Description
Quick dinner rolls have never tasted as good as when you take the magic of Japanese Milk Bread and fuse it with the tenderizing, delicious flavor of buttermilk. Roll these into cute knots, and you’ll have a dinner roll that everyone remembers.
Ingredients
Scale
Tangzhong Paste
- 1/2 cup whole milk (118 mL)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (65 g)
Buttermilk milk bread dough
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, preferably homemade buttermilk (118 mL)
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (25 g)
- All of the Tangzhong paste
- 2 large eggs, cold from the fridge
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons butter (57 g), at room temperature
Finishing
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water for egg wash
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
- 2 sprigs fresh dill, chopped
Instructions
- Warm the buttermilk in a small pan on the stove just enough to take the chill of the fridge off it. Pour the buttermilk into a small bowl and whisk in the sugar and yeast. Set aside for the yeast to bloom.
Tangzhong Paste
- Mix the milk and flour together in the same pan. Cook the milk and flour over medium heat until the flour absorbs all the mixture and the mixture looks like a thick paste kind of like a slightly wet play dough.
- Turn off the heat, and then crack in the eggs. Quickly stir to combine the cold eggs into the warm paste. This will bring cool down the paste quickly enough that you will not need to wait to continue with the recipe.
Cook the milk and flour over medium heat until the flour absorbs all the mixture and the mixture looks like a thick paste kind of like a slightly wet play dough. 
Finish the dough
- Pour the yeast mixture, and the tangzhong/egg mix into the bowl of a mixer. Fit a dough hook on your mixer. Measure in the flour and salt and then run the mixer until the dough just combines. With the mixer still running, add in the butter a little bit at a time. Don’t be alarmed if it looks like the dough is breaking apart. Keep running the mixer until the dough comes back together and is smooth and supple and a little sticky. This should take about 5 minutes.
- Cover the work bowl and set aside for the dough to rise for 1 hour until it is visibly puffy and about doubled in bulk.
Shaping the rolls
- Meanwhile, line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- After 1 hour, sprinkle a work surface with a little flour. Scrape the dough onto the flour. From here, use a bench scraper or knife to divide the dough into 24 pieces.
- Roll each piece into a small rope about 9 ½” long. Cross the ends over each other (it will look like a fish), and then poke one of the ends through the middle of the bun to make a knot shape. Repeat shaping with the rest of the dough.
- Place the rolls on the prepared sheets and cover them with a kitchen towel to rest for 20-30 minutes until they’re visibly puffy.
Baking the rolls
- Towards the end of the second rising, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Paint the egg wash on the buns and sprinkle them with rosemary and dill.
- Bake the buns for 20 minutes.
- Buns are best the day they’re made, but they can be frozen and reheated for later up to 1 month.
Notes
Milk Bread Loaf: To make milk bread loaves, divide the dough into 6 pieces. Line the bottom of 2 loaf pans with parchment and brush some butter on the ends of the inside of the pans.
Pat each dough portion into a little rectangle and then roll it up into a log. Place 3 logs in each loaf pan. Cover and let rise for about 20 minutes. Paint on the egg wash, and then bake the loaves for about 35 minutes.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Breads
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American, Japanese
