Soft and Buttery Parker House Rolls

Bread

60 min

Soft and Buttery Homemade Parker House Rolls are a super fun shaped dinner rolls. Made with an easy white bread dough recipe, they are fun to make and perfectly soft. Shape these as the traditional parker house rolls, or divide the dough up and shape into classic round rolls - they are perfect either way. These rolls can be made all in one day, or you can work ahead and give the dough an overnight rise.

Ingredients

multiply by

one batch of white bread dough, risen and ready to use (see dough post for rising options)
60 gsalted butter, melted (if you only have unsalted that is fine, add a pinch of salt)
egg wash - 1 egg whisked with 1 tbsp water
flaky sea salt to finish

Directions

Shape rolls

1
Start with risen white bread dough. If you have done a fridge rise first, leave the dough to stand on the counter for about 30 minutes before shaping to allow it to soften slightly so it is easy to work with.
2
Grease and line a 9x13" (20x30cm) pan with parchment paper, or generously butter the pan if it is non stick and you trust it.
3
Melt the butter and leave it to cool slightly.
4
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured, clean work surface.
5
Divide the dough into 18 equal pieces, each weighing about 45g each. To work out the exact dough weight, weigh your dough and divide that number by 18.
6
Shape each piece of dough into a tight ball by tucking the edges of the dough under, and then placing it seam side down on the counter top and using your hand in a claw shape to shape the dough into a ball.
7
Rest the dough balls under a clean tea towel or plastic wrap for 10 minutes to allow the dough to slightly relax.
8
To shape the parker house rolls, work with one piece of dough at a time. Lightly flour your surface, then flatten a dough ball with your hand. Roll out the dough ball into a long oval, about 6" /16cm in length.
9
Brush the piece of dough with the melted butter, then fold it up into a clamshell shape. Arrange in the pan - I like to do 3 rows of 6 rolls, and arrange them in vertical lines rather than doing one row at a time so I can make sure they all fit nicely (see images in blog post). I add them as I shape them, but you could also shape them all at once and then arrange in the pan if that suits you bettter.
10
Repeat with the remainder of the rolls until you have arranged all the rolls in your pan.

Rising and baking

1
Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a lid, and leave in a warm spot for about an hour, until the dough balls are puffy and when poked gently, an indentation is left that slowly springs back. This will take more time if you have started with cold dough.
2
Toward the end of the rising process, preheat your oven to 350°f / 180°c and arrange a baking rack in the middle.
3
Brush the rolls with egg wash, and place in the oven.
4
Bake the rolls for 25-30 minutes, until they are a deep golden brown, and register 190°f / 88°c on a digital probe thermometer.
5
Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining melted butter. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if desired.
6
Serve warm or at room temperature.
7
Store leftover rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Refresh before eating.