Given that Thanksgiving is here, it seems like a good time to try to make some homemade pull-apart dinner rolls. This recipe is adapted from a recipe originally posted by King Arthur Baking Company. I have scaled this down to half the size, which should be enough to make 8 standard size dinner rolls.

Buttery Pull-Apart Dinner Rolls

Recipe for 8 pull-apart dinner rolls, adapted from a recipe posted by King Arthur Baking Company.

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 22

Resting Time 3

Total Time 3 45

Servings 8 rolls

Ingredients

Dough

210 g King Arthur all-purpose flour
3 g instant yeast
11.5 g potato flour
10.5 g dry milk
12.5 g granulated sugar
4.5 g sea salt
28.5 g butter (softened)
76 g water, lukewarm
56.5 g milk, lukewarm

Topping

1 tbsp melted butter

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until incorporated, and then knead to make a soft, smooth dough.
Place the dough in a lightly greased container. Cover and let rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until approximately doubled in size.
Gently deflate the dough and transfer to a lightly greased or floured work surface.
Divide the dough into 8 equally sized pieces. You can eyeball the size or weigh each piece to be more precise. Each ball should weigh about 50 grams. Round each piece into a smooth ball.
Arrange dough balls in a lightly greased 8" round cake pan, placing one ball in the center of the pan and the remaining 7 balls equally spaced around the center.
Cover the pan and allow rolls to rise until quite puffy, approximately 60 to 90 minutes.
Toward the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 350F.
Uncover the rolls and bake for 22 to 24 minutes until golden brown.
Remove rolls from the oven and brush with melted butter
Serve warm and enjoy!

Baking Notes

Ambient temperature in house was about 70F
Heated water and milk to about 92F before mixing into dough
Mixed and kneaded dough for about 5 minutes prior to transferring to bowl for first rise

dough appearance after initial mix, before rise — Dough appearance after initial mix, before first rise, after transferring to lightly greased bowl.

After 90 minutes of initial rise, dough was larger, but definitely not doubled in size. Went ahead and divided and formed into rolls and put in 8″ circular pan anyway. Let rise for an additional 90 minutes.
After 90 minutes of additional rise time, dough had not risen much at all. Maybe the yeast was bad? Decided to bake anyway.
Ended up baking for approximately 22 minutes and brushed with melted butter after removing from oven.

Tasting Notes

Based on the fact that the rolls did not rise as much as I expected, I thought the rolls would be way too dense and not very good. I won’t go as far as saying they were really good, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were. The were definitely buttery, a little dense, but fairly soft on the inside. The bottoms of the rolls were a little overcooked and slightly harder than I expected.

The final rolls after removing from oven and brushing with butter.

Final Verdict: These dinner rolls were not bad, but I was slightly disappointed in them. I would give these another try with some fresher yeast and try to get them to rise and puff up more before baking.