So I am pretty awesome as a cook but somehow I cant make dinner rolls to save my life. I've followed a lot of recipes and they usually turn out hard and heavy like stones and not at all delicious. I usually use wheat flour or half wheat/half white flour, could that be a problem? Is there something I can add to make my rolls fluffier? I am not an expert at baking at all but I love bread. Thanks!

Hi, I recently practiced making rolls and buns with success, before all I could get consistent was french bread and pizza dough. I learned from experimenting that for rolls its better to have a dough that is wet and sticky, so a little more liquid or less flour helps. Also I found that the rolls turned out softer when I let the dough rise 2 times (at least an hour each) before shaping and final rise rather than just once as some bread recipes call for.


The less you work the dough when forming the lighter the rolls will be too.

you can't just substitute whole wheat flour for a recipe that was based on all purpose or bread flour. whole wheat absorbs more liquid than AP flour does. sometimes you can do half and half, but even that may need some playing with. If they are coming out like bricks, you need more liquid, more yeast or rising time- or combination thereof.

Are you using a whole wheat recipe or trying to sub in some ww flour?

I LOVE www.thefreshloaf.com That is the most comprehensive bread baking site online with many professional bakers who would be glad to get you going in the whole grain dept.
Take a look
here's the whole grain forum.http://www.thefreshloaf.com/forums/g...e/whole-grains

Try a mix of whole wheat pastry flour and all-purpose instead of 'regular' WW.

thanks everyone for your comments, I will keep them in mind in my next adventure with dinner rolls, I plan to just keep trying until I get it right. Hopefully thanks to this wonderful feedback I wont have to soak my dinner rolls in soup just to chew them haha!

yup....that sounds like too much whole wheat flour which absorbed your liquid up, and made them hard as rocks. Been there! Happy baking and good luck on the next round.