Milk bread rolls

Are you tired of store-bought brioche burger buns?

I am and that is why I am so pleased that I have found an alternative – milk bread rolls.

I do like the brioche buns that you can buy from most supermarkets but I find they get a little bit too rich after a while. A good burger bun should be light and fluffy in texture & of course taste great.

This recipe for milk bread rolls uses skimmed milk, butter and egg to enrich the dough. This gives the bread a light, spongy texture rather than making it overly rich like buttery brioche.

Milk bread rolls make perfect burger buns; I also like to fill them with salad as lunchtime sandwiches and they are delicious toasted with butter & jam for breakfast.

An Italian influence

This recipe is adapted from Gennaro Contaldo’s recipe for Panini al latte (Milk rolls) which appears in his wonderful cookbook ‘Gennaro’s Italian Bakery.’

My adaptation of Gennaro’s recipe contains more milk, less butter and I have made six large round rolls rather than twelve smaller snail-shaped rolls.

You should make milk bread rolls because they are:

• An easy to make, tasty basic white bread roll recipe.
• Suitable for the whole family and versatile: eat with sweet or savoury fillings.
• Budget-friendly: inexpensive pantry ingredients.
• Great to batch cook at the weekend to put in the freezer to save time midweek.
• Portable and adaptable: add a sandwich filling and take on a picnic or enjoy as a satisfying work lunch.

Milk bread rolls’ main ingredients:

• Strong white bread flour
• Dried yeast
• Milk
• Butter

Tips for busy cooks

Use a food processor with a dough hook attachment for the kneading steps of the recipe.

Using the rolls as burger buns – for a more traditional look, sprinkle sesame or poppy seeds onto the rolls prior to baking.

Serving suggestions:

1. Eggplant parmi burger bun.
2. Morning or afternoon tea: with lemon curd or peanut butter.
3. Lunch: fill with salad for a satisfying sandwich.
4. Vegetarian soup: have a milk bread roll with soup for a hearty lunch or light dinner.
5. Breakfast roll: toast and eat with butter & jam.

A milk bread roll is a perfect burger bun

Go on and try these soft milk bread rolls the next time you need a burger bun. They aren’t as rich as store-bought brioche buns but are still extremely tasty.

Fill your home with the scent of scrumptious freshly baked bread by making these milk bread rolls today.

What will you eat with these milk bread rolls?

Let me know by leaving a comment and a recipe rating below – I’d love to hear from you.

Try one of these rolls as a bun for my eggplant parmi burger

Print

Milk bread rolls

Soft milk bread rolls enriched with milk, butter and egg. Perfect to use as burger buns, as bread for sandwiches or simply toasted for breakfast.

Meal Type Basic Recipes

Cuisine Italian-Inspired

Keyword Milk bread rolls, Vegetarian

Dough proving 1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 6 Rolls

Author Veg Coast Cook

Ingredients

• 180 ml skimmed milk heated until lukewarm
• ½ tsp caster sugar
• 7 g sachet fast action yeast
• 350 g strong white bread flour sifted (plus extra for flouring surface)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 large free-range egg lightly beaten
• 30 g unsalted butter melted
• Extra milk for glazing

Instructions

1. Combine lukewarm milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes until frothy.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, salt, egg and melted butter with a wooden spoon until evenly mixed. Gradually add the frothy yeast mixture to the flour using a wooden spoon at first then your hands. Bring the dough together to form a ball. You can add more flour if the mixture is too wet. 

3. Tip the dough out onto a floured kitchen surface and knead for 15 minutes. Place dough back into mixing bowl, cover with a damp clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to prove for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

4. Once risen, tip the dough onto a floured kitchen surface and knead for 10 minutes. Divide dough into six pieces and form into balls. Place dough balls onto a greaseproof paper lined baking tray, cover with a damp clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for 20 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 200°C fan.

6. Remove tea towel and using a pastry brush, glaze the top and sides of the rolls with milk and bake them in the oven for 25 minutes until golden. Take a roll out of the oven with oven gloves and tap on its base. If you get a hollow sound then the roll is cooked. Remove rolls from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Recipe Notes

Please note this recipe is an adaption of Gennaro Contaldo’s recipe for Panini al latte (Milk rolls) which appears in his wonderful cookbook ‘Gennaro’s Italian Bakery.’