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I don’t think I need to wax poetic about the benefits of fresh homemade sandwich rolls, so I won’t. I’ll just say that a fresh roll can turn a good sandwich into a great sandwich, which you already know.

I made these rolls for pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches, and they were totally awesome. I found the recipe at King Arthur Flour. I did not change any of the ingredients, however, I did not follow KAF’s instructions for mixing the dough. KAF basically says to mix all the ingredients together until you have a soft smooth dough. I am not a very experienced bread maker, so I thought these directions were a bit too vague. Nick helped me make this and he broke the mixing process down somewhat. The recipe and our detailed mixing process after the jump.

Follow up:

Beautiful Burger Buns (or Sandwich Rolls)
Recipe by King Arthur Flour
Process adapted by imafoodblog.com

• 8 ounces lukewarm water
• 1 large egg
• 14.75 ounces AP Flour
• 1.75 ounces sugar
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
• 1.25 tbsp active dry yeast or 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 1 ounce butter, at room temperature

1. Whisk together the water and the egg.
2. Place about 1/3rd of the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk in some of the egg/water mixture until you have a moist spongy consistency. In between spongy and soupy. Now add in the rest of the flour and dry ingredients, and mix together on low speed with dough hook.
3. Turn mixer up to higher speed and slowly add the rest of the water/egg mixture. Knead on a high speed until the dough comes together and becomes elastic. This will take about 3-4 minutes. You can test the elasticity by pulling at the dough to see if you can stretch without breaking.
4. Continuing on high speed, add the butter in small chunks. Knead again for a few minutes until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough comes together in one ball.
5. Let rise until doubled in size in a well oiled bowl, covered. Once doubled, deflate the dough and turn out onto counter. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, use a scale to do this.
6. If you are going to bake and use them right away – shape into a ball, then press down to flatten to about 3” wide. (flour your hands lightly if it becomes necessary) Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour. We baked these on our pizza stone in the oven. So we let our rolls rise on a piece of parchment paper, which can go right into the oven onto the stone. This makes the whole deal much easier to get into and out of the oven.
7. If you are not going to use them all right away, you can freeze them. Roll them into balls and wrap in plastic wrap or press-n-seal. Freeze. When ready to use, allow to defrost at room temperature or in the fridge overnight. The colder they are the longer they will take on the second proof. You could also bake these all off at once and then freeze the baked rolls. I have done this as well and it works out great too.
8. Brush rolls with an egg wash of 1 egg and 1 tbsp water, and apply sesame seeds if desired. You can also just brush with melted butter. Bake in a 375F oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

In between spongy & soupy:

The dough is ready when you can pull it like this without breaking. This means that the gluten has properly formed.

Let it rise in a well oiled bowl.

Until it has doubled in size. This dough rose nicely.

8 little balls, so cute.

Here are 2 dough balls that were previously frozen. I defrosted them in the fridge overnight. When I was ready, with lightly floured hands I patted them down and let them rise.

They got nice and puffy in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

I brushed those bad boys with an egg wash and sprinkled some sesame seeds.

Just out of the oven. We baked them directly on a pizza stone and then threw the broiler on for the last 2-3 minutes to get a better browning on the top.

Beautiful fresh rolls, ready for whatever deliciousness you can create:

I have actually made these rolls twice now. The first rolls were shinier and had a harder exterior, the second batch were puffier, softer and more wrinkly. I think either they under proofed the first time or over proofed the second time. Either way, they were delicious.

This is the first time. (Don’t these look a little like boobies?)

This is the second time, which I think look more like conventional burger rolls.

I am sending these over to Susan at Wild Yeast for this week’s Yeastspotting. Check out yeastspotting every Friday for an awesome roundup of various yeasted treats.