Homemade Olive Oil Bread Rolls
Nothing like a Yeast Bread, especially these delicious soft Olive Oil Bread Rolls. They are a perfect addition to any meal. Easy Homemade bread never tasted so good.
If you have ever been to Italy you are going to know that there are probably more types of bread than Pasta, over 350 types to be exact. So good and so hard to decide!
One type of bread that my kids always loved are these soft Olive Oil Rolls. These also make the perfect sandwich buns or dinner rolls especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner!
Some of the more known types of Bread in Italy
- Piadina – A type of Italian Flat Bread
- Liariano – One of my favourites, a dense closed crumb bread.
- Focaccia di Genova – A thick almost Pizza type, slice it up the middle and fill with fresh prosciutto or mortadella. So good.
- Grissini Italian Bread Sticks – Long crunchy sticks of bread.
- Rosette – My husband’s favourite, a large bun with very little crumb.
- Ciabatta – A long, broad, flat bread, full of holes.
During the Summer and early Fall my house is at the perfect temperature for my dough to rise. Bread making is not difficult it is just needs time.
I remember the days when my mother and father-in-law would fire up the wood burning stove and they would make enough bread for the week, with enough to give a loaf or two to us. So good, and if you were lucky she would make her amazing pizza too. Those were the days.
Now I’m lucky if I make enough for a couple of meals. But I have to say you can’t beat homemade bread. Warm from the oven, nothing like it.
How to Make Homemade Bread?
Add the yeast to the water and honey, let sit. In the stand up mixture bowl, whisk together the flour and salt, then add the yeast mixture and oil.
With the hook attachment, start to knead until the dough comes together to form a ball. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover, let it rise in a warm draft free area until doubled in bulk.
Then form the dough into 10 -12 balls, place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, cover and let rise again. Brush the rolls with a little oil and bake until done. Let cool or eat warm.
Can the dough be frozen?
Make the dough and let it rise (the first rise), then punch it down and form the dough into the roll shape freeze the unbaked rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet freeze until firm (3-4 hours). Once they are frozen remove them from the sheet and wrap tightly in plastic wrap then place in a freezer safe bag or container. The dough should be consumed within 6 months.
When you are ready to use the dough. Remove the dough balls from the bag and plastic wrap and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet, cover with a clean damp tea towel and let rise in a warm draft free area until doubled in size. Bake as directed (they may need a bit more time to bake).
This is a very simple bread recipe, no eggs needed, just flour, yeast, olive oil, water, salt and rather than use sugar I prefer to use honey.
Why is sugar used in Bread making?
It helps the bread to rise (without sugar the bread will take longer to rise and sometimes not at all), it also gives the bread a better flavour.
More delicious Yeast Breads
Whether you are novice bread maker or bread making is your thing, I hope you give these a try and let me know. Happy Baking. Enjoy!
Homemade Olive Oil Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon active dry yeast (1.4 grams)
- ½ cup + 3 tablespoons water (lukewarm) (162 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon honey (5.30 grams)
- 2 cups flour (all purpose or bread flour) (250 grams)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2.85 grams)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (40 grams)
Instructions
- In a small bowl add the water and honey, sprinkle the yeast on top and let sit for 5 minutes. Then stir.
- In the bowl of your stand up mixer whisk together the flour and salt, make a well in the middle and add the yeast mixture and oil. With the hook attachment knead until the dough comes together and forms a ball (about 10-12 minutes, stop halfway and scrape off the dough from the hook and the sides of the bowl).
- Remove the dough to a flat surface and knead into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl (roll in the dough in the bowl), cover and let rise in a warm draft free area for approximately 2 hours, or doubled in bulk.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and punch down, form into 10 – 12 balls** (keep the dough covered while making the balls), place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, cover and let rise in a warm draft free area for approximately 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
- Pre-heat oven to 400F (200C).
- Brush the dough balls with a little olive oil and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes, until golden and when tapped on the bottom there is a hollow sound. Let cool or eat warm. Enjoy!
Hi Mary, is there a way to alter the recipe just a bit so I could add some sourdough starter? Along with the yeast of course.
Hi Teresa, yes you can, so in place of the yeast I would add 50 grams of sourdough starter, remove 25 grams of flour and 25 grams of water. And of course rising times will be quite a bit longer, first rise 4+ hours and second rise 2+ hours. Let me know how it goes. Take care!
These look amazing. I want to make the rolled ones, not balls. What size rectangle would I roll the dough out in.
Also and how many strips would I cut the rectangle into make these all in rolls?
Hi Teresa, thanks so much, I would say they were about 2 inches (5 cm) and 6 inches long (15cm). I hope that helps. Take care!
Made these Italian bread rolls today & they were bellisima 👍 they go lovely with my Italian home made soup, x
Hi Marie, thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed them. Take care!
Thanks for sharing your recipe for olive oil rolls. I used my food processor to make the dough. I tried to make the rolls like your photo, rolled. I’ve made bread loaves never rolls. How do I know how to make them equal in size? Grazie
Hi Barbara, you’re welcome! You can weigh the dough to get the even sizes. Take care!
Can I use extra virgin olive oil instead?
Hi Emma, yes you can. I hope you enjoy them. Take care!
Which flour will produce a fluffier roll. AP or bread flour?
Hi Kathy, I would say bread flour. Let me know how it goes. Take care!
Hi I use instant yeast i.I’m sure that should be ok.
Hi Peggy, oh yes instant yeast is fine, although the rising time will be faster. Hope you enjoy it. Take care!
Hi. Many years ago my daughter worked at a neighborhood Italian restaurant. When you walked in , what we called The Buns
, were put in the oven, in an amount for the people at the table. OMG the buns. Little balls of joy. I. Sure your recipe is those buns… and I should have today just did little balls, but I loved the way your rolled out buns looked so I did that. I am so lame at rolling. To wide, too long. But the result is yummmmy. Next time, probably tomorrow I will do the little balls. So thanks for this recipe… I came across it by chance, just looking for dinner roll recipes I hadn’t tried. So my daughter, since working at Spuntino, has become a chef, had a baby, had a rare Automitive disease and double lung and liver transplants in 2019. Then Covid happened… it she bakes and cooks at home. She is foodnerdextreme on Instagram. Thanks for this keeper recipe. I will now check out all of your recipes.
Hi Barb, thanks so much, so glad you like the recipe. So sorry to hear about your daughter, I wish her all the best. Love her instagram! Take care.
Can I make these rolls a day in advance? Will they keep? If I make the dough the day before, do I put it in the fridge after I punch it down? And then when I take it out and make it into rolls, do I still let it rise for an hour before baking?
Hi Arie, I would punch it down, form the rolls, place on the cookie sheet, cover it with plastic wrap (loosely) refrigerate, then take them out about an hour before baking to bring them to room temperature, then bake. Let me know how it goes. Merry Christmas.
I made this recipe twice and the dough never came together. I measured on my digital scale both times. Dough was incredibly sticky. Wondering what the problem was.
Hi Brad, sometimes it depends on the flour, some flour absorbs liquid more than others, if it is too sticky than add a little more flour to bring it together. Hope that helps. Take care!
I’m going to give it a try. I feel like a bread murderer as I am not often successful. I only wish you would add directions for people who don’t have the mixer. Is that really the reason I fail? My grandma didn’t have one, so it must be me?
Hi Corky, this bread dough (and really most bread dough) can be kneaded by hand, I added instructions in the notes at the bottom of the recipe card. I hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions. My mother-in-law always kneaded by hand and her bread was amazing. Maybe you don’t knead it enough. Sometimes it can take up to 20-25 minutes. Take care.
This is a fabulous and tasty recipe. Kid approved as well. Note: I live in Florida and prove for an extra hour on the first proof for a chewier roll.
Hi Heather, thanks so much, so glad the kids liked it too. Happy New Year.
I made these yesterday and they came out really great. My husband is a bread lover and he ate 2 of them as soon as they cooled a little. My friends that were over loved them. I am going to make them for dinner next week when I have some friends over for dinner
Thank you for the great recipes. I have loved every one of them that I made.
Hi Phyllis, thanks so much, so glad you, your husband and friends enjoyed them. Take care. I am so happy that you enjoy the recipes.
I tried making these this morning. Just confirming only 1/2 tsp yeast because my dough doesn’t seem to be rising. The dough also seemed really crumbly, and I couldn’t get it to form a ball so I added a little water.
Hi Stephanie, yes it should be fine. Did you add the 3 tablespoons of water also? There’s also a video did you check that out? Let me know.
The dough didn’t rise much at either step so not sure what I did wrong. I did not use a mixer.
Hi Lori, could be your yeast wasn’t good anymore, or your water was too hot or too cold. Could also be you didn’t let it rise for enough time. Give it more time to rise. Hope that helps.