I know that some of you might be thinking there is no possible way you have time to add one more item, let alone homemade dinner rolls, to your Thanksgiving Day timetable, but I’m here on this snowy November morning to encourage — to insist! — that you do. You absolutely have time. Here’s why:
1. This dough, especially if you use instant yeast, takes five minutes to mix together. There is no kneading, no pampering.
2. Moreover, there is no need to flour up a workspace or to get your hands dirty shaping individual rolls. If you have a 12-cup muffin pan and someone lurking in your kitchen hoping to help, you’re in luck. Put that friend to work buttering the muffin cups, punching down the dough, portioning out the rolls. Handling this dough requires no skill.
3. This dough can rise in the corner of your kitchen all morning long. While that turkey roasts away, you can punch the dough down as often as you need, and when at last you find the oven free of birds and stuffings and gratins, in will go your rolls.
4. These rolls bake in 25 minutes. If you plan on letting your turkey rest for a good 30 minutes before carving, you’ll have plenty of time to let these rolls make their second rise (17 to 20 minutes) and to bake them before your guests are seated around the table, at which point you will pass around a basket of steaming hot, thyme-flecked rolls.
I know that from getting the turkey cooked to keeping the stuffing and the vegetables and the plates warm to keeping your guests entertained Thanksgiving can be a logistical nightmare challenge. And when there truly are so many wonderful take-and-bake options in your supermarket freezer, why not cross one thing off your to-do list?
Well, because if there ever was an occasion to push your domestic stamina to its limits, to display your culinary prowess, it’s Thanksgiving. I mean, where is the fun in effortless entertaining? Pony up, Friends. Nothing says you care like freshly baked bread (and turkey and stuffing and gravy and pumpkin pie and punch). Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
Flour, salt, sugar, SAF instant yeast and thyme:
Mixed dough:
First rise:
Dividing the dough:
Ready for second rise:
Ready for the oven:
Just baked:
I repeat, I could totally skip the turkey.
Have a wonderful holiday, Everyone! If you’re still looking for ideas, this board might help.
Thyme Dinner Rolls
Prep
Cook
Total
Note: This is yet another variation of the peasant bread. If you would prefer to make round loaves, view this post.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (1 lb. 2 oz | 510 g) all-purpose flour, preferably not bleached
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast or active dry yeast*
- 1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves
- 2 cups lukewarm water**
- room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons
* For future reference, you can buy both SAF instant yeast and Red Star active dry yeast in bulk from Amazon. After you open the pouches, transfer yeast to airtight container and store in the fridge or freezer, where they will last forever. If you are using the packets of yeast (the kind that come in the 3-fold packets), just go ahead and use a whole packet — I think it’s 2.25 teaspoons. Recently, I have been using instant yeast more than active dry because when you use instant yeast there is no need to do the proofing step — you can add the yeast directly to the flour — which makes the mixing process a little bit faster.
** To make fool-proof lukewarm water that will not kill the yeast (water that’s too hot can kill yeast), boil some water — I use my teapot. Then, mix 1 1/2 cups cold water with 1/2 cup boiling water. This ratio of hot to cold water will be the perfect temperature for the yeast.
Instructions
- If you are using instant yeast: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, instant yeast, and fresh thyme leaves. Add the water. Mix until the flour is absorbed. Cover with plastic wrap (or a tea towel that has been run under hot water and squeezed out). Place in a warm spot to rise: Because your kitchen will likely be nice and cozy with all of the cooking going on, you don’t need to do the warm-oven rise trick. But for future reference, here is how you can create a warm spot: Turn your oven on (to 350 or so) and then turn it off after 1 minute — this will create just a slightly warm environment to get the bread rising nicely.
If you are using active-dry yeast: In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the sugar into the water. Sprinkle the yeast over top. There is no need to stir it up. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy and/or bubbling just a bit — this step will ensure that the yeast is active. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and thyme. When the yeast-water-sugar mixture is foamy, stir it up, and add it to the flour bowl. Mix until the flour is absorbed. Cover with plastic wrap (or a tea towel that has been run under hot water and squeezed out). Place in a warm spot to rise: Because your kitchen will likely be nice and cozy with all of the cooking going on, you don’t need to do the warm-oven rise trick.
- Let dough rise for 1 to 2 hours or more or less. As noted in the post above, you can let the dough rise, and when you see that it has reached the top of the bowl, but you don’t have oven space available in the following 20 minutes, punch it down and let it rise again. You can do this as many times as necessary. Meanwhile, generously butter a 12-cup muffin pan, plus a few ramekins (2 to 4).
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl, which it will be clinging to. (Here is video guidance. You can find more peasant bread-making video guidance at the end of the peasant bread post.) As you scrape it down, turn the dough up onto itself. You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you’ve punched it down. Take your two forks and divide the dough roughly into 6 portions. Then, using the two forks, scoop up half of each of these portions and plop each into a buttered muffin cup. Repeat with remaining dough. This won’t be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. Try your best to divide the dough equally, and if you have extra dough, bake it off in the buttered ramekins. Let the dough rise for about 17 to 20 minutes or until it has risen to just above the top of the muffin cups.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375º and make for 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and turn the rolls onto a cooling rack or directly into a bread basket. Pass the butter.
Did you make a recipe?
Tag @alexandracooks on Instagram and hashtag it #alexandracooks.
Katrina says
I love the peasant bread. I’ve made it twice already, each time substitutin some water for olive oil, and adding herbs de provence. After the 1st time, I bought your book. It’s great!
I made the coconut bread, but let it rise a lot longer than the 2 hours. Is it why the bread was sour?
alexandra says
Hi Katrina! Thank you so much for buying Bread Toast Crumbs! It means the world. Your herbs de provence variation sounds delicious. In regard to the coconut variation, it’s possible that the longer rise made it taste sour, but I can’t say for sure. Was it rising much more slowly than the other breads you’ve made? The sugar and coconut milk definitely slow down the rising, but I’m curious about your experience.
Laura says
I’ve made these at least half a dozen times and they never fail to turn out perfectly! Great recipe, great instructions!
Michelle says
I’ve made these several times, they are delicious and so easy to make! Thanks for the recipe.
alexandra says
Woohoo!
Rebecca says
Looking forwards to making these for Thanksgiving! I’ve become a big bread baker since getting your book over the summer – so much so that my family asked me to make the rolls this year instead of buying them! The only question I have is on how to reheat them. With the bread I make, generally the crispy crust is gone by the next day and comes back easily with a reheat. As I will probably have to make these the night before or very early on Thanksgiving (no chance I can win a fight for an oven during prime cooking time), what is your suggestion for reheating these or any other rolls I could make from your recipes so they are crispy and delicious again?
alexandra says
Hi! First, I’m so happy to hear about your bread baking, Rebecca! Second, very good questions. I typically bake them when the oven is free and the turkey is resting, but I do have this portable oven that I break out for holidays, so I understand if this is an impossibility if you are working with only one oven. You are absolutely right re the crust going soft after a day. The rolls will revive with a brief heating in the oven. If you can bake them on Thanksgiving morning, that is ideal — then, I would give them 15 minutes at 350 to warm up. Pop them in a tea-towel lined basket, and pass them around! Let me know if that answers your questions. Oh! If you have to bake them the day before. I would store them in ziplock bags, once they cool. Then reheat the same way. Happy Thanksgiving, Rebecca!
Angelina Whittle says
Help! Followed the instructions for instant yeast (not expired). and after 2 hours the dough hasn’t risen.☹️
Angelina says
Please Help! I followed the instructions for instant yeast and after 2 hours the dough still hasn’t risen. I then used the oven warming instructions and let it sit the oven for an hour and all that happened is the dough developed a cooked crispy crust.
alexandra says
Hi! So, your yeast isn’t expired, so that’s a good step. Question: how long did you preheat your oven for? It sounds as though it may have been too hot. You only want to preheat your oven for a minute total — it shouldn’t be hotter than 110ºF or so. Also, did you use lukewarm water: 1.5 cups cold water mixed with .5 cups boiling? Are you using a scale to measure your flour or measuring cups?
Angelina says
I microwaved water to 105 degrees. I normally let bread dough sit on top of a 250 degree oven. I was cooking on stove top this time and so let the bowl sit next to a large pot full of boiling water. Thought your instructions said heat oven to 350 and after a minute turn it off. That is what I did. I was going to o try to bake them anyway but it was late so I put the dough in the refrigerator and started reading about the possibility that adding yeast and trying to rise again might save the dough. I haven’t had time to add yeast yet, but took the dough out of the refrigerator and put it on top of an oven heated to 350 and then turned off. Any way to save this dough?
alexandra says
I think the issue is that your oven is too hot — you’re just trying to create a warm spot for your dough to rise. So, all you need to do is turn your oven on for a minute, then shut it off — it doesn’t matter what temp you set it to, the important thing is that it’s not hotter than 110 degrees or so. I think your dough has been cooking partially during the first “rise.” I would toss the dough and start over. I know it’s a bummer to waste ingredients, but I think you’re going to be more frustrated by putting more effort into this same batch of dough and not seeing any positive results in the end. Wish I were there to help!
Phil says
I’ve found tht just using the light in my oven bring the temp up to 96 degrees, and have not had a rise failure since.
alexandra says
Great tip Phil!
jackie drenth says
have you ever tried hand forming the rolls and baking on a sheet pan?
Gladys says
That won’t work with this dough. It is a very wet dough.
Julie says
I made this recipe Saturday night to serve on Sunday afternoon lunch after church meeting. I was feeling tired and rushed, so I made two loaves instead of rolls. Turned out delicious and this bread makes wonderful toast! I did not have fresh thyme on hand, so used dried thyme instead. I think that fresh thyme would have imparted more flavor and so next time I will use it.