Today I’m really excited to share a recipe with you that’s one of my family’s favorites and has a lot of meaning for me. It’s bread rolls, or “roll-ppang” in Korean. “Ppang” is Korean for bread, and “roll” is a Korean word borrowed from English. You might think that this recipe has nothing to do with Korean food, but it’s something many Koreans make at home.
This is one of my family’s favorites and brings back good memories for me, when I used to make these as a snack for my children when they came home from school. They were so happy to smell and see the rolls when they got home, I never forgot the looks on their faces and it makes me smile, even today.
If you’ve been cooking for a long time like me, you know that certain recipes remind you of certain periods of your life when you made them all the time. These bread rolls are like that for me: whenever I make them again I’m reminded of when my children were young and studying hard. Now they’re all grown up and I don’t cook for them anymore, but we all have good memories of roll-ppang. I hope you enjoy these with your family, too!
This recipe was taught to me by a friend of mine in Korea. She studied nutrition and was a great cook. She had three sons and her house was always full of food! The first time she showed me how to make these I couldn’t believe how delicious they were! I rushed home to make them for myself. So light and fluffy! For me and my friends, the ideal roll-ppang splits apart into light pieces like perfectly cooked chicken breast. Her recipe is perfect every time. The key is to let them rise the second time for a full hour. Even if they look perfect after 30 minutes, let them rise for the full hour, and they will be super-fluffy!
I always served these rolls with milk and homemade strawberry or grape jam, two things my children also loved. It was a perfect snack between lunch and dinner, but me and my friends experimented with this recipe to make all kinds of things: fried twisted donuts, buns with vegetable chunks inside, and even sausage rolls. You could also serve them as dinner rolls with a bit of butter.
In this recipe i made a small batch, but you can double or triple the recipe, whatever you can eat comfortably over a few days. If you make a larger batch, you’ll have to keep the rolls in the fridge as you form them, otherwise by the time you finish forming the last one, the first one will have started to rise already! For large batches, I recommend you put them in the fridge one by one as you make them, and when you’re finished bring them out so they can rise all at once.
Enjoy the recipe and let me know how they turn out!
Ingredients (for 6 rolls) Serves 3 to 4
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup cold milk
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons dry yeast
- 1 ½ cups plus ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1 egg white
Directions
- Heat the butter in a large heavy pot. Turn off the heat.
- Add the milk, sugar, and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon until thoroughly dissolved.
- Crack the egg, add to the mixture and mix well. Add the dry yeast and let it all sit for 1 minute.
- Add 1 ½ cups flour and mix well with the wooden spoon (or rice scoop) for about 1 minute. The dough will be very sticky.
- Cover the pot and let it rise for 1 hour until it doubles in size.
- Deflate and knead the dough by hand for 1 to 2 minutes and cover again. Let it rise for 30 minutes.
- Deflate and fold the dough for another minute until it makes a smooth dough ball.
- Place the ¼ cup flour on the cutting board and sprinkle with some flour. Transfer the dough ball to a dusted cutting board and divide into 6 equal size pieces.
- Rub a piece of dough between your hands until it forms into a cylinder. Put it on the dusted cutting board and roll it out with both hands until it’s about 8 inch in length. Coil it around itself and bring the end from the bottom up and over to the top of the coil so you can insert it into the center. The dough is very soft and sticky. When you shape the rolls, dust your fingers with some flour so the rolls don’t stick to them. Put it on a non stick baking pan (I used 7 x 8 inch pan in the video).
- Repeat with the remaining dough pieces. Be sure to leave enough room in between the rolls for them to expand.
- Let it rise for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350° F for 5 minutes. Gently brush the rolls with the egg white and bake for 15 to 17 minutes until light golden brown.
- Brush the remaining egg white onto the rolls. Bake another minute.
- Remove it from the oven and serve hot.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Hi Maangchi!
I have a slight problem…I need to cook something for a project I have at school, but the yeast that I bought mysteriously disappeared! Could I use baking powder as a substitute?
Thank you so much!
Julesky, there is no substitute for yeast in this recipe. If you used baking powder you would end up with a biscuit-type product and the method for the recipe would need to change. Yeast needs time to make dough rise whereas baking powder reacts to heat as well as moisture, so it is fast-acting. Go buy some yeast and make these, it will be worth the trip to the store!
Oh, okay. Thanks!
My husband loved these delicious rolls!! Thank you so much for this simple recipe. I will be making these tomorrow 6/2/15. This is a picture of the rolls I made around a month ago. :) anyone can make these.
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Hi Maangchi!
I made your bread and it was so delicious and flaky! I was wondering if I could make the dough at night and just bake it in the morning so it’s fresh foe my family. What do you think?
Good idea!
I would keep the dough in the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for a while before baking.
You can make them rise in the fridge over night. It’s actually good and allows the yeast to develop slowly. Just be sure to do it right after you make the rolls and before the final rise. This is also the time to put them on wax paper and freeze them. Then, when you want to eat them, you can pull them out, defrost them, they will do their final rise and you can bake them.
Hi.
Possible to do it without egg ? Thanks
Hi Maangchi,
I’m not sure what is the problem with mine. First of all, i’m making do with instant yeast instead of active dry yeast. Everything seems okay except i have to use lots of flour at Step 6 because my dough were still very sticky after leaving it for 1 hour and then 30-min. At Step 12, my dough were still filled with huge bubbles but it all deflate the moment i apply refrigerated cold-egg white on the surface. As a result, the top of my buns are not dome-like like yours. It’s all flatten and hard. The inside and taste were fantastic though.
Did i make a mistake somewhere?
This is a sticky dough. What makes it not sticky is the kneeding process. Kneeding the dough until it’s smooth takes at least 10 minutes. You can watch several amazing videos on YouTube about kneeding your dough.
Hi Maangchi, I baked the bread on my first attempt and I succeeded!!!! Thank you for the recipe. You are an awesome cook.
Do you think it is possible to put 1.5 tablespoons of butter instead of 3?? I’m not a big fan of butter.
Instead of butter, you can use oil. I’m sure you can use a butter substitute, but you need the oil in this type of recipe. This is similar to a challah bread. So for those that are Kosher, you can substitute oil for butter.
Hi Maangchi,
Thank you for sharing your nice recipes.
Congratulations on your new cookbook and will get one for myself!
I wonder if I can get your help
In HK, we use grams as measurements and checked online 1 cup flour = 226.8 grams.
If it is not too trouble for you, would appreciate to get your advice whether this is correct.
I made this last night and it turns out absolutely amazing! i love bread especially my children. I can’t wait to make another one. Thanks Maanghi! Waiting for more new recipes.
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wow, the rolls look very fluffy! Happy to hear that your children loved your rolls. : )
I made these a month or so ago and I’m going to make them again tonight. They are so light and airy and so yummy! I will be making these for Easter dinner too. Thanks so much Maangchi!!!
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That’s a great idea to make these rolls for Easter dinner!
hi Maangchi,
Need your advice..I just baked this bread and I use 50gr of the butter as I am not sure the right measurement for 3 tablespoon. (UK or US).. My result was good but it was not soft and dried. Even when I mixed the flours with others ingredients…it was not sticky..so I did not use the 1/4 last flours… please advice me…thank you…. first baked :)
I’m using US measurement. For you, I took out my butter from the fridge and weighed to see how heavy 3 tablespoons of butter is. : ) It’s 40 grams. Follow the US measurement, please.
Thank you so much for your advice…will try it again till successful…thank you so much… your are my mentor….
The eggs make this a sticky dough. To get to the smooth ball part of the dough, you have to kneed it until it’s smooth. Like Maangchi said in the video, the pot becomes clean. Once it’s clean the dough is sticking together. Add a tiny bit of flour if you need to as you kneed. If you use to much flour, you can add a little oil or butter.
i love these bread rolls! so cute and delicious!
i like to eat them for breakfast with some butter and honey with my coffee :)
thank you maangchi!
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Gorgeous fluffy rolls look like flower petals!
Hi Maangchi
I made this delicious bread tonight and it will be our family favorite too. One problem, it didn’t brown. Any suggestions?
I’m so happy to hear that you like this recipe! To make the rolls more brown, finish them off with the broiler for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Putting in the oven right now, but maangchi’s recipes never fail!! Planning for her book, but for those of you who have a sticky dough texture, just knead it macho-man style and add more flour. My yeast isnt as strong so it didnt rise up too much (but it still is pretty tad big chubby). But yeah, knead and add more flour. Its amazing. (I added a bit of hot water to get the yeast going, maybe thats why) but Maangchi, you da’ boss at cooking. Going to make the korean potato salad tomorrow for my family. :) keep up the amazing recipes, congrats with your amazong book!
Hi Maangchi!
I just made these and I loved them! I substituted the milk for soy milk and they still turned out great. Thanks for the recipe :) mum loved them too
Soy milk worked well? Wonderful!
I just tried your recipe and it was successful! Soft and fluffy but I think it needs more sugar.
감사합니다! 즐겁게 먹었어요~
오, 만드셨군요! 냠냠! : )
I made this yesterday using whole wheat flour and it turned out fantastic!!! I ate it with the tuna I made using your recipe haha. My whole dinner is from you maangchi. Thanks!!
Great! Cheeers! : )
Hi Maangchi,
First of all, I would like to thank you for this recipe. I’ve been looking for a good bread rolls recipe and decided to try your recipe. I haven’t finished making the bread (I’m still waiting for the last rise) yet but I noticed my dough was very sticky compare to yours. In your video after the second rise, the dough looks so much easier to work with. Mine was so sticky that I had leftover dough on the pan. I’m clueless to why this happened. I was wondering if you have any advice to fix this?
Thank you in advance Maangchi.
This is my first time making bread by hand. Your recipe said to wait one hour, but I was busy with something else and didn’t return until one hour and 25 mins. The dough was wet and sticky. I mixed it and some dough got on to my fingers and won’t come off. So I srpinkle some flour. Very little. It’s okay but the dough is still sticking to the pot.
I’m now waiting for the next 30 mins… 😝
Hi maangchi!
Tried your bread rolls tonight but sadly I failed :( somehow it didn’t rise my mom said the yeast must’ve died :( I followed the recipe to the T but somehow something still didn’t happen. Will try again for sure hehe the house still smells good from the bread roll though it wasn’t perfect hehe. Thanks for sharing!
If I can remember correctly, Maangchi added salt into the yeasty water which will kill weak yeast :( Just ignore that and mix the salt with the flour to make sure they yeast don’t die :)
My first time making bread! …and they turned out awesome. Thank you for the video :)
Congratulations!
Hello Maangchi!
This bread is sooo good. Thanks for sharing.
I have one question, can I add raisins into the dough and when do you think is the best time in the recipe to add them?
yes, add them before shaping the rolls (step 7). Good luck!
Hi Maangchi, I made this bread with your recipe. It was wonderful! So soft and yummy. Thank you ^_^
Just made these roll, light and very good, first time
Ever using yeast thank for the recipe, will share
Squeal! Maangchi, I made them! They are soft and cute and FLUFFY! I made two with cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins and sliced almonds and the other four plain. They are all yummy :-P I can’t wait til more strawberries come out to try the jam. Thank you!
yaho! Congratulations!!
Hi maangchi,
Tq fr the recipe. My 1st try turns out ok excep the top part is kinda of hard.
Can i know why the top of the bread is hard. Thanks
I think the dough didn’t rise enough. When you make yeast water, the water temperature should be lukewarm. If it’s too hot, the yeast will be dead and inactive.
These are absolutely fabulous! Only changes I made were to add 1 more tbsp of sugar and a pinch more of salt. I was going for more of a sweet dinner roll, and it turned out great. A good recipe to have in the rotation for novice bakers.
Your modifications sounds great!
Again love your recipe, just have a question , if i make the dough the night before and bake it in the morning, how do I go about preserving them fresh? I heard that you can divide the rolls(after it’s been risen) instead of baking them in the oven , place them inside the refrigerator until they are ready to be baked the next day. Do I need to let them sit before baking? Pls advise..tks maangchi!
Put the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate it.
Have you tried using this recipe for pork steamed buns?
did your recipe, came out soft and fluffy. they were all gone! will bake them again! Tks!
yaho! ^^
WOW!!! This is my third attempt at bread and the first time I actually succeed! My dad and siblings loved this bread and asked for more. We’re 5 and I had to make 8 batches to cover the demand for last week only! I am baking more now because it’s all gone! Both of my brothers are underweight and do not eat well and you can’t imagine my happiness when I saw one of them eating 1 and putting another 4 in his plate and the other asking me when I am going to bake more!!!!!! Thank you so so so much for this recipe and I really can’t wait to try the rest of the recipes! :D
I have a couple of questions:
1- One of my batches did not rise as much as the others. Could it be because I added 1/2 tsp more salt than what was called for?
2- Can I substitute bread flour for all/some of the all-purpose flour?
Oh and I substituted 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour for a 1/4 cup of all-purpose and it turned out great!
Yes you can use bread flour, too.
“One of my batches did not rise as much as the others. Could it be because I added 1/2 tsp more salt than what was called for?” Maybe, or the temperature of the water for the yeast was too high?
I made some!#!# they are wonderful. If you have more bread recipe please post!
Hi Maangchi! Thanks for the recipe. It turned out just great!
Two questions:
1. if I were to make it into say 8 buns with fillings like tuna, coconut or red bean paste, are the baking time and temperature the same?
2. Have you tried the tangzhong method of making bread (seen on many blog sites) and if yes, how different is it in terms of texture from yours?
Obviously you can tell that I am not familiar with bread making! Thanks:))
Hi Maangchi,
Good day!
I made roll-ppang for this afternoon. I love it very well..
Very excited to see the result and enjoy for the process..
Unlucky, I faced a problem at directions 7.
Even after let it rise for 30mins, the dough still VERY VERY sticky until my hand cannot take-up from the dough..
I took more than 2hrs to let them rise up! But still come up the same result.
Thought the recipes are very simple.. So it will be very easy to make this bread. But out of my expectation..
Pls advise which flour that you using for this roll-ppang? Normal flour or Bread flour?
2 teaspoons of sugar is it just for 28.47gm? Sorry, I do not have this kind of spoon measurement.. So, according to your recipe I had go online convert all the recipes from cup/tablespoon/teaspoon to gm. But there have many version… So, just concern on the problem of sticky is cause of I used wrong measurement or wrong flour..
Thanks for your guide.
Awaits for your answer.
Hello Stephanie,
I used all-purpose flour. I’m not sure of the conversion to grams, because grams is weight. You might need to experiment a bit! Good luck!
Maangchi! I made these for my extended family’s annual dinner and everyone loved them! They want me to make these every year now! Thank you! :)
You must have baked many batches. : )
Thank you for sharing your success!