Soft Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

You guys. These aren’t just soft whole wheat dinner rolls. They are the softest, most tender, of dinner rolls. Made with 100% whole wheat. Not a sprinkling of white flour in there! I’m completely blown away and you will be too!

When I set out to create a 100% whole grain bread roll, I have to admit my expectations were low. Whole wheat bread usually is vastly enhanced by using white flour for up to 1/2 of the total flour. 100% whole wheat bread has a reputation for being less tasty as well as dry and dense.

I expected to go through a lot of trials with this recipe to get it perfect, so you can imagine my surprise when it came out perfectly on the first try! Like, there was literally nothing I wanted to change about this bread.

They are soft and tender, fluffy and moist. The kind of squishy bread you want to accompany your dinner, but makes an equally good snack/breakfast/bun. The flavor is just spectacular, nutty and rich, malty and faintly sweet.

To be certain, I actually went through 3 trials of the recipe anyway–making sure the first time around wasn’t a fluke, making extra to share with friends to make sure I wasn’t just a crazy whole wheat lady (and I’m not, 0 problems with white bread here!), testing it with a substitution for a possibly harder to get ingredient (potato flour). This bread could do no wrong! Unless you’re allergic to wheat, then unfortunately this recipe isn’t for you.

These rolls are great for eating warm from the oven and for making in advance to serve with dinner. If made the day before they reheat really well in the oven, and I love slicing them open to toast and slather with some vegan butter or cashew cheese for breakfast or a snack.

So what’s the trick to making ultra soft whole wheat dinner rolls?

First, we use the wonderful ingredient potato flour. Similarly to my sweet potato rolls that I made last fall, the starches in the potato act to tenderize the crumb of the bread. This effectively means that bread with potato in it is going to be softer.

Instead of cooking and mashing up a potato to mix into my dough, which adds time and effort to a recipe, I grabbed for potato flour. Potato flour is dehydrated and finely ground potato. No other ingredients added. It’s absolutely perfect for this recipe!

Since potato flour might be a slightly more specialty ingredient, so I went ahead and tested these rolls with mashed potato flakes, which are dehydrated potato that’s been shredded into fine flakes. This ingredient is easy to find just about anywhere (with the frustrating exception of my local organic grocery store) so you’ll be able to make this recipe no matter where in the US you live (if you’re not in the US just wondering, are potato flakes a thing where you live?).

Well, I couldn’t tell the difference between the rolls with potato flakes and the ones with potato flour! Even in side by side comparisons! So you can use whichever ingredient you prefer with no loss in texture or flavor.

Secondly, I used a technique similar to making pastry to cut down on the formation of the gluten (protein) network. What I did was take refined coconut oil in it’s solid state and rubbed it into the dry ingredients. This coated the grains of flour which “shortens” the gluten strands.

Whole wheat flour is higher in protein (which means higher in gluten) than white flour, and while we depend on gluten to give bread it’s quintessential properties, too much gluten can lead to a denser and chewier result, which is not what we’re going for with this recipe.

Since I don’t want my bread to taste of coconut, I used refined coconut oil instead of unrefined, but this is personal preference. Adding the oil in its solid form allows you to rub it into the flour with minimal clumping. The final mixture will be sandy, with the occasional small pebbly bit.

Third, instead of water I’ve used non-dairy milk. Along with adding the fat, this makes for an enriched dough. Which means, softer & more tender bread! I used oat milk, but any will work (with the possible exception or rice milk which I find to be very watery).

A few other important points in making soft whole wheat bread:

Whole wheat can have a bit of a bitter taste thanks to the bran being included in the flour. To combat this we add a little sweetener to the dough. The liquid sweetener not only assists with the malty sweet smell of the bread, it also acts to create a more tender and soft crumb.

I love using instant yeast in my bread recipes, it’s so straight forward to use–mix it into the dry ingredients and proceed with your recipe! But if you have active dry yeast you can definitely use that instead. A couple notes: active dry yeast needs to be hydrated before being used in the recipe, so add yeast to the warm milk and maple syrup and let hydrate for about 10 minutes before mixing it into the rest of the dry ingredients (after the coconut oil has been added).

The other thing this bread benefits from is patience. For soft and fluffy rolls you must give the dough the time it needs to rise. Right now in my kitchen it’s still a bit on the warmer side and the dough doubles in about 90 minutes. But later in the season when it’s colder out and if you have a drafty kitchen, just make sure to give the dough the time it needs to double in size.

If your kitchen is cold you can always turn the light on in your oven and place your dough in there. It’ll make a slightly warm and non-drafty environment that your yeast will love. That being said, most of the time I’m all about not rushing the rising process of dough, because that’s what makes bread taste so good. But if you need bread in the shortest amount of time possible then do what you have to do!

And now, enjoy your soft whole wheat bread rolls!

We gobbled these rolls up alongside my butternut squash almond bisque and it was heavenly. The soft bread is perfect for scooping up the last bits of soup left behind in the bowl. With this combo, everyone is part of the clean plate club!

I can guarantee these softest of soft dinner rolls will be a part of our Thanksgiving menu. Having that extra serving of whole grain with all its fiber and nutrients snuck into our meals is going to be appreciated. And even better when you don’t sacrifice on flavor and texture!

Another note about whole wheat, did you know that bread made with whole grain takes longer to go stale? This means that you can get away with making the bread a day in advance and still serve it to company (especially if you just pop it in the oven to warm up a bit beforehand, I’d do 375-400 ºF for about 5 minutes). But with a little toasting this bread tastes as good as freshly baked even after 3 or 4 days (possibly longer but I can’t speak to that as it didn’t last that long in our house!).

And with that I hope I’ve inspired you to make your own bread for the holidays this year! And just to make bread in general! It’s easy to do, especially if you have a stand mixer, but the way I’ve broken down the kneading makes this recipe a breeze! And actually the pause in kneading is important as it gives the dough time to hydrate and relax so that the kneading is more effective!

If you make these soft whole wheat dinner rolls, let me know how it goes! Leave a comment and rate the recipe below! And tag your recreations @thecuriouschickpea and #thecuriouschickpea on Instagram, I absolutely love seeing your photos!

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Notes:

• You should be able to use softened (not melted!) vegan butter instead of the coconut oil, but I haven’t tested the recipe this way. If you make this substitution please report back with how it went!
• I highly highly highly recommend you use a kitchen scale (there are cheaper ones too, but that’s the one I have) to measure your ingredients for baking. But if you don’t have a scale then be very careful with how you measure your flour. Whisk, scoop, then level the flour in the measuring cup. If you just scoop un-fluffed flour you are pretty much guaranteed to be using too much flour which will lead to a dense and unsatisfactory roll.