This vegan dinner roll recipe creates perfect eggless and dairy free buns. Made with 100% whole wheat flour, these rolls are rich, buttery and very fluffy!
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How to Make Dinner Rolls Vegan
Classic dinner rolls recipes are not vegan-friendly as they often contain milk, butter and eggs. However, with a few simple substitutions you can easily make dinner rolls vegan.
Start with replacing dairy milk with soy milk. Soy milk tends to be the creamiest dairy-free milk alternative and is the closest replacement for dairy milk.
Next, replace the butter with a vegan butter or margarine alternative. I typically use vegan margarine as it’s far less expensive compared to vegan butter. However, for those who love the flavor of butter, you may want to use a vegan butter substitute.
These dinner rolls are made without egg substitutes. Using an egg wash on the rolls is a common way to make the final product golden brown and glossy looking, but some extra melted vegan butter achieves a similar result!
Tips and Tricks for this Recipe
This dough can be tricky to get right, at least when compared to other standard bread or roll recipes that simply use water and flour as the base.
Using soy milk in place of water allows for a richer dinner roll, and incorporating butter is essential for the final product to be perfectly buttery yet fluffy!
A few tips and tricks to keep in mind include:
Warm the Soy Milk to the Right Temperature
To activate yeast, lukewarm liquid is essential. Lukewarm means a temperature of about 100 – 110 F. The milk should feel warm to the touch but not hot and shouldn’t be steaming.
If the soy milk is too cold or too hot, the yeast may not activate or may be “killed”. If the yeast doesn’t bubble (see video for visual), it’s best to start over as the rest of the process won’t work.
Allow the Dough to Rise to Double in Size Twice
Dinner rolls as delicious as these take time. With milk and butter, the dough may take longer to rise compared to yeast doughs without these ingredients. Allow the dough to (at least) double in size before forming the rolls, and then again once the rolls are formed. This takes time and patience!
With this type of dough, it can be very helpful to allow the dough to rise in a warm location. You can achieve this by turning on the oven (lowest temperature possible or just allow half the preheating to occur) and allow the dough to rise with the door cracked open. The warm environment can really help the process along!
How to Serve Vegan Dinner Rolls
These vegan bread rolls are amazingly rich, buttery yet fluffy! They are best served warm out of the oven but are still delicious at room temperature.
Most people serve dinner rolls with butter. I find the rolls to be buttery enough on their own and don’t need additional butter, but I’m not really a butter person.
These rolls also make fantastic sandwich buns. Load with your favorite vegan deli meat or leftover seitan along with all the tasty vegan sandwich fillings you like!
If you want a delicious and easy breakfast, these dinner rolls are lovely with butter and jam.
However you eat them, I hope you enjoy your hard work and patience!
Storing and Freezing Tips
Any leftover rolls should be kept in an air-tight container or bag so they don’t dry out. They are fine to keep on the counter for 2-3 days, but after that should be stored in the fridge for up to a week (from when they were cooked). If they won’t be eaten by then, consider freezing.
Cooked rolls can be cooled and kept in the freezer for a couple months. Allow them to thaw either in the fridge overnight or on the counter for a couple hours. If possible, warm the rolls before serving – they can be placed in a warm oven for a couple minutes or use a microwave’s lower setting to heat through.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Let me know how your vegan dinner rolls turn out and if you serve them to non-vegans, I’d love to hear what they thought of these buttery rolls!
Don’t forget to share your creations with me on social media by tagging @lettucevegout!
Vegan Dinner Rolls (100% Whole Wheat)
Equipment
- Large bowl
- Hand mixer
- Baking tray (11x7 inches)
- Kitchen towel
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 C soy milk (or plant based milk of choice; unflavored, unsweetened)
- 3 tbsp + 2 tsp maple syrup (divided)
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- ½ C + 3 tbsp vegan butter (or margarine; divided)
- 3 ¼ C whole wheat flour
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Warm 1 C soy milk to lukewarm temperature (100-110 °F) either in a small pot over low heat or in the microwave using 15 second intervals (stirring between each interval for even heating). The soy milk should feel warm to the touch but not produce steam.
- Place the warmed milk into a large mixing bowl along with 2 tsp maple syrup and 1 tbsp active dry yeast. Lightly stir this mixture and set aside until the yeast has activated (foamed); about 5-8 minutes.
- Once the mixture is foamy, add ½ C vegan butter (or margarine), 3 tbsp maple syrup, ½ tsp salt and beat the mixture together (with a hand held electric beater or fork to break up the butter). The mixture won’t be fully blended or smooth (flecks of butter will be suspended in the milk).
- Next, stir in 3 C whole wheat flour until a ball of dough begins to form. Switch to using your hand to form a ball of dough.
- Sprinkle 1/8 C whole wheat flour onto your counter and dump dough onto the flour. Knead the dough for 3-4 minutes. The dough should be very smooth and easy to knead. It shouldn’t stick to your hands or the counter at all (if it’s sticking, add up to 1/8 C of extra whole wheat flour).
- Lightly oil the mixing bowl and place the dough back in it, lightly oiling the top of the dough as well. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to sit in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, prepare a 11x7 inch baking pan by coating the pan in a thin layer of vegan butter, margarine or oil (can use oil spray but I like to use vegan butter!).
- Punch the dough and cut into 12 evenly sized pieces. Form each piece into a sphere by pulling the edges down and tucking them on the bottom.
- Place each formed roll into the prepared pan, spaced evenly. Cover the pan with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to double in size again, about 1 hour.
- Once the rolls have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 350 °F.
- Remove the kitchen towel from the tray of rolls and bake (uncovered) for 18 minutes. Remove the rolls from the oven and brush additional vegan butter (about 2 tbsp) on top. Using melted butter works best (I melt mine in the microwave for a few seconds).
- Return the rolls to the oven for another 5 minutes.
- Once cooked, allow the rolls to cool for a couple minutes in the baking tray, then remove and place onto a cooling rack (to prevent edges from getting soggy) or serve straight from the oven!
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