Growing up, my mom used to take me to a bakery that offered all kinds of hard crusty rolls with soft centers. My Gramma Stella (whom I write about a lot) is the queen bee baker in our family and she bakes fresh rolls. Betwixt the bakery and my grandmother I never had a craving because rolls were ever-present.
Fast forward to adulthood, and the bakery we frequented closed and my grandmother is far beyond the years of baking (in her 90’s though she still does occasionally) passing the baton and the right of passage of hard crusty rolls with soft centers expectation onto me!
A bread machine is key to dough creation as it takes the work out of the process and in the end, as long as you know how to knead the dough into somewhat equal pieces you will find hard crusty rolls with soft centers waiting for you on the other side of the oven window. Lavishly live hard crusty rolls with soft centers out loud, and download the recipe here.
Hard Crusty Rolls With Soft Centers
The Process
Follow your bread machine instructions for adding in wet and dry ingredients.
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
1 egg white
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 1/4 C H20 (80 ° Fahrenheit to 100° no more)
Dry Ingredients
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Salt
3 3/4 C Bread Machine Flour
2 Tsp Bread Machine Yeast
Bread Machine
In bread machine combine ingredients. Do not mix in yeast until the end, on the top, boring a little finger hole into the flour and placing yeast in this (no matter what bread machine)
Put On Dough Cycle.
Once completed on dough cycle, lightly flour a board. Preheat oven to 175 ° Fahrenheit and then shut off immediately. This will be your warmed oven.
Line 2 trays with parchment paper and cut dough into 18 equal pieces, shaping a ball and spacing evenly on trays.
Cover each tray with parchment paper or a cloth and place in oven (that is NOT on, just heated ) for 40 minutes.
Once the timer is done, remove from Oven, preheat oven to 400 ° Fahrenheit and bake just 15 minutes, these will be done before they look done.
Dana’s Notes
I will say that I had to use a bit more flour than I wanted when rolling these out. The dough was sticky so be prepared ahead of time.
Make sure you do not over rise the dough.
Do cover while allowing the rolls to rise.
Do not add more salt and in fact, you can cut some out.
You can also use a whole egg rather than an egg white.
I tried basting some on the top with an egg white as well, I did not like that at all.
The rolls are thinner but nice and large, enough for a generous sandwich or burger. The thinner bun allows for less carb more burger taste.
Lavishly live bread out loud, and test out my Hard Crusty Rolls With Soft Centers.
Spot on perfection. This is how I like my bread and I will be following this from now on!
I love these rolls but I do not have a recipe for it, so I am so glad you shared yours in your post! This is so yummy! Can’t wait to give it a try!
I need to go out and get a bread machine right now! My kids love rolls and it would be so cool to make them homemade ones like these!
This looks amazing but I don’t have a bread machine. 🙁 Oh well, I guess I get to buy a new gadget for my kitchen. These truly look wonderful and I would love to try some time soon. Fresh bread is the best.
This is exactly how I like my bread; crusty and soft. The outside should always have a bite to it. I can’t deal if it’s soggy. Can’t wait to try the recipe out at home.
If I had a bread machine I would have to try this today. Those sound like the perfect rolls for Thanksgiving too!
I just might have to put my bread machine to use for this! My toddler loves going to the local bakery for a fresh roll.
I have never made bread or rolls before but these look yummy. My mom makes homemade rolls and she hasn’t passed it on to us girls yet.
This is the perfect excuse for me to use the bread machine my parents gave me!!! I’ve never had a good recipe to try out, so it’s just sitting in the basement for now. I can’t wait to try this out!
Homemade dinner rolls are such a treat in our house. I would love these with my Thanksgiving dinner. I’m going to pin this for next month!
I have never used bread machine flour before. Do you know what the difference is between that and regular flour? Glad to see you are keeping of the family tradition of making these rolls!
Bread Flour has more protein which helps with the GLUTEN which actually helps out many of the recipes I make as they are called for to be CHEWY, CRUNCHY.. just like the titles indicate. Hope that helps
Yum! We’ve been all about soup lately and these would be the perfect addition to our fall meals! They don’t seem like they take too long either! I tend to stay away from bread because of how long it takes to make it!
these are easy to make and the results are great
Thanks for sharing this easy recipe. Even as a novice cook (really nothing special here) I think I could manage making these for my family. They look fantastic.
thank you. I try to keep all the recipes easy, with three kids, ice hockey and a life that moves at a fast pace no time to be in the kitchen — let me know how yours turn out
I like my rolls like this too. My sister makes a soft roll for Thanksgiving that literally makes you ache while you are waiting for them to bake. We all eat one hot from the oven with honey and butter. She bakes two batches, one for our “appetizer” and one for the meal. I wonder if the bread machine would help her out any? I can’t wait to try your recipe.
I agree. I smell them and want to jump in there and grab.. But .. of course I wait:) .. great bread does wonders for the soul. lol
I love the title of this post, but in all seriousness, these rolls look delicious! We will have to try and make them.
I would love to make my own bread some day. I love crusty as well as especially when they are crusty but soft yum x
I have never tried this. I am sure it tastes even better than it looks. I am not sure I could pull it off but I will definitely try. Hope I dont ruin it. LOL
What an interesting recipe. I LOVE when bread rolls are soft in the center. I’ve always been overwhelmed when thinking about making bread, but this recipe makes it seem accessible.
Nothing but fast, and easy for me. This recipe wins in my house everytime
oo this is definitely the best kind of rolls! I love a decent crusty roll with my soup (as does my husband)
Sounds delicious. I was never good at making bread, but I think this one is worth a try.
I love bread with soft centers and I think it’s awesome! Thanks for all the helpful tips as well. I am not good at making bread and you make it seem easy!
I seriously need to get a bread machine. I hear such great things about it. I received a bread making book and all the recipes are in a bread maker.
I invent my own recipes. Once I start working with the flour, I ‘get it’ and so will you.. I have made Bread Bowls and Flat Rolls, and large loaves, is is awesome appliance
These look great – really after chocolate rolls are my next greatest weakness, especially hot ones covered in butter!
I love Chocolate Filled Croissants.. My weakness..
These sound delicious and very easy to make. Thanks for the recipe!
These look really yummy and would be perfect to use for biscuits and gravy! My grandparents got me hooked on putting honey on biscuits – these are yelling that they need me to grab some honey STAT and eat them!
i do love bread of all kinds. I would devour these rolls for sure.
These look really delicious! If only gluten free ones turned out so fluffy and thick!
Gluten Free is always a challenge and the Bread Flour I am using is loaded with gluten. sorry:)
This looks super delicious! I love rolls, and so do my kids. I don’t have a bread machine, but it looks worth buying!