Irresistible bread rolls recipe for a happy day

Last updated on 23 May 2021 by Thierry

Going for a walk and planning a break on the way? Looking for ideas for tasty food to carry with you? Why not trying an irresistible bread rolls recipe for a happy day out! Let’s bake the French way 🙂

Prepared with basic ingredients you can find everywhere, these mouthwatering rolls are going to become your new homemade favourite when going for a picnic or a long hike.

We like to have some rolls with us when going for walks as they are not taking a lot of space, they make absolutely delicious sandwiches and will stay fresh for a few days. Plus they are super easy to prepare!

For more baking recipes, you can also check our authentic French baguette recipe.

Ingredients you’ll need

For 12 French bread rolls:

• Plain flour: 640g. You don’t need to get your hand on a fancy type of flour. The simpler the better.
• Water: 330g (330ml), at room temperature.
• Olive oil: 4 tablespoons (or about 40g). Being from Brittany, my people must be horrified reading I am not using (salted!) butter, so why oil? I have tried both and found not really a difference in taste, and found it easier to bake those rolls with oil than butter. But I like to use butter for other recipes!
• Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (or about 20g). Honey should work too here, probably 2.5 or 3 tablespoons, however, I have not tried this variant! Let me know in the comments if you did.
• Salt: 1 teaspoon (about 5g)
• Egg: 1 egg, at least medium size
• Yeast: 7g of dehydrated yeast or 25g of fresh yeast.

How to – the French bread rolls recipe

Mixing the ingredients together

1. If you are using fresh yeast, dilute it in a bowl with the water. Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.

2. In a salad bowl (glass, plastic, metallic, it’s up to you!), pour the olive oil and add the egg.

3. Add the water (with the diluted yeast if you are using fresh yeast. Check step 1).

4. Add half of the flour (about 320g).
Why half of the flour? I use to keep sugar and salt encapsulated between two layers of flour. Salt can harm the yeast by sucking the water from the yeast cells, and as a consequence, it will slow down significantly the growth rate of the yeast and in the end, the dough will not rise as expected. So I keep yeast and salt separated as long as possible, mixing them at the very end.

5. Add the granulated sugar and the salt, followed by the second half of flour to cover.

6. Finally, add the dehydrated yeast. If you are using fresh one, well, you have nothing else to do here, move to the next step.

7. Time to mix thoroughly all the ingredients together.

Knead the dough

8. Lightly flour your working surface and your hands and take out the dough from the bowl and place it on your working surface. Try to roll the dough gently to get it coated with flour to prevent it to stick everywhere.

9. Knead the dough.
How to knead the dough? Catch the half of the dough far from you, fold it over the other part towards you and push/ slide on it. Squeezing and stretching the dough will give its structure to the bread. I usually knead the dough for 4 to 5 minutes. Just keep in mind that too little kneading will produce a bread that’s too dense, but too will make the finished bread too hard.

10. Once kneaded, make a nice ball with your dough, place it back in the bowl, cover the bowl with a wet cloth (humid, not soaking wet!) then grab a cup of coffee. Now we need to leave the dough to rise for about 1 hour.

Prepare the rolls and bake them (finally!)

11. By the time, your dough should have nearly doubled in size. Lightly flour again your work surface and your hands, and take out the dough from the bowl for the last time.

12. Divide your dough into 12 parts. I am using a flat and thin wooden spatula for this. Roll each bit of dough between your hands and place the little balls on an oven tray with baking paper and slightly flatten them.

13. The finishing touch: I spread a few drops of oil on top of each roll and dust the top with a bit of flour. If you have another egg at hand, you can coat the top of the rolls with it, this will give a nice golden finish. Same by using coffee.

14. If you still have coffee, it is time for another cup; we need to let the rolls rest and grow for another 30 to 40 minutes at room temperature. Start preheating the oven at 185° for fan oven/ 200° for traditional oven a bit before the end of this period.

15. Once at temperature, put the tray in the oven, and watch the rolls rise and bake for 15 to 20 minutes pending how crispy you like your bread.

16. The rolls are ready! Take them out of the oven, and decide how you want to eat them!

Bon appétit!

We really love those delicious French bread rolls. We would have them for breakfast with butter or fresh cheese and jam, and they are wonderful with sliced cheese and ham, along with scrambled eggs. Going for a walk, they do absolutely great sandwiches!

Let us know what you think about this irresistible bread rolls recipe and any variation you are trying!

Bon appétit!