Soft Honey Wheat Dinner Rolls

A basket of plush honey wheat steakhouse-style dinner rolls with shiny tops.

These steakhouse-style honey wheat rolls are soft, fluffy, and deeply flavorful with just enough whole wheat and wheat germ to give them a warm, slightly nutty flavor. Brushed with honey butter while warm, they pull apart beautifully and stay tender even after freezing and reheating.

For a detailed walk-through with process shots please check out the how-to section of the post.

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 30

Total Rise Time 2 10

Servings rolls

Calories 221kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Equipment

1 8" Square Baking Pan

Ingredients

285 grams all-purpose flour 10 oz or 2 3/8 cups, King Arthur strongly preferred
52 grams whole wheat flour 2 oz or a scant 1/2 cup
30 grams instant potatoes 1.1 oz or about 1/3 cup, I prefer Idahoan "Buttery Homestyle"
35 grams nonfat dry milk powder 1.2 ounces or about 1/3 cup
20 grams wheat germ 0.7 oz or a scant 1/4 cup
280 grams water 9.9 oz or a scant 1 1/4 cup, at room temperature
40 grams honey 1.4 oz or 2 Tablespoons
28 grams melted unsalted butter 1 oz or 2 Tablespoons
14 grams neutral vegetable oil 0.5 oz or 1 Tablespoon
7 grams kosher salt 1 teaspoon fine salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons Morton's kosher or 2 1/4 teaspoons Diamond crystal
5 grams instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons

For Brushing

14 grams unsalted butter 0.5 oz or 1 Tablespoon
10 grams honey 1 1/2 teaspoons
pinch salt

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, powdered milk, and instant potatoes. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, measure the water, honey, salt, melted butter, and oil.
Pour the dry ingredients on top of the wet.
Sprinkle on the yeast.
On low speed, mix the dough with the dough hook until evenly moistened.
Knead for 15 minutes on medium speed (speed 4/5 on a KitchenAid). The dough will look worrisomely soft to begin with, but by the 11-12 minute mark, it will begin clearing the bowl and gathering around the dough hook. By 15 minutes, you'll wonder why you worried in the first place.
Scrape any remaining dough off the sides of the bowl.
Oil your hands and scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl. Gently shape into a smooth ball, plop it back in the mixer bowl, and oil the top.
Cover the bowl and let rise in a cozy place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Scale the dough into 9 evenly-sized pieces. Form each into a ball and tighten on the counter.
Arrange in an 8" square pan 3 x 3.
Heat the oven to 325°F / 163°C.
Oil the tops, cover, and let rise in a cozy place until nice and puffy, about 40 minutes.
Bake on the center rack for about 30 minutes, rotating the pan every 10 minutes to promote even browning. Loosely tent with foil once you like the color. I tented mine after 25 minutes.
While the rolls are baking, melt the butter, honey, and salt together in the microwave on medium power. Stir well.
Rolls are done when beautifully risen and deeply golden brown. The internal temperature of the center roll should be 188°F / 87°C.
Remove the pan from the oven and brush the tops of the rolls with the honey butter mixture.
Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool to warm. Serve warm, or cool to room temperature and reheat to serve. These rolls freeze beautifully, too, so don't hesitate to freeze leftovers, defrosting them in the microwave and reheating in the toaster oven.

Notes

This is a very soft dough. Resist the urge to add extra flour and give the dough the full 15-minute knead time to properly develop gluten. Seriously.
Instant potatoes and dry milk powder are key to the plush texture and keeping quality of these rolls and are strongly recommended. The Idahoan Buttery Homestyle is the perfect choice, because the butter flavor hits all the nostalgic steakhouse roll notes.
For evenly sized rolls, weigh the dough and divide by 9. My dough weighed about 780 grams, making each roll approximately 86-87 grams.
These rolls freeze beautifully. Cool completely, freeze airtight, thaw briefly in the microwave, and reheat in a toaster oven before serving.

Nutrition