Knotted Dinner Rolls
Soft and rich knotted dinner rolls are perfect for any occasion!
Easter is one of my favorite holidays. After a long, cold, and dark winter, it feels so good to celebrate the arrival of spring. Right now the leaves on the trees are just starting to bud, flowers are blooming everywhere, and I feel like flip-flop season is right around the corner.
I’m seriously so, so excited. Flip-flops, you guys.
This year for Easter I’m hosting some of my family at our house and while it won’t be anything too fancy, you can bet that a few special recipes will find their way to the table. Like these knotted rolls, which first debuted on this site for Easter 2010 and have been a favorite ever since.
These rolls are just my braided egg bread recipe portioned out and tied into knots. It’s made from an enriched yeast dough, meaning it has more fat and sugar than traditional yeast dough. These rolls are soft, tender and full of so much flavor.
I have what feels like dozens of roll recipes on my blog, but these are easily in my top two or three. They’re not any harder to make than other rolls, but they’re just so pretty and feel a little fancy. They’re perfect for any dinner or gathering or party you have coming up!
(Psst, look for more Easter recipes coming your way over the next two weeks. Have any requests? Please leave them in the comments!)
baking tip:What is bread flour?
Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, which helps with gluten development and makes it ideal for yeast bread baking. Breads baked with bread flour will rise higher and tend to have a chewier and more elastic texture.
However, while there may be a difference in the final baked bread depending on the recipe, you can substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour in most cases.
Knotted Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 1/2 cup warm water (125 ml)
- 1/3 cup honey (115 grams)
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter , melted and cooled (56 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 3 - 3 ½ cups bread flour (360-420 grams)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg + 1 teaspoon water , beaten (for egg wash)
- Poppy seeds , for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
- Combine warm water and yeast and let sit for 5 minutes till foamy.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook (or in a large bowl if you intend to knead by hand), combine the yeast mixture, honey, butter, and eggs. Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour, and the salt. Mix on low until it comes together to make a wet dough. Continue adding remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time until dough no longer sticks to your fingers when touched. You may not need all 3 1/2 cups of the flour. Dough should be able to be handled, but still very soft. It will not clear the bowl.
- Continue kneading on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes more.
- Gently form into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Gently punch down dough and gather back into a ball. Divide into 12 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll out into a 6-inch long rope and tie into a knot. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled again, about 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Brush rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds, if using. Bake until golden brown, about 15-17 minutes.
- Serve warm. Rolls are best the day they are baked, but will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Tools for this recipe
I'm completely and utterly in love with your blog! Everything looks wonderful and yet, unpretentious, which is to me, the hallmark of a real kitchen and a true cook. I'm adding you to my blogroll! ^_^
Wow. These look tooo good. I love the moistness of challah! These will definitely accompany the next meal I make.
You can't serve Challa on Passover. It's hummitz (has leavening in it).
But now that passover is over it's all good. I definitely want to make these for hamburger buns.
Stoudster B- thank you so much for correcting me! I've changed my post.
And they would make GREAT hamburger buns.
Beautiful indeed! These really are perfect challah rolls. Your photos are quite wonderful, too!
These rolls look lovely.
You are right, they look absolutely beautiful. Nice work.
I have been scrolling through your blog. You have excellent photography. Someday when I grow up, I will get a nice camera and take better food pix.
You challah rolls are beautiful. We are baking our way through Healthy Bread In Five minutes a day. You should check out what we are doing. Welcome to te Hive.
These look so beautiful. I can't wait to try them!!
Your challah rolls look wonderful. Joni
although i've never made challah myself, i love eating it and i love saying the name the way it's meant to be said. challah rolls are quite a clever creation–bravo!
Pingback: URL
Wow, these cuties are just adorable! I have to make these 🙂
Pingback: Frog Head Sandwiches » Kid Party Food Ideas
These look absolutely incredible! Challah is probably my most favorite type of bread, and these rolls are so cute. Amazing!
they look delicious. However, for anyone who keeps kosher, butter is not allowed in challah because bread must be pareve (neither milk nor dairy ingredients). Challah is usually eaten with meat meals.
Do you have a Challah bread recipe that is gluten-free? My husband recently developed Celiac’s disease and he’s having severe reactions to everything with gluten in it.
I don’t, sorry! But I’m sure you can find one elsewhere online.
Can you triple the recipe?
Hey, FYI challah is a Jewish , religious bread. You might want to include this in your fun-loving intro. Better yet, just call these braided rolls if you’re going to serve them on Easter. Don’t serve challah on Easter, or change its name. It’s disrespectful.
I used this recipe to recreate buns from a very well known bakery that just calls them egg buns, so that might be a good alternative too.
This recipe has become part of my regular bread rotation this summer, it tastes very much like egg bread that my family bought from a local deli when I was growing up. I follow it mostly as written with some minor alterations: I use coconut oil in place of butter – my kitchen is warm enough in the summer months that my jar of coconut oil is in a liquid state so it’s easy and quick to add in. I scale back the sweetness just a little by using 1/4 cup of honey instead of 1/3 cup. Sometimes if I want to make the buns closer to sandwich-size as opposed to roll-sized I’ll make 10 instead of 12. I’ve been using sesame seeds instead of poppy seeds to sprinkle on top before baking because I have a lot of them on hand. This is a nice recipe, thanks for sharing!
Not tried your rec yet but what i liked about your site,no potsing about with the information.
when i bake i will keep you posted.This will be my first go to make bread by hand instead of by machine
regards
Al
If anyone uses a Nuwave, it took 10 minutes to bake.
I will be changing to this recipe. It is perfect!