Homemade crusty bread rolls with no kneading

I think you’ll love these homemade crusty bread rolls with a fabulously crunchy outside and a soft, open-textured crumb within. And the really great news is that there isn’t any kneading involved. Mix the dough in the evening and you can have fresh homemade crusty bread rolls for breakfast.

One of my most popular posts is all about how to get crusty homemade bread with no kneading. If you haven’t tried it, then you might think dough that hasn’t been kneaded would be incredibly heavy. That’s because, in conventional bread making, you knead in order to develop the gluten. And gluten is the protein which allows bread to rise.

However, given enough time and a wetter than usual dough, the gluten will get along very nicely without you.  To achieve this, I stir together a wet dough made from flour, salt, dried yeast and water. Don’t even bother trying to knead it; you’ll get into a right old sticky mess. The dough is then covered and left to rise slowly overnight.

In the morning you’ll have a lovely, bubbly dough. All you do then is form it into 8 or 10 balls on a well floured work surface. These are set these aside for 20 minutes or so while you get your oven really hot. I bake the rolls in lidded cast iron pots, for the reasons outlined below.

EASY HOMEMADE CRUSTY BREAD ROLLS

For these Homemade Crusty Bread Rolls I’ve simply adapted my original no-knead recipe which makes a crusty loaf. So as not to repeat everything here, I suggest you first have a read of that post.

A few things to note:

• Make sure that the dry yeast you buy is labelled ‘quick’, ‘fast acting’ or similar. Don’t buy dried yeast which has to be activated with warm water and sugar first. That won’t work with this method.
• You’ll need one or more heavy, lidded cast iron pots, a Dutch oven or similar. The hot and steamy environment inside the pot gives a good rise to the bread and a lovely crust.
• I cook my Homemade Crusty Bread Rolls in batches as I can’t fit them all in my lidded pots. But each batch cooks in 12-18 minutes so it still doesn’t take very long.

Besides the convenience of not having to knead, breads made with slow-risen dough will give you a much better flavour. Also, many people who struggle to digest quick-risen, additive-packed mass produced bread find that they have no problem with slower risen breads.

With my no knead, overnight method it really is easy to get great tasting, fresh Homemade Crusty Bread Rolls.

4 from 2 votes

Print

Homemade Crusty Bread Rolls with no kneading

Homemade crusty bread rolls with a fabulously crunchy outside and a soft, open-textured crumb. No kneading required

Course Bread

Keyword bread, homemade bread, crusty rolls, no knead bread

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Overnight rising 14 hours

Total Time 33 minutes

Servings 8 large rolls

Ingredients

• 600 g bread flour
• 7 g fast acting dried yeast
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 460 ml water

Instructions

The evening before you want to bake the bread rolls:

1. Put the flour, dried yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl and gradually stir in all the water.

2. Use a rubber spoon or spatula to bring the mixture together into a rough, wet dough.

3. Cover with cling film and leave overnight or 12-14 hours.

On the day of baking:

1. Scrape the dough out onto a well-floured work surface. Fold and shape into a rough ball. Divide into 8 equal pieces (or 10 if you want smaller bread rolls).
   

2. Shape into balls and leave on the floured work surface, covered with a tea towel or cling film. Leave for approx 20 minutes.

   In the meantime, preheat your oven to its highest setting, with the lidded pot(s) inside.
   

3. After 20 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 220C, remove the pot(s) from the oven, take off the lid(s) and carefully put the dough balls in the hot pots. Don't crowd them - you may need to cook in several batches.
   

4. Replace the lid(s), put the pots in the oven and leave to bake for 10 minutes.
   

5. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 200C. Remove the pot(s) from the oven, take the bread rolls out and return them to the oven DIRECTLY ON THE OVEN SHELF.
   

6. Bake for a further 2 - 8 minutes until the rolls are cooked through - they should sound hollow when tapped underneath. Place on a wire rack to cool.
   

7. If cooking in batches, heat the oven back to 220C and continue with the rest of the bread rolls.