the batches. One where the crust is a pale golden and the other where they were baked for a bit longer.
4. Ok. I ll admit. I m obsessed with my stand mixer. Ever since I got it, I never bother kneading dough by hand. It goes without saying that I made the dough for this recipe using my stand mixer. But that does not mean you cannot knead the dough by hand. I ll include instructions for kneading by hand in the method section.
5. This recipe is loosely adapted from the King Arthur Flour’s website
Prep Work, Shelf life and Storage
For our dinner rolls, we will be proofing the dough until its puffy. We are not going to wait till the dough doubles in volume. Depending on where you live, this rise takes anywhere between 20 to 45 mins. It was scorching the day I baked these and it took 25 mins for the dough to rise the first time.
These rolls keep well for 3 days when stored in plastic bags at room temperature. If you live in a humid place, I recommend wrapping the rolls snugly in cling wrap and then refrigerating them. Before serving, toast them lightly and serve warm.
Method
Proofing the yeast
Whenever we bake bread, it is always a good idea to check if the yeast is still alive or not. This applies to both instant yeast and active dry yeast. For this recipe, I have used instant yeast. And we will first be proofing the yeast.
To begin with, warm the almond milk on low heat for 1 to 2 mins. The milk has to be just warm to touch. When done, add the yeast, oil, sugar, salt to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Now, add the warmed milk to this and mix well using a balloon whisk.
Cover this and let stand for 5 to 10 mins until the mixture is frothy. When the mixture is all bubbly and frothy, add 600 g flour to the bowl. Attach the paddle attachment to your stand mixer and mix this to a shaggy dough. The dough will just be shy of coming together into a ball.
If doing this by hand, after the mixture has frothed up, add 600 g flour and using your hands, mix into a shaggy dough. This dough will be sticky.
Kneading the dough
We are now going to knead the dough. We need roughly 700g to 820 g flour for our dough. Remember that we have added 600 g flour to the bowl in the first step. For our kneading, we will be adding flour by 50g in intervals and knead to a smooth, non sticky and supple dough. Depending on the quality of your flour, you may need all of the flour or slightly less than what is mentioned here.
Remove the paddle attachment and fit the dough hook to the stand mixer. Now, add 50 g flour to the bowl and begin kneading. Knead for 45 secs to 1 min on low speed until the flour is incorporated into the dough. Again, add 50 g flour and repeat the process. The dough should be smooth, soft and supple at this stage. If you find that the dough is sticky, go ahead and add 50g flour and continue to knead. At no point, add more flour than 50g in one interval. When we add more flour at one go, the dough will become dry. This will give us hard rolls.
The total kneading time for this dough after the initial 600g of flour is 4 to 5 mins. If you are kneading by hand, then add 50g flour in intervals and knead for 8 to 10 mins until you have a smooth, non sticky and supple dough.
Proofing the dough- 1st rise
When you have finished kneading the dough, transfer it to a large greased mixing bowl. Cover the dough with a shower cap or a clip wrap. Allow this to rise till puffy. Mine almost doubled up in volume. And this took 25 mins. If you live in a cool or cold place, this may take longer. If you wish to expedite the rise, I suggest placing the bowl in an oven with the light on.
Shaping the dough
When the dough has risen, open it and gently deflate the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two portions. Roll each portion into a 8 inch by 8 inch square. Now, divide this square into two by cutting through the middle using a pizza cutter. Shape each portion into a log. Now, slice each log into 6 equal portions. Roll each of these portions to a smooth ball, tucking in the edges at the bottom. Repeat with the remaining portion of dough. You will have 24 balls of dough in total.
Second rise
I baked these rolls in two batches. Also, I used a deep roasting pan to bake them. Line the pan with parchment paper. Now, place each shaped roll 1 inch away from each other. My pan could accommodate 12 at a time. Once done, cover the pan with a moist kitchen towel and allow the rolls to rise until puffy.
Baking the rolls
When the rolls have risen, you can see that they seem to stick to each other. Towards the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 190 C. As soon as the rolls have risen and the oven is ready, brush the rolls with some almond milk. Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 mins until tops have become slightly golden.
When the rolls have baked, remove from the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack for 20 mins. Serve them warm with a hearty soup like our Moroccan Lentil Soup.
Explore more bread baking
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Easy Vegan Dinner Rolls
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Oven
- Mixing bowl
- Baking pan 12 inches by 8 inches
Ingredients
- 2.5 tbsp Instant yeast 27g
- 2 tbsp Raw cane sugar 25g
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 2.5 c Almond milk
- 2 tbsp Rice bran oil
- 720 to 830 g Plain flour 6 to 7 cups flour
- 1 tbsp Almond milk for brushing the rolls
- 1/2 c flour for dusting
Instructions
Proofing the yeast
- To begin with, warm the almond milk on low heat for 1 to 2 mins.
- The milk has to be just warm to touch.
- When done, add the yeast, oil, sugar, salt to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer.
- Now, add the warmed milk to this and mix well using a balloon whisk.
- Cover this and let stand for 5 to 10 mins until the mixture is frothy.
Mixing in the flour
- When the mixture is all bubbly and frothy, add 600 g flour to the bowl.
- Attach the paddle attachment to your stand mixer and mix this to a shaggy dough.
- The dough will just be shy of coming together into a ball.
- If doing this by hand, after the mixture has frothed up, add 600 g flour and using your hands, mix into a shaggy dough. This dough will be sticky.
Kneading the dough
- Remove the paddle attachment and fit the dough hook to the stand mixer.
- Now, add 50 g flour to the bowl and begin kneading.
- Knead for 45 secs to 1 min on low speed until the flour is incorporated into the dough.
- Again, add 50 g flour and repeat the process. The dough should be smooth, soft and supple at this stage.
- If you find that the dough is sticky, go ahead and add 50g flour and continue to knead for 2 more mins.
- At no point, add more flour than 50g in one interval.
- The total kneading time for this dough after the initial 600g of flour is 4 to 5 mins.
- If you are kneading by hand, then add 50g flour in intervals and knead for 8 to 10 mins until you have a smooth, non sticky and supple dough.
Proofing the dough- 1st rise
- When you have finished kneading the dough, transfer it to a large greased mixing bowl.
- Cover the dough with a shower cap or a clip wrap.
- Allow this to rise till puffy. This takes 25 mins
- If you live in a cool or cold place, this may take longer. If you wish to expedite the rise, I suggest placing the bowl in an oven with the light on.
Shaping the dough
- When the dough has risen, open it and gently deflate the dough.
- Knead once or twice gently.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
- Divide the dough into two portions. Roll each portion into a 8 inch by 8 inch square.
- Now, divide this square into two by cutting through the middle using a pizza cutter.
- Shape each portion into a log. Now, slice each log into 6 equal portions.
- Roll each of these portions to a smooth ball, tucking in the edges at the bottom.
- Repeat with the remaining portion of dough.
- You will have 24 balls of dough in total.
Second rise
- Line the pan with parchment paper.
- Now, place each shaped roll 1 inch away from each other.
- My pan could accommodate 12 at a time.
- Once done, cover the pan with a moist kitchen towel and allow the rolls to rise until puffy.
Baking the rolls
- When the rolls have risen, you can see that they seem to stick to each other.
- Towards the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 190 C.
- As soon as the rolls have risen and the oven is ready, brush the rolls with some almond milk.
- Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 mins until tops have become slightly golden.
- When the rolls have baked, remove from the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack for 20 mins.
- Serve them warm with a hearty soup like our Moroccan Lentil Soup
For Instant Pot & Air Fryer Recipes
Instant Pot timings may vary based on your geographic location. Air fryer settings and timings may vary based on the capacity and the model of the Air fryer.
Disclaimer
Nutrition values are provided here as a courtesy and are only a rough guide. Please consult a health care provider if you have any concerns.
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