I created these olive oil rolls for two reasons. One olive oil is delicious, and really good with bread. Have you ever had focaccia or even just bread dipped in oil? It’s fantastic. But secondly, lots of my favorite breads use milk or butter or eggs. I am NOT an allergen baker on this blog, however in life I often am. My son has a TON of allergies, so it sucks when he isn’t able to enjoy things too. So I wanted to create a vegan and more allergy friendly bread that’s just as delicious.
Now, I do have other naturally vegan breads. My Overnight Focaccia or Easy Same Day Small Batch Focaccia, my Easy White-Wheat Dutch Oven Bread all are. The basic tenets of bread are flour, salt, water, yeast. All are naturally vegan so it’s not hard to create one. However, adding those fats adds a lot of tenderness. I will say these olive oil rolls are super soft and tender.
I wanted my olive oil rolls to be super simple, so I started off with just flour, salt, water, yeast and olive oil. However, those rolls had almost NO caramelization/browning. They looked like sad little pale bread. So we added a little sugar, and a little more olive oil and they turned out perfectly. These rolls are NOT sweet, however just a little bit of sugar helps get that maillard reaction so the tops brown. Don’t skip the sugar!
Baking Tips
Use a good extra virgin olive oil when you bake these. Using a light olive oil will give you the right texture but light olive oil does not have the same robust flavor that EVOO does. Even better, you could use a flavored olive oil like these ones I use all the time.
Olive Oil Rolls Key Ingredients
- Olive Oil – Get the good stuff, don’t skimp! Good olive oil (you don’t need to buy the most expensive ones, just not the cheapest) pays it’s dividends in flavor. You’ll thank yourself when you bite into this bread. Using a flavored oil like garlic or herb is also a great choice.
- AP Flour – I wanted these olive oil rolls to be super easy and accessible. AP flour is what most people already have on hand, plus it will insure that they are really soft and light.
- Salt – Salt is the spice of life. Too little and these will be bland, so these have a healthy dose of it.
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Ingredients
- 360 g AP Flour 3 cups
- 2 tsp Sea salt
- 2 tsp Granulated sugar
- 2¼ tsp Instant yeast
- 50-60 g Extra Virgin Olive Oil ¼ cup
- 200 g Water warm (~105°F), ¾ cup + 2 tbsp
- 25 g Olive Oil 2 tbsp, for brushing
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add all of your ingredients except the additional 2 tbsp of oil. Mix on low until dough is smooth and stretchy, not sticking to the sides of the bowl nor should it tear easily. (10-20 minutes)
- Remove dough, shape into a ball. Lightly grease bowl with olive oil and replace dough.
- Cover and let sit in a warm space until dough has doubled in size. (1-2 hours)
- Line a 9×9 baking pan with parchment. Set aside.
- When dough is ready, punch down and transfer to workspace.
- Divide dough into 8-12 equal portions. Weighing the dough will help insure equal size rolls, but is not required.
- Flatten each piece of dough into a rectangular shape, then roll into a cylinder. Roll the cylinder into a rope about 12 inches long. Curl the dough around itself into a spiral shape. If you want the rolls to be more flat after baking, be sure to not shape them too tightly or the rolls will expand up more than out.
- Place dough ball in prepared baking sheet, then repeat with the rest of the portions of dough.
- Cover your baking pan and allow your dough to proof in a warm place for 30-45 minutes. While your dough is proofing, preheat your oven.
- When dough is ready, use the remaining olive oil to brush the rolls. Place the baking sheet on the center rack of your oven. Bake for about 22-24 minutes until the tops of your bread are golden brown.
- Remove from oven, and use parchment to remove rolls from pan and onto a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool 10-20 minutes before enjoying.
- Store uneaten rolls in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
