Garlic Salt Rolls

A soup season staple

Nov 21, 2024

∙ Paid

Hi!

It’s a week out from American Thanksgiving, which seems like an appropriate time to share a roll recipe. Truth be told, rolls aren’t normally a part of my family’s Thanksgiving table — Chinese sticky rice and mashed potatoes are our carbs of choice. But rolls are definitely a Thanksgiving season staple for us, the perfect accompaniment to post-Thanksgiving turkey soups or stews.

This fall I’ve been lowkey obsessed with working on a garlic roll situation, specifically something deeply savory where garlic is baked into the bread itself and not just brushed on post-bake. After trying several different styles, I settled on the Asian salt bread technique, where a pat of butter is rolled up inside a piece of dough like a croissant. During the bake, some of the butter leaks out and gently fries the bottom of the roll, while the rest permeates the center. You end up with a shiny, lightly crisp exterior and a soft, very buttery middle.

Typically, salt rolls encase salted butter, but in this version, we’re using a — you guessed it — garlic compound butter. As a result, these rolls are properly garlicky, inside and out.

You can make these rolls all in one day, or you can make them over two days by chilling the dough for up to a day after mixing. I prefer the two-day option as the dough is easier to shape while cool.
This dough is fairly enriched, so during the winter it can take some time to fully proof. When the house is on the cool side, I like to do my final proof in a turned-off oven with the light on and a bowl of hot water on the bottom of the oven. Just be careful not to make the environment *too* hot as we don’t want the butter leaking out of the buns before baking — around 76-78F is ideal.
In my oven, it can be challenging to get rolls to brown to my liking in a short bake time. They will often be too pale when the center is fully cooked. If you have this issue as well, you can try baking on a higher rack in the oven or switching to a convection setting for the last 4-5 minutes of baking time. Conversely, if your buns are coloring too fast, try baking on a lower rack or lowering the oven temperature 25-50F halfway through baking.
Don’t like garlic? Use regular salted butter instead for a more classic roll. I think you could have a lot of fun trying different flavored butters too, either sweet or savory! Salted honey butter rolls, anyone?

More bread, previously

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