My Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba are the best thing to happen to bread since…..sliced bread!
Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba
It’s no secret that my family loves bread. We love bread of all types—flat breads, baguettes, sliced bread, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, French toast—you name it, we love it! So it was just a matter of time before I dusted off an old recipe for dinner rolls and veganized it. The original recipe comes from a bread making class that Irving and I took many years ago. Yep, we even went on bread making dates—maybe before we were married? I have no idea—it’s been a while!
Aquafaba
The original recipe calls for eggs so I decided to try using aquafaba to replace them. I’d been using a ton of aquafaba earlier in the summer, but that pretty much came to a halt because most of the aquafaba creations are loaded with sugar—meringues, macarons, frosting—and it was just too much! But I’ve also used it as an egg replacer in both my Carrot Muffin Cakes and my Perfect Brownies (slightly less sugar), so I thought dinner rolls would be another great place to use it.
Can I tell you a secret? I didn’t have any white bean aquafaba on hand today so I used some black bean aquafaba I had frozen in the freezer. And do you see these rolls? Perfectly white—no weird grey color. It really doesn’t matter what kind of bean you use! I’ve used cannellini, kidney, pinto, and black bean, and garbanzo works too (we just don’t use it because of Jonathan’s allergy)!
These Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba are amazing! They are perfectly soft and fluffy, with a crisp sweet golden crust on top. They’re also really easy. I don’t know—are people intimidated to make yeast breads? They seem like they should be more complicated, but they really aren’t. Just mix, knead, rest, and bake! I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer so it does most of the work for me. But you could do it by hand too! And nothing beats bread fresh out of the oven—David and I have just had two rolls for our afternoon snack—for testing purposes of course!
Add these Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba to your menu for Thanksgiving this week, or pin the recipe so you’ve got it ready for a fancy Christmas dinner—or just make them on a Tuesday because bread is delicious and you don’t need a reason to make these! And if you wouldn’t mind, snap a picture of your gorgeous rolls, post it on Instagram, and tag it with {#frieddandelions // @frieddandelions} I love to see real people making my recipes!
Maple Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons yeast, or 1 packet
- 2 cups warm water, from the tap
- 1/3 cup maple syrup, plus 2 T maple syrup for brushing tops (or sub 1/4 granulated sugar for the 1/3 c maple syrup)
- 6 Tablespoons aquafaba (liquid from a can of beans)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- 6 1/2 cups flour
Instructions
- Place the yeast in the bowl of your mixer. Pour the warm water and maple syrup over top of the yeast and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast looks puffy.
- While it's proofing, pour the aquafaba in a separate small bowl. Whisk with a small hand whisk until it is foamy (but you are not going for the whipped meringue like foam, just a lot of bubbles).
- Once the yeast has proofed, add the foamy aquafaba, salt and olive oil. Using the dough hook attachment, turn the mixer on and give it a few spins before starting to add the flour. Add the flour 1/2 c at a time and continue kneading until the flour is all incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth. It will be soft and slightly sticky. If you press your finger in the dough it will hold the indentation of your finger for a few seconds but it will puff back out.
- Remove the bowl of your mixer from the mixer itself and drizzle olive oil over the dough. Turn the ball around a few times to coat with oil so it won't stick. Cover with plastic wrap or a dishtowel and place in a warm spot for the dough to rise for an hour. I love using my dehydrator for fast rising, but an over that has been slightly preheated and then turned off works well too.
- After the dough has risen and doubled in size, turn it out onto a clean work surface dusted with flour. (At this point, you could divide the dough in half and store half of the dough in a sealed ziplock bag for a few days. Let the dough come to room temperature before shaping it, letting it rise a second time, and baking.) Divide the dough into small balls to shape your rolls. I divided my dough in half, then in half again, in half one more time, and then into thirds. You want balls of dough about the size of golf balls, give or take.
- Work the dough slightly in your hands, stretching the top of the ball smooth and tucking the edges underneath.
- Place the balls smooth side up in a baking dish (it's not a bad idea to lightly grease it first, but it's not totally necessary either!). You can use a square dish or round, you could use a large jelly roll pan, a pie plate. Just about anything that is oven safe. I have used metal pans and my Le Creuset bakeware and both are great.
- Space the balls so that they have room to rise a second time and spread. Cover again with plastic wrap and leave in a warm area to rise for another hour. This time you can let them rise on the counter and they should be fine.
- Once the rolls have risen and are now touching, preheat your oven to 350°. Brush your rolls with maple syrup, coating the tops of each roll. (Skip this step if making the rolls for slider buns).
- Bake your rolls for 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and sound slightly hollow when you tap on the tops. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly, and serve!
Notes
^^^ Top shown on left, bottom shown on right
*** UPDATE: These rolls make fantastic buns for sliders, burgers, or hot dogs! Simply omit the maple glaze (leave the maple syrup in the dough itself though).
It also works well as a savory loaf of bread. After the first rise, shape or place dough in an oven safe dish and let it rise for 30 minutes (this is half of the dough in an 8×8″ pan). Omit the maple glaze. Instead brush with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper. I like paprika, rosemary, and oregano.
These rolls are simple to make and so delicious! My family now demands I make them every Thanksgiving!
Thanks Shira! I’m so glad your family loves them! They’re a favorite of ours as well!
Have you ever tried these with gluten free flour??? They sound yummy – but have a kid that also can’t do gluten.
No, I haven’t and my gut feeling would be that they wouldn’t work. I think they need the gluten for their texture. I’m sorry! My son has food allergies too, and it can be tricky to replace items sometimes!!!