You can make super soft and fluffy healthy whole wheat dinner rolls at home easily. No one will ever believe that these are made from 100% whole wheat flour. Fresh garlic and herbs make them even more tempting.
For quite some time, I have been wanting to share a recipe for homemade rolls. And that is healthy with all-natural ingredients. The reason it took a little long to finalize this recipe is that I was trying to make it eggless and with 100% whole wheat flour. And all the time it came out dry and rough in texture.
Having failed several times, I finally decided to use an egg and it finally helped to get that soft and fluffy texture with whole grain flour. If you are okay with using eggs (now I am, finally!) then I am sure you will love these healthy whole wheat dinner rolls. And using fresh garlic and herbs would make them even more delicious.
These are so good that you can just spread some butter on them and have it as is.
How to make Homemade Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
In lukewarm water and milk add yeast, sugar, salt, finely chopped garlic, an egg, freshly chopped rosemary, and parsley. Mix everything to combine. Then slowly add flour and knead it into a soft supple dough. Cover the dough and let it rise until it is double in size.
Divide the dough into small balls and keep them on a baking tray leaving some gaps in between. Cover the tray with a clean cloth and let it rise for another 30 min or so. Bake the rolls in a preheated oven until well done. To get a nice color on the crust, apply oil using a brush as soon as the rolls are out of the oven and still hot.
Helpful Tips!
- Use organic whole wheat flour. I really love using flour from Trader's Jo. I find using their whole wheat flour in baking very helpful.
- You can knead the dough using your hands. Use a wooden spatula to mix the flour into the liquid. Mix until it forms a crumbly mixture. Then using hands knead the mixture on a flat surface or in the same bowl to form a dough. Or, make this work less messy by using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment.
- After kneading the dough, cover and keep it in the oven. DO NOT turn on the oven or preheat, yet. The closed oven will provide a perfect environment for raising the dough.
- Line the baking tray with some parchment paper. It will help to not stick the rolls on the bottom of the tray. Or simply, just brush little oil on the tray. I forgot this key step in one of my initial trials. It not only ruins the rolls but makes an additional task for cleaning the tray later (which is not enjoyable at all, trust me!)
- Store the leftover rolls in an airtight ziplock bag or container to avoid drying them out. I usually store them in the refrigerator.
- To get the same fresh texture on the leftover whole wheat dinner rolls simply microwave them to warm them up before consuming them
Try these other Whole Wheat Based Recipes
📖 Recipe
Soft And Fluffy Garlic Herb Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup low-fat milk
- ¼ cup water
- 3-4 garlic cloves finely minced
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 1 tablespoon parsley finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt to taste
- 1 egg at room temperature
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl take warm milk and water. Then add garlic, rosemary, parsley, yeast, sugar, and salt.
- Add one egg and gently combine the mixture using a whisk.
- Slowly add dry flour into the wet ingredients. Mix the flour until it absorbs all the moisture and forms a crumbly mixture. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. See notes on how to use a stand mixer.
- Then on a flat surface knead the flour mixture until it forms a soft supple dough. Add oil while kneading the dough.
- Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl and let it rise for about an hour or so or till it doubles in size.
- Now divide the dough into 15 equal parts. Shape it into small round balls. Place the rolls on a baking or roasting pan leaving some space in between.
- Again cover the tray with a clean towel and let the rolls rise for another 30-40 mins.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F.
- Remove the cloth and transfer the tray to oven and bake the rolls for about 12-15 min.
- To get a nice brown crust on the rolls you can apply oil using a brush as soon as rolls are out of the oven and still hot.
Notes
- Kneading dough using a Stand Mixer - Follow the steps 1 and 2 above. Use a mixer bowl to combine the ingredients. Attach the dough hook. On the lowest speed slowly add dry flour into the liquid mixture. Once the liquid is absorbed by flour and forms a crumbly mixture turn off the machine. Cover the bowl with kitchen towel and let it sit for 10-15 mins (this helps to absorb all the water by the flour and kneading the dough becomes easier.). Then again on the lowest speed knead the mixture for 5-6 min to form a soft dough.
- See helpful tips section for more useful information for making these best ever light and fluffy dinner rolls.
Vicki says
Can i make these in a bread machine?
Hi, I never tried these dinner rolls in a bread machine. We would love to know the feedback if you make them in the bread machine. Also I think for bread machine they use a special kind of yeast.
Wardah Batool says
I baked these today, I halved the recipie and used half egg as an egg wash، unfortunately I wasn't able to knead properly as the dough was very sticky but still they turned out good and they only took 6-8 minutes to bake in my oven. can I bake them with filling ?
Hi, I am glad you liked them. Yes, you can make them with a filling. For 6-8 min baking time I would suggest using precooked filling especially if you are planning to use meat.
Nina S. says
Hi I'm Nina and I'm really looking forward to making these lovely looking rolls tonight. I do have a question, I usually don't buy Instant yeast as I've had bad luck with the in the past; so I don't have it and wondering if I substitute The usual long-acting yeast for instant is there something else I need to do -For example to add or to subtract other ingredients-in terms of timing or texture of the dough? I don't bake bread a lot and 6would really appreciate your input if you're able to address this! Thanks.
Hi Nina,
You can use regular yeast for making these dinner rolls. Just activate it in warm water and milk with sugar as per the listed amounts in the recipe. Wait for about 10 mins (or until it is frothy) to activate the yeast. Then proceed to add other ingredients in step 1. Also, in step 5 allow the dough to rise for 2-3 hrs (instead of 1 hr as mentioned in step 5). And follow the remaining instructions as is. Hope this helps. Let us know how it turned out for you.
Karen C says
This was a pretty easy recipe to follow. I really love the garlic, rosemary and parsley! The only thing is I wish the recipe gave some guidance as to how much salt to use. “Salt to taste” doesn’t work because no one wants to eat raw dough to taste for salt. We had to use a lot of salted butter to eat these rolls. Also, I did brush a little olive oil on each roll after baking and my rolls did not get brown. I think I should have brushed oil on the rolls before baking.
Eudice Victor says
can i use a dairy free milk alternative?
Yes, you can use dairy-free milk instead.
Laura says
Great recipe! I used dried herbs because that's what I had on hand and I reduced them to a tsp like suggested. They were delicious and fluffy, but just like any other bread make sure you are gentle with the risen dough and because it's whole-wheat you may want to let it rise for longer. Also if you are not careful it can get tough and chewy so make sure you don't EVER let it dry out.
Overall super yummy and my family enjoyed them!