Sour Cream and Chive Dinner Rolls

Tender and soft dinner rolls, extra enriched and dotted with chives.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend! We spent it with my nephews and did a good old egg hunt, but with clues and riddles to solve before finding the eggs. So much fun! I’m sharing another savoury recipe today to offset the chocolate we had over the weekend- Sour Cream and Chive Dinner Rolls.

These rolls are rich and tender, thanks to all the extra fat the sour cream brings. The fresh chives bring a mild onion flavour and pretty green specks throughout the bread.

Once mixed, the dough is lovely to work with; it becomes silky, smooth, and glossy. It can be shaped into 15 larger rolls or 20 smaller ones.

Ingredients

Find the printable recipe here

• 120 g (1/2 cup) lukewarm milk around 95-104°F / 35-40°C

• 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast

• 35 g (3 tablespoons) granulated sugar

• 245 g (1 cup) sour cream

• 2 large eggs

• 560 g (4 1/2 cups) bread flour

• 1 3/4 tsp salt

• 60 g (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature

• 20 g (1/2 cup) chopped fresh chives, or finely chopped spring onions

Note- The cup sizes provided are for US-sized cups which are smaller than metric. For best result, I really suggest using a scale and grams :)

Method

• Add the warm milk to the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over the milk. 

• If using active dry yeast, let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy; if using instant yeast, skip this step.

• Add the flour, salt, eggs, sour cream, and chives to the yeast mixture. Fit the stand mixer with a dough hook attachment and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms.

• Add the softened butter, a few cubes at a time. Keep mixing on medium speed for about 15 minutes until the dough pulls cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. This might take longer, depending on your mixer. All the fat in the sour cream and butter inhibits gluten formation, so you’ve got to give the mixing enough time.

• Once kneaded, form the dough into a smooth ball. Transfer the dough to a large, lightly greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel.

• Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, around 1 to 1 ½ hours. A warm room temperature will speed up the rising time. You can also let the dough rise in the refrigerator for up to 16 hours.

Shaping

• Grease or line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper.

• Punch down the risen dough, then pull it from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Dust the top of the dough with some flour.

• Use a kitchen scale to measure the weight of the whole dough, then divide this by 15 or 20, depending on the size of roll you want.

• Cut the dough into equal pieces with a bench scraper or sharp knife, and use the scales to ensure they are even.

• Shape each piece of dough into a ball and place it in the prepared pan.

• Second rise – Loosely cover the pan and let the dough balls rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size.

  

Baking

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). 

• Bake the rolls for around 30 minutes until deep golden brown. If they are browning too fast, you can cover the top of the rolls loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil. 

• When the rolls are hot from the oven, brush the tops with butter. Let them cool on a wire rack before serving. 

If you make these, I’d to know! :)

Happy baking!