Beer bread makes for amazing dinner rolls, with a soft crumb and fantastic crust. These are made with beer and they taste delicious! Make them in different shapes and flavors. They freeze well, so you have warm rolls with every meal!
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Because I haven’t cooked in a week, I scouted through my pictures and realized I hadn’t shared these rolls with you, made with beer, all gloriously crusty on the outside and with a marvelous white, creamy crumb inside.
They're our go-to rolls when we cook rosemary steak with garlic, to sop up those juices.
A recipe by the talented Jamie Oliver, which I loved. We all did at my house.
But here they are, and they are fabulous!
Steps for making these rolls
- Mix yeast with beer and honey and let foam. Pour into dry ingredients and start to mix (images 1 and 2, below).
- You will have a shaggy mass and then a rather coarse one after kneading it for a few minutes. Keep on kneading some more until the dough is firm and quite smooth (images 3 and 4, below).
- Cut the dough into portions and roll each one into a ball, pinching the dough in the bottom. Put them, smooth side up, in a cornmeal-dusted round pan (image below, left).
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until puffed, about an hour. Bake according to instructions until golden and crusty (image below, right).
This is the basic hard roll recipe to have. Period.
Uses and variations
- It can be adapted to any shape, be it rolls, loaf, baguette, breadsticks or even pizza; use water or beer, use all bread flour or half semolina like I did.
- Add chopped herbs (basil and oregano are great), onions, or grated cheese to the dough, and have savory little rolls to soak up that sauce from your plate. I told you it’s very adaptable to personal taste.
- I love these to make meat sandwiches. Love them. The crumb is the right texture for those meat juices, and it works with cold meats well too.
As I said before, this is one of my favorite and easy bread recipes ever!
It has semolina (which I love, as you well know from my Semolina Bread), it is easy to knead by hand, and is super versatile.
Make a large batch and freeze it. Warm them before eating. You can thank me later.
Other recipes you might like:
Semolina Bread
Whole Wheat Mountain Bread
Mozzarella Pesto filled Naan Bread
Ottolenghi's Olive Oil Crackers
Finnish Pulla Bread
Let me know in the comments below if you made this recipe and loved it and if you had issues so we can troubleshoot together. I love to hear what you think, always. Thanks for being here. It's much appreciated.
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Beer Bread Rolls
Beer bread makes for amazing dinner rolls, with a soft crumb and fantastic crust. These are made with beer and they taste delicious! They can be made with water too. And frozen, so you have warm rolls with every meal!
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 rolls
Ingredients
- 1 oz fresh or .75oz (¾ of an ounce) active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
- 2 and â…” cups tepid beer (you can use water or milk)
- 3 ½ to 4 cups (500g) bread flour
- 3 cups (500g) semolina flour
- 2 teaspoons (30g) salt
- Extra flour and semolina for dusting
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in a bowl with 1 cup beer and the honey. Leave a few minutes until foaming.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if making by hand) mix flour, semolina and salt.
- Make a hole in the middle and add the yeast mixture and the rest of the beer. With a wooden spoon mix until you have a shaggy mass.
- If using a mixer, attach the dough hook and knead for a few minutes until the dough starts to come together.
- Adjust liquid (add water by teaspoons if the dough is too dry and won’t come together) or flour (add by tablespoons if the dough is too wet) if needed.
- Knead for 5 minutes until smooth.
- If making by hand dump the mix onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 1 minute, adding teaspoons of water (if too dry) or tablespoons of flour (if too wet).
- Knead for 5 to 7 minutes, pushing and folding the dough over and over until smooth.
- Shape into a ball, cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap (it will rise faster), and let double in size, about 30 to 40 minutes depending on how warm the kitchen is.
- Gently punch the dough down to release all air inside, and knead for 1 minute.
- Cut into 12 equal pieces, shape each into a tight ball, and place in two greased round tins.
- Dust the tops with some flour.
- Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled again. While they’re rising, preheat the oven to 425ºF / 225ºC.
- Bake bread for about 20 minutes, until golden and dry. If you tap the bottom it should sound hollow. Remove from pan onto a wire rack and let cool.
Notes
- It can be adapted to any shape, be it rolls, loaf, baguette, breadsticks or even pizza; use water or beer, use all bread flour or half semolina like I did.
- Add chopped herbs (basil and oregano are great), onions or grated cheese to the dough and have savory little rolls to soak up that sauce from your plate. Told you it’s very adaptable to personal taste.
- I love these to make meat sandwiches. Love them. The crumb is the right texture for those meat juices, and it works with cold meats well too.
- It can be frozen, already baked. Defrost at room t° and warm in a medium oven before eating.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Resting time: 90 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Breads
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: International
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/12
- Calories: 320
- Sugar: 3.6 g
- Sodium: 1165.9 mg
- Fat: 2.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 60.3 g
- Fiber: 2.7 g
- Protein: 9.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: bread rolls
From The Naked Chef, by Jamie Oliver
Lynnette says
The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons salt and that is way too much. Also, despite using new active dry yeast, and letting rise in a proofing oven, it never got close to doubling in size. The rolls looked and smelled good and were just a little too dense, but the salt was what made us toss them out. Maybe it should be 2 teaspoons?
★★
Paula Montenegro says
Hi Lynn! Yes, it's a typo and should've been 2 teaspoons. It's corrected now. Too much salt limits the power of the yeast, so the rolls didn't rise as they should. I sent you an email just now.
AVI says
I like this bread very much. great aroma and texture, and relatively easy to make in a short time.
I have not found fine Semolina flour, but using fine, but a little grainier Semolina mill worked great too. Should I have made any correction for that?
★★★★
Paula Montenegro says
Glad you like it Avi. A grainier semolina gives the bread more texture, but that's fine.
Carol says
I’m having a hard time converting the flour measurements into cups. So is that like 4 cups each of bread flour and semolina ?
Paula Montenegro says
Hi Carol, I changed the recipe and included the ingredients in cups, much easier. As a guide, 1 cup of flour is 140g and 1 cup of fine semolina is 170g. Hope this helps!
Patricia says
Hi Paula. What type of beer do you recommend? eg a traditional one like Corona?
Paula Montenegro says
Yes, any regular blond beer, like Corona or similar. I think I used Heineken
Patricia says
Thank you!
Cocoa and Lavender says
Glad to hear about your new work adventures! And am also glad to have this recipe. I am excited that I am getting over my fear of yeast - these would be perfect for Thanksgiving! ~ David