Honey Bread Rolls Without a Stand Mixer
Cuisine: Chinese
These homemade honey bread rolls need no stand mixer.
5 / 5
★★★★★
176 kcal
Ingredients
- Bread dough
- Bread flour: 400 g
- Milk: 200 g
- Yeast: 4 g
- Egg: 1
- White sugar: 70 g
- Salt: 2 g
- Butter: 30 g
- Honey water (brushed on top)
- Honey: 20 g
- Water: 20 g
- Optional (sprinkled on top)
- Sesame seeds
Steps
- Make the dough: combine the flour, milk (warmed to about 40 °C is recommended; I use the microwave for 15–20 s), yeast, egg, sugar and salt.
- Stir the dough until the ingredients come together evenly into a ball.
- Add the butter and mix it in.
- Keep stirring and kneading by hand until evenly combined.
- Proof the dough: cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at ordinary room temperature (10–20 °C) for 1–2 hours; a bit longer doesn't hurt.
- Once the dough has clearly risen (doubled), you can start dividing it; by now it should no longer be very sticky.
- Divide the dough: ideally 60 g per piece (looks nicest), but adjust the size as you like.
- Roll each small piece with a rolling pin into a tongue shape, roll it up, and let it rest another 10 minutes.
- Roll it into a tongue shape again, roll it up, and cut it in half (one becomes two).
- Roll into a tongue shape again, roll up, and cut in half (two become four). (You can repeat the rolling a few more times as time allows; just keep an eye on the piece size.)
- Line a baking pan with parchment and pour in some peanut oil; dip the bottom of each rolled piece in water and then flour, and place it in the pan.
- Proof again (covered with plastic wrap); at this step you can put it in the fridge and bake the next day.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Bake at 180 °C (355 °F) for 18–20 minutes.
- After baking, brush with honey water and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
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Notes
These homemade honey bread rolls need no stand mixer. They're soft and sweet with slightly crisp bottoms, brushed with honey water and sprinkled with sesame for a simple, sweet aroma. The main ingredients are bread flour, milk, egg and butter, providing plenty of carbohydrates, protein and calcium, a reassuring breakfast or snack. The method is simple: everything is kneaded by hand, the proofing time is flexible, and you can even refrigerate the rolls overnight and bake them the next day, which makes it very beginner-friendly. It takes about 3 hours, mostly waiting for the dough to rise; the hands-on work isn't hard.
Estimated difficulty: ★★★★★
Estimated calories: 176 kcal
Group: honey bread rolls without a stand mixer
Quantities:
The amounts below fill one rectangular pan (10 x 15 inches, about 25 x 38 cm) plus one square pan (9 × 9 inches, about 23 × 23 cm), lined with parchment. Consider scaling down as needed: this is roughly two weeks of breakfasts (stored in the fridge). Refrigerated rolls get firm; microwave them for 10–20 s.
- Proofing time isn't fixed; check every hour, and it's ready once it has clearly grown. Proofing to 2–2.5 times the size is recommended.
- Roll size doesn't noticeably affect texture or baking; adjust as you like.
- Reference: Xiachufang – crispy-bottom honey bread rolls