Soft and Puffy Dinner Rolls (vegan)

Once again, Ryan decided to treat me to dinner for the week. He made his wonderful Quinoa Chili. I, of course, wanted to contribute in some way, so I offered to make either bread or rolls to eat with the chili. Since the last time he made the chili I made bread, we thought it would be nice to switch it up and have rolls with it this time. So, I found these beauties whilst browsing the internet. I made a few switches to the recipe to accommodate a vegan diet, and they turned out wonderfully. I like this method of baking the rolls, all in one pie pan, since they make for a nice pull apart loaf, and it makes it easy to make multiple batches at once (I have a plethora of pie tins) since they fit into an oven together better than a bunch of muffin pans. Plus, it makes more sides of each piece the soft non-crust goodness.


The dough is quite easy, and a pretty quick riser at only half an hour for each rise time. Just mix the warm water with the yeast and sugar, let proof, then add everything else and kneed to a smooth dough (it will be sticky, don't let the urge to add more flour get to you! It will make the rolls tough!).

Once the dough has risen, just divide it into 12 equal (more or less) pieces, roll each into a ball in your hands and place them in the greased pie tin. Let them rise another half hour and they'll puff up like this!

Once they have risen a second time, butter the tops of the rolls, toss into the oven for just 15-18 minutes and you're done!

Soft and Puffy Dinner Rolls
Makes 12 rolls

1 cup Water, very warm (but not so hot you couldn't hold a finger in it)
2 tbsp Sugar
1 package Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
3 tbsp Vegan Butter of choice, separated
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 Ener-G egg (1 1/2 tsp egg replacer + 2 tbsp water)

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add yeast and stir. Let proof for about 10 minutes. It will puff up and get foamy.

2. While the yeast activates, in a small bowl melt 2 tbsp of the butter in the microwave (around 20 seconds) and let it cool a bit. It doesn't need to be completely melted, just mostly melted and soft.

3. Add 1 1/4 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture and mix until mostly combined. Add the butter, Ener-G egg, and salt and stir some more. Add the last 1 cup of flour and stir to combine.

4. Cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. Grease a pan and set it aside.

5. Put the dough on a floured surface and kneed for a minute or two. Divide into 12 equal pieces (cutting the dough with a chef's knife is the easiest way I've found) and roll into balls and place them in the pan. Cover with the towel again and allow to rise for another 30 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of the second rise, set the oven to 400F to preheat. Also, melt the last 1 tbsp of butter.

6. Remove the towel and brush the rolls with the other 1 tbsp of butter. Bake the rolls for 15-18 minutes, or until lightly browned.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Then flip the rolls out of the pan and allow to cool on a rack, or serve right away. (If you leave them in the hot pan, the heat of the pan will keep cooking the outside of the buns and could burn them a little.)