Easy 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! Make them in different shapes and flavors. They freeze well, so you have warm rolls with every meal!

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, 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 bread 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
Roasted Tomato Bread
Whole Wheat Mountain Bread
Mozzarella Pesto filled Naan Bread
Ottolenghi's Olive Oil Crackers
Finnish Pulla Bread

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Beer Bread Rolls

★★★★ 4 from 1 reviews

• Author: Paula Montenegro
• Prep Time: 100
• Cook Time: 20
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 12 rolls 1x
• Category: Breads
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: International

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Description

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!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 oz fresh or .75oz (¾ of an ounce) active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• 2 and ⅔ cups tepid beer (you can use water or milk)
• 3 ½ to 4 cups (500g) bread flour
• 3 cups (500g) semolina flour
• 2 tablespoons (30g) salt
• Extra flour and semolina for dusting

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Instructions

1. Dissolve yeast in a bowl with 1 cup beer and the honey. Leave a few minutes until foaming.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if making by hand) mix flour, semolina and salt.
3. 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.
4. If using a mixer, attach the dough hook and knead for a few minutes until the dough starts to come together.
5. 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.
6. Knead for 5 minutes until smooth.
7. 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).
8. Knead for 5 to 7 minutes, pushing and folding the dough over and over until smooth.
9. 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.
10. Gently punch the dough down to release all air inside, and knead for 1 minute.
11. Cut into 12 equal pieces, shape each into a tight ball, and place in two greased round tins.
12. Dust the tops with some flour.
13. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled again. While they’re rising, preheat the oven to 425ºF / 225ºC.
14. 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.

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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.

Keywords: beer bread, jamie oliver bread

Paula Montenegro

I'm Paula, a baker for more than 30 years and your designated recipe finder, sharing the best ones on this blog, with simple ingredients + easy-to-follow instructions.