Bread rolls

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

1. Heat the butter in a large heavy pot. Turn off the heat.
2. Add the milk, sugar, and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon until thoroughly dissolved.
3. Crack the egg, add to the mixture and mix well. Add the dry yeast and let it all sit for 1 minute.
4. 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.
5. Cover the pot and let it rise for 1 hour until it doubles in size.
6. Deflate and knead the dough by hand for 1 to 2 minutes and cover again. Let it rise for 30 minutes.
7. Deflate and fold the dough for another minute until it makes a smooth dough ball.
8. 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.
9. 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).
10. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces. Be sure to leave enough room in between the rolls for them to expand.
11. Let it rise for 1 hour.
12. 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.
13. Brush the remaining egg white onto the rolls. Bake another minute.
14. Remove it from the oven and serve hot.

Print recipe