Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Surprisingly flavorful for bread made without some sort of starter or pre-ferment. Texture: Clearly the best part! Crunchy and crusty on the outside, soft and airy inside. Ease: Just 4 ingredients and no-kneading. The hardest part is working with the sticky dough. Appearance: I could stare at bread all day long. Is that weird? Pros: Easy recipe for a special dinner or holiday occasion. Cons: None!! Would I make this again? Yes.This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
4 ingredients. 5 minute prep time. Can be made ahead. SUPER CRUSTY.
This crusty bread roll recipe is truly a beautiful thing. I have tried a lot of recipes for crusty bread rolls but most require time-consuming or complicated pre-ferments, starters, or rising instructions. That’s all fine for me because I spend so much time in the kitchen, but I know most of you need recipes that are as quick and easy as possible. Especially around the holiday season when there’s so much else to make and do.
Be sure to check out the video below so you can see exactly how these rolls come together. I also share some of my favorite baking tips and explain how to achieve that crusty texture. I’ve included different make-ahead options within the printable recipe too.
Crusty Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (11.3 ounces) bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) lukewarm water
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. Stir until the mixture is thick and sticky. No kneading is necessary!
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until puffy and bubbly on top, about 3 hours. MAKE AHEAD: Alternatively, you can also let the dough rise overnight in the fridge.
- Using a scraper, fold the dough over about 12 times, adding enough flour so that it doesn’t stick. Use the scraper to cut the dough into 8 equal pieces. Flour your hands before shaping each piece into a ball.
- Place the dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with a clean towel. Let rise until puffy, about 35 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.
- MAKE AHEAD: Store bread rolls in a container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month and re-crisp in a 325°F oven for 5 minutes from room temperature or about 15 minutes from frozen.
I’ve made these rolls a few times. Each time they would not brown on tops. If I leave them to bake longer then they get too hard.
Suggestions Please!
Hi, Tessa
“Dry-ran” these in advance of Christmas Dinner Saturday. Dough was not just sticky, but “blob-like”. Is the recipe supposed to be a 100% hydration? That’s awfully wet — I baked these in San Francisco area, with relative humidity near 90% on a rainy day. The recipe specifies weight of flour, +/- 2 grams, but does not specify weight of water. My first-try resulted in a nice crumb, not as open as I’d like, but perfectly fine. The bread had good flavor (I will increase salt on second try, personal preference), and nice crust, but the unbaked rolls were so soft I literally could not slash them with a lamé — it just dragged through the dough rather than cutting.
If you have a weight for water (flour works out to 320.3 grams), that would really be helpful. Also, I know the recipe is, by design, a quick one — have you tried an overnight refrigerator ferment to help develop gluten structure? I think I will do that next.
Thank you
Been making bread for many years, I am 77, always looking for a real crusty roll. Today the search ended. So crusty and tasty. Many thanks, can’t wait to try it as French bread
Again many thanks
Bob
Finally! A recipe for crusty rolls that’s not time consuming. I deal with chronic pain so something like this always great. You explained everything well on the video. When, forming the dough into the balls I dust my hands with flour and this helps a lot.
Mine is a question. After over a year of making rolls, (yours is next) no matter what I cover them with while they rise, they stick and deflate. Seems worse when dough is sticky like yours so I am at my wits end. You just covered your with a “clean towel”. If I did that I would have most of the dough on the towel. I have tried spayed plastic wrap, wet towel, and wet towel with flour all over it.
I researched what happens if you don’t cover it. They say it forms a crust. Duh, that’s what I want.
Thank you.
George
FYI: The video says 425 degrees and the recipe text says 450.
I just used your recipe as a base for mine. And, yes, I’d made this recipe as is. GREAT rolls, just a tad too chewy for my goddaughters! They like soft, sweeter, rolls.
For those who want to know if they can use plain, aka all purpose, flour: Yes, you can! The rolls won’t be as “artisanal” or crusty as when using bread flour, but they’ll taste great, especially if you let them sit (proof) overnight in your fridge. Just let them come to room temp (put the dough in your microwave WITHOUT heat!) before continuing with the recipe!
For even softer rolls, use a touch of oil on your hands and your surface before using only a TINY bit of flour on them. It’s a science thing why the oil helps!
Thank you for this recipe! It’s JUST the right size for those who don’t eat much bread!
Can I use all-purpose flour in place of the bread flour?
Could these rolls be formed after the first rise and then frozen? I’d like to make them and then defrost and let rise a second time and bake. Thanks!
Of course!
I made these crusty rolls last night for company and they turned out great! Tessa I love this recipe! Will be making them often…
Happy to hear that! Thank you!
Hi Hon well I made these for Easter today. I could not keep my oven to stay at 425 it took longer in my oven to get the tops brown. They were ok. but I will try making them again in the lower oven to see if that
will help. they were soft in the middle and hard on the out side like you said. not much taste for him he only
eat half of one. And he loves the crusty rolls. Let me know if you have another recipe for crusty rolls to try out.
dont mind the longer recipe I enjoy making breads. Enjoy your day looking forward to try out more recipes from
you Thanks again
I made these today for Easter tomorrow but had to double the recipe(we are bread lovers in this house) They were sticky and as others had posted and I would have added more flour if I had not watched your video first. Certainly couldn’t wait until tomorrow to try one.They are great. Thanks for such an easy recipe. Will definitely made these again
Awesome, Chris! Hope you had a happy Easter!