My Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba are the best thing to happen to bread since…..sliced bread!
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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 the Home Ec. teacher at the very first school where I taught. They are delicious, and a family favorite!
Aquafaba
The original recipe calls for eggs so I’ve replaced them with aquafaba. While it seems like it might not be necessary, the aquafaba gives a lot of moisture to the rolls, and keeps them nice and fluffy! Aquafaba also makes a perfect egg replacement in my Perfect Brownies and in my Vegan Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Buttercream Frosting (that are based on this recipe for Maple Dinner Rolls).
Homemade bread is easy to make!
While bread making sounds like it would be challenging and scary, it’s actually really simple. The hardest part is planning ahead so you have time for the dough to rise. I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer to knead the dough, so it really comes together in just a few minutes of active time. After that I let it rise, form it into balls, rise a second time, and bake. The rolls can be done in about 3 hours from start to finish, with about 30 minutes of active work time. Totally doable for the payoff of fresh homemade rolls! (and if you are a visual learner like me you can scroll down to the bottom for some very old, but still useful step by step pictures!)
Simple Ingredients
Experts will tell you that for bread making you really just need a few simple ingredients—flour, water, salt, yeast. In fact, Irving’s favorite bread making book goes by the same name (and the pizza dough recipe is SO good!!! Highly recommend). I add maple syrup to these rolls to give them a little sweetness, a little olive oil for some richness, and the aquafaba to keep the rolls moist. That’s it!
Festive for the holidays!
These maple dinner rolls make a perfect addition to any holiday meal! For Christmas a few years ago I served these along side of my Vegan Baked Ziti. I placed the balls of dough in the shape of a Christmas tree, and sprinkled fresh basil on top. And ever since Jonny has insisted that I make the special Christmas buns! It’s tradition!
More Vegan Holiday Recipes You Will Love!
I have so many holiday favorites!!! Here are a few I think you will love!
- Pumpkin Vinaigrette
- Cranberry Orange Relish
- Vegan Classic Mashed Potatoes
- Vegan Red Wine Gravy
- Traditional Vegan Stuffing for the Holidays
- Stuffed Squash with Curried Lentils
- Aunt Betty’s Vegan Apple Pie
- Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Let’s Make Maple Dinner Rolls!
Add these Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba to your menu for Thanksgiving, 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 be sure to leave a comment below and let me know how you like them!
Maple Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons yeast (or 1 packet, not rapid rise)
- 2 cups warm water (about 100º, or my easy measuring tool is as hot as your finger can stand to touch for a few seconds!)
- 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 in the dough)
- 1/2 cup aquafaba (liquid from a can of beans, I like garbanzo aquafaba best)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- 6 1/2 cups flour (about 2 pounds, depending on humidity)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 100º F and then turn off. This is where you will proof your dough later.
- 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 the yeast is 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 cup 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. Depending on the humidity in your kitchen it will take more or less flour.
- 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 like using my oven, see step 1).
- After the dough has risen and doubled in size, turn it out onto a clean work surface dusted with flour. (At this point you can divide the dough and save some for later, see notes). 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. The full batch will make 36 balls of dough.
- 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 ceramic baking dishes 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.
- 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
- Please see step by step pictures below. Please note the rise time of about 2-3 hours.
- If you want to save half of your dough for later: store half of the dough in a sealed ziplock bag for a few days. When you are ready to prepare the second half, let the dough come to room temperature before shaping it. Then shape it, let it rise a second time, and bake according to instructions above.
- 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 (half of the dough fits in an 8x8" square pan). Omit the maple glaze. Instead brush with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper. I like paprika, rosemary, and oregano.
^^^ Top shown on left, bottom shown on right
^^^ Puffed significantly!
Thanks for the recipe, I made these and they turned out very tasty.
Strangely I needed to almost double the flour as after six half cups of flour my mix was like pancake batter.
I was also stumped by the amount of time needed for each rising
A few suggestions to make the recipe more user-friendly:
– include how many buns the recipe makes. I ended up with two week’s supply I can’t possibly eat. If I knew in advance I would have halved the recipe.
– make the rising times more obvious, I only looked at the 40 minutes total time and did not notice the rising time until I got to that step.
– include the weight of the flour as well as the measure, might fix the issue I had
– add more photos of what the mix looks like at each stage
Hi Peter! I’ve added the rising time in the recipe card—the times listed were cook time and prep time, and then the recipe notes specified the rise time. It’s also written in the recipe for how long to let the dough rise between each step, though this is an estimate as rising times are affected by weather, altitude, and kitchen temperatures. The more important test of whether the dough is ready or not is if it has doubled in size, and that varies greatly from kitchen to kitchen. With 6 1/2 cups of flour it seems strange that your dough would have the consistency of pancake batter if all of the liquids were measured precisely! I’ll weigh the flour next time I make these and update the weight of the flour. Glad you enjoyed the final outcome—we love making them and shaping them into burger bun sizes for grill nights!!!
I just finished mixing and realized there are several rise times and not a single one lists a time for how long! Please clarify how long it rises each time- it’s not clear. I put it in a warm oven for the first rise- it doesn’t say how long. Then also in step you mention it coming to room temp before letting it rise again- you don’t say how long. Later you do mention a final rise time of an hour. Please clarify how long all those other steps should be taking for rising. Thanks so much!
Hi Erin! All of the timing is dependent on your humidity and room temperature, but they are all listed in the steps. It will be slightly different in every kitchen. In step 4 it says to let rise until doubled, about an hour. In step 8 it says to form the balls and allow to rise until touching, about another hour. If you are reserving your dough for a later day (step 5), and leaving it in the refrigerator you will need to allow it to come to room temperature before forming the balls. It will depend on how warm or cool your kitchen is. Hope this helps!
Since we can’t get our favorite buns / bread from the store, I decided to make my own. These were so easy to make and good to eat too. My older had the leftover in breakfast and I made a second batch for the next day too. Love these!
Thanks Nidhi! So glad they were a hit with the whole fam! They’re a favorite over here as well!!!
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!!!