The dinner roll, also called a bun or bread roll (or a whole bunch of possible names in the UK), is often an essential at holiday meals or family gatherings. A small somewhat crusty roll that you can eat with a spread, or to mop up meal remnants on your plate.
Whatever you call it, these small buns are great with dinner but also very useful for making sliders, or small lunch sandwiches. They are a perfect size for eating with a hearty soup or salad. My mom wanted to make a dinner roll that incorporated healthy whole wheat, but wasn’t too dense. Achieving this can be tricky without using oil or eggs for structure. She came up with an amazing blend of whole wheat along with regular to facilitate not using oil or eggs in the ingredients.
See what you think! Here is the recipe.
Mom's Vegan Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast
- 1 tsp salt
Wet ingredients
- 1 cup non-dairy milk Such as oat or soy milk.
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
Topping
- 2 Tbsp non-dairy milk
- sesame seeds or flour
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F.
- Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add non-dairy milk, water, and lemon juice together in a separate bowl, and mix well.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and knead together until a smooth dough forms.
- Cover the dough and let it rest in warm place for about 30 minutes.
- Turn dough out onto floured surface, and divide into 12 even pieces. Shape them into buns, place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Brush the top with a bit of additional non-dairy milk, then sprinkle with seeds or dust with additional flour.
- Cover buns with a towel, let rest 30 minutes, then bake for 30 minutes until golden.
What about butter for this bun?
Good question! Because we avoid oil, we often make an oil-free spread from cashews or sunflower seeds. There are many recipe options here, and I continue to add more to this list of oil free spreads, dressings, sauces, and dips regularly. I’m working on a “corn butter” recipe that is quite good on dinner rolls and toast.
If you do not avoid oil (perhaps on the holidays?), Earth Balance offers a vegan option that is incredibly similar to one made with animal products.
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Barbara
Hi. This looks great, haven’t tried them yet though.
I’m wondering how well/long they keep. Some rolls or biscuits really don’t keep at all.
Any tips for reheating or is it unnecessary?
Thanks! Looking forward to tasting these.
Jen @ Plant Based Recipe
Hi Barbara! The batch kept well for at least a few days (how long they lasted here anyway, using the final recipe). They aren’t too “damp” which is probably why – I know what you mean about certain rolls molding pretty quick. But beyond that or if it’s particularly warm or humid where you are, I might consider freezing after a couple days just to be sure, given the lack of preservatives.
I reheated them all in our toaster oven, just on the standard toast setting (about 5 minutes). Crisped them up again, nice and warm on the inside.
Caroline
I just made these and they’re amazing: thank you. So crispy on the outside – I used them as mini burger rolls. Thanks so much for the great recipe!
Jen @ PlantBasedRecipe
Yay! Love that they turned out well for you. We made some little sliders too with them!
Marissa
Think they’d be too dense if I used only whole wheat flour?
Jen (Plant Based Recipe)
They would be more dense with all whole wheat, yes. It’s certainly possible, but will affect the texture and density of the result. Our best guess is due to the lack of oil products why it was difficult to get a better textural results with full whole wheat for this kind of bun (dense bread is great for toasting with spreads, so we do full-whole-wheat for those things regularly).