No-Knead Rolls

Yields 6 plain rolls or 8-9 olive-rosemary rolls.

Ingredients

  • 260g all-purpose flour
  • 130g French-style flour optional; use all AP flour if desired
  • heavy ¼ teaspoon yeast
  • 1¼ teaspoons table salt
  • 207g water
  • 90g beer
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 3 teaspoons vital wheat gluten optional

Variation: Olive-Rosemary Rolls

Add:

  • ¾ cup Kalamata olives chopped
  • 2 teaspoons chopped dried rosemary
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

  1. Whisk together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix until the dough becomes a shaggy ball.
  2. Cover and let dough sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours (or refrigerate, and then take out to room temperature 12-18 hours before baking).
  3. Divide dough and form rolls. This dough is very sticky, and a small amount of flour may be needed when shaping. Shape quickly, and as soon as you start to feel some surface tension forming, drop the roll into the bun pan. I use the King Arthur Baking bun pan; a lightly greased baking sheet could also work, but I haven’t tried it.
  4. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, 20 minutes. Turn oven on to 450°F while the buns finish rising.
  5. Bake at 450°F for 14-15 minutes or until golden brown and moderately crusty.

Notes

4/5/2022: I made a third-batch of this recipe for plain rolls, and another third-batch for olive rolls, adding the rosemary, olives, and olive oil for the olive rolls. This resulted in two 117-gram plain rolls, and three 97g olive rolls. Because I wasn’t able to mix up the dough at the usual time the evening before baking, instead I mixed the dough the morning before baking (around noon). Refrigerated immediately, and then removed from fridge around 5:30pm. Let rise on the counter overnight before shaping and second rise. Baked 14-15 minutes on rack 2 at 450°F.

5/1/22: I made a batch of this dough (quantities below) and formed into 4 long rolls that I baked on the baguette pan, lined with parchment, at 450°F for 14 minutes. They came out very moist and flavorful, but are hard to shape into long rolls.

  • 235g all-purpose flour
  • 116g French-style flour
  • rounded ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
  • 1¼ teaspoon table salt
  • 186g water
  • 81g beer
  • 2¾ teaspoon white vinegar
  • 2½ teaspoon vital wheat gluten