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 for that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
This recipe looks great. I’d like to try it out this week, but I am the only person eating bread in my house right now. Should I adjust the recipe to 1-2 serving or can I freeze the dough or the rolls once they are done?
I would make 6 rolls and eat them all or freeze the leftovers in a plastic bag.
Where can I print this recipe, please?!
i made this two days ago, and just turned out SOOO nice !!
Thanks for the wonderful recipe !!! Love it..
The bread turns out perfect…like the one sales in Bakery!
I am trying these at home now ! I was wondering if you could compare the result of this receipe with french ‘brioche’, do you know brioche by any chance? I guess I will have to wait a couple more hours and let you know… Anyway, I just discovered your blog and I think you are so cool Maangchi, tanhk you so much for sharing all this knowledge, food is so precious !
Take care.
Hi Maangchi! This is my first comment but I have made many of your recipes. Something went wrong with my bread rolls and I hope you can help me figure it out! I followed all the steps and used active dry yeast from the packet. I was sure to measure out 2 tsp from the packet. After the first 30 minutes the dough did not rise much and was VERY sticky/wet. I added a bit more flour and that seemed to help. After the second rise (one hour) the dough was still so sticky and difficult to work with, I had to keep adding flour to my hands and cutting board. I made the rolls, let it rise one hour and brushed with the egg white. They did not turn golden brown and came out VERY hard and tasting just like yeast. What did I do wrong? =( I was thinking perhaps my kitchen was too warm and the dough needed a cooler temperature? Or perhaps the yeast was not good? Any suggestions? Thanks so much!!!
Hi lightningmudang,
“After the first 30 minutes the dough did not rise much and was VERY sticky/wet. I added a bit more flour and that seemed to help. After the second rise (one hour) the dough was still so sticky and difficult to work with, I had to keep adding flour to my hands and cutting board. I made the rolls, let it rise one hour and brushed with the egg white.”
You can’t hurry dough(love ;-)?). You just have to wait. Yeast is a living thing; it takes time – depending on temperature, humidity etc.
To much additional flour to soon.
Maybe less yeast, more time will do the trick,
Better luck next time!
Bye, sanne.
It sounds like the dough rose well, right?
“I had to keep adding flour to my hands and cutting board..” oh no, no! : )
The dough should be very sticky and runny at the beginning (as you see in the video). When it rises, it will get more solid, so you can handle more easily to shape it. Dust your hand and the cutting board with the extra flour.
Good luck with making fluffy rolls.
Hi Maangchi ! :)
I have a sort of problem, (oh, maybe not a SORT OF, maybe I should say BIG PROBLEM) . Hihih’ our oven is not functioning well and I’m afraid to use it .. is there another way of cooking your “roll-ppang” without oven ??? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reply .. I’m dying to do this one . Thanks maangchi :)))
Hi gladysnieve,
“our oven is not functioning well and I’m afraid to use it .. is there another way of cooking your “roll-ppang” without oven ?”
In Bavaria, we have a dish called “Dampfnudeln”. Just put the rolls in a deep
frying-pan, add some milk (or water, if you have any problems with milk), cover the pan and cook it on moderate heat until it sizzles.
Good luck!
Bye, sanne.
Hi Gladysnieve,
If you have a steamer you might be able to bake them that way. Just like you would Saopao. Line the bottoms with wax/ parchment/ banana leaves (whichever is available), have them arranged 1 inch or 3 cm apart and steam them with a bamboo steamer.
Of if you have a metal (stainless steel or aluminum) steamer, wrap the top lid with cheese cloth (or very thin towel) and steam. The towel will help control the moisture and water droplets from dropping on your bread.
Also, consider this: Maybe 1/3 cup of milk instead of the 1/2 cup and 1-2 Tbsp. of milk powder (skim milk powder) in the recipe. It’s a slight modification but I imagine the steam will be adding a lot of moisture to your bread already.
Let us know how it goes!
Best,
Miesa
I did it Maangchi….Thank you so much
There is nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven. Love that smell. It’s one of those feel good smells that become associated with fond memories. Looks delicious. Now I suddenly want bread.
dear maangchi i tried your bread ppang n it was yummy! your recipe is simple with just an egg which i like coz too much eggs are not good for us anyway! I also sent you my photo of the bread ppang n today i plan to make it again! i think i’ll sprinkle some sesame seeds on top as a variation! hv u made roti buns before? i luv those too but i guess it’s kinda hard eh? i luv all the recipes you share w/us from time to time! more power to you! i’m a korean food lover aside from korean dramas! i’ve been to SK & loved your country! :)
Hi Maangchi, I’ve made your roll ppang several times now. I even made your strawberry jams and shared it with my co-worker. When my co-worker tasted the roll she suggested that it would be good if I made cinnamon rolls out of the recipe. So I thought I give it a try and it turned out to be the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had!!!
yes! I used to make cinnamon rolls with the same dough, too! Cheers! : )
Hi! I tried your recipe and used Dry Baker’s Yeast but the dough was so wet that it rised and collapse when i tried to knead it after the first hour of resting. Any idea what went wrong…? Should I be using instant or dry yeast? Thanks!!
The dough is supposed to collapse when you knead it again because you are removing the gases that made it puff up. Once you have shaped the buns and allowed them to rise for an hour they should be puffy again and ready to bake.
Hi Maangchi!
Well, I made your recipe tonight. Unfortunately, the buns were not even brown after 17 minutes! I preheated the oven for 5 minutes like you said…. maybe it was not hot enough? Also, when I let them rise before baking, they got really big and when I brushed the egg white on them they collapsed.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
lisa
I love the bread!!! I had to make it right away and I want to send you a picture. I kept mine very simple.
Hi Maangchi!
I made your recipes for roll ppang and and I forgot to take a picture of it right after I made it. I wanted to eat them with jam but I did not have any. I left to go to the store and get some jam and by the time I return my family had devoured them all. I am making a second batch and this one I am adding sweet condense milk instead of the sugar. I will make sure to take a picture this time. Thank you so much for the recipes!
🍞💐🌺💝
Souavarat
yup, thank you for sharing your roll ppang story with us. “I left to go to the store and get some jam and by the time I return my family had devoured them all.” haha, you are like me! We are so passionate about cooking! I saw your roll ppang photo. It will be featured soon!
Hey Maangchi,
This is looks so good and I wanna try this recipe this weekend. But can I use soy milk as a substitute for milk?
I wish I could give you the answer but I have never used soy milk for this rolls. Let me know how it turns out if you make this with soy milk.
I was running out of milk so I used buttermilk instead and it was super sticky even after another hour of rising. I had to add more flour and then I had to let it rise extra. So if you want to use buttermilk, try two cups of flour and knead it more. It’s worth it though, it has a tangy flavor with buttermilk. Thanks for the great recipe Maangchi!
Hi Mangchi,
I was followed your recipe and make a read look nice
But i have one thing need to ask you, may you found my problem.
– my bread has smell very strong sour like yeast too much but
I was used 2 tsp yeast.
I don’t know why, may you help me.
Thank you very much.
Wish you have a good day
Hi! I was wondering, do you have to leave it in a warm place when you’re making it rise or is it fine to just leave it on the cool counter?
I leave the dough at room temperature on the kitchen counter.
Maangchi ! Hello!! I did it, and the results were amazing. The taste was so good. Thanks a lot for the recipe. I posted a picture of them on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/q3Vqh3BmoH/ God bless you ^^
OMG! Your rool ppang looks fluffy plus fluffy! Please upload the photo here so that all my readers can see the photo for a long time! : https://www.maangchi.com/photos
I made them tonight for my husband and our 2 sons. They turned out beautiful. We had it with butter, strawberry jam, and peanut butter. Thanks so much for this easy recipe.
“We had it with butter, strawberry jam, and peanut butter.” It sounds very yummy! : )
Success at my first try, made 12 Simply by double up the ingredient, dough was a bit wet, remedied by adding extra flour. Enjoying this bread in cold Nz winter… Try to post photo once I figure out how to. Thanks Maangchi,Cheers
Hello Maangchi! I don’t have any yeast left, I was just wondering If I could use baking powder as a substitute?
Thanks for another great recipe! Can’t wait to try this at home~~~ Your new kitchen looks great! Hope your moving went smoothly.
It seems like I always mess up on bread recipes. This one looked nice and easy, yet I still managed to mess it up. :c
I didn’t realize the 1/4 cup was for dusting, so I added it to my dough…now it’s really dry. >3<
I guess I'll just see how it turns out after it rises.
Great recipe though, I'm definitely going to give it another go another day!
UPDATE!
They still turned out AMAZING! I’m blown away! This recipe is a keeper! Thanks so much! :D
Tried your recipe yesterday. As I didnt have enough plain flour I subsituted half cup with whole wheat flour. Maybe bcos of this I didnt get it as soft and fluffy like yours. Also another possibility is, the dough was very sticky, I could have added too much flour. My bread has more texture but it is fine as it goes well with a can of tuna. Thanks for sharing.
I signed up in your website just to tell you that this recipe is utter PERFECTION!!
the funny thing is, baking is my worst nightmare, yet I couldn’t resist making those beautiful buns
the only thing I changed is that I used 1 tsp rather than 2 of yeast
Now I feel so upset for not doubling the batch
I will definitely make it again!
Thank you maangchi
Love from Bahrain ♥♥
Hi Maangchi,
this bread looks amazing!
Have you seen this wallet? It reminds me of you lol!
http://www.zappos.com/brighton-fashionista-starlet-coin-purse-black-leopard
I had the same problem of strong yeast smell. Plus my dough was very runny even though i followed the exact scale. I’m making the second batch now. Gotta throw the first batch away
I’m sorry to hear about your runny dough but the dough should be very sticky and runny at the beginning (as you see in the video). When it rises, it will get more solid, so you can handle more easily to shape it. Dust your hand and the cutting board with the extra flour.
Don’t give up making fluffy rolls.
that’s great. why someone like you does not have a tv show ?!!
you are amazing
you should make a contract with any tv
Hi Maangchi, so I just finished making my first batch and they cooked very nicely but there’s a strong yeast smell in the bread. It makes the bread slightly bitter tasting/smelling. Did I do something wrong?
“It makes the bread slightly bitter tasting/smelling” I don’t know the answer because it has never happened to me. Maybe because of your yeast? How about using less yeast? You may have to rise the dough longer time.
Hi Maangchi,
Thank you for your wonderful recipe once again! I have a upcoming get together for about 40 people and wanted to make this. Should I just multiply the recipe to make a bigger batch or would this turn out differently? Thank you :)
Maangchi! I was so excited to make your wonderful rolls but I am allergic to regular wheat flour and attempted to use my gluten-free flour blend instead, but I don’t think my flour works as well. :( Is there anyway to substitute regular flour for rice or tapioca flour and have them come out as beautiful as yours?
Thank you! =^-^=
After my 4 or is it 5 failed attempts to bake bread for the past 2 months~ I finally succeed using your recipe. My husband asked me if I bought the bread. Haha.. He is korean and has a very picky mouth and he will comment that my food is bland but when it comes to your recipe, he always said its delicious. So glad that I’ve found your site while trying to make chap chay. It’s his favorite and so is the raw crab marinated in soy sauce. Been trying a few dishes from your site with the help of my husband and they all turned out great! Thank you very much for sharing your recipes~
“I finally succeed using your recipe.” yay! I’m so happy to hear that!
You made good japchae and gejang (raw crab). Awesome! Good luck with your Korean cooking!
I made them this afternoon! They turned out absolutely amazing! Thank you for sharing.
I doubled the recipe and made some red bean paste yeast buns with the other half! It seems like they turned out just as good! They’ll be our family’s breakfast for tomorrow!
“…made some red bean paste yeast buns with the other half!” You are such a smart cook! : )
Awww… thank you very much! :) It means a lot coming from you! The buns filled with the bean paste were just as yummy, if not better, the next day!! My children are begging for more already. :D