I have never actually eaten at Texas Roadhouse, so I have no idea if these rolls are good at the restaurant. These homemade Texas Roadhouse copycat rolls are delectable though! They are a great side with soup, salads, or chilis. The square shape is easier to make and more forgiving than traditional round dinner rolls and, and they take less time. If you are interested in giving dinner rolls at home a try, this is a great place to start.
These rolls start out like any other yeast bread. See my tutorial in my sandwich bread post on bread basics if you are new to bread. Flour, water, yeast and salt are kneaded together with milk, eggs and butter to enrich the dough, so you get a soft, tender roll. After they bake they are brushed with melted butter for extra richness.
The great thing about these is that they do not require shaping. After the first rise, you gently pat the dough into a rectangle and cut the dough into squares and then let those rise on a cookie sheet a little more. This cuts down the rising time too since you don’t lose much air volume when you cut them. Those two things make these my go to roll when I want homemade but don’t have as much time to bake.
One note on this recipe. The original recipe calls for scaling and cooling the milk. There is some debate on scalding milk for bread. Originally it may have been done to kill off any bacteria in unpasteurized milk, which isn’t an issue most of the time anymore with pasteurization. It also denatures the whey proteins, which improves the yeast activity and gives better rise to bread. So there is still justification for doing so. However, you can skip this step if you are in a hurry and the rolls will still turn out well, just perhaps a bit less fluffy.
Texas Roadhouse Copycat Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 tsp instant yeast
- 1 cup milk scalded and cooled to lukewarm
- 1.5 tbsp melted butter or oil
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3.5-4 cups AP flour
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- If you are going to scald the milk, do so and allow it cool to lukewarm.
- Add the bread ingredients into a stand mixer and mix on medium low with a dough hook until the dough comes together into a ball and clears the sides and bottom of the bowl. This can take 5-10 minutes depending on your mixer.
- Check the dough for windowpane and if it isn't there yet, continue kneading until it is.
- Place in a greased bowl or dough bucket and cover with plastic wrap or a tight fitting cover. Allow to rise for about an hour or until doubled. Heat oven to 350.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured counter top and gently shape into a rough rectangle. Cut the rectangle using a bench scraper or knife into 16 pieces, being careful not to deflate it too much.
- Place on parchment lined baking sheets with about 1 inch of space between them. Cover with greased plastic wrap to keep from drying out and allow them to rise again for about 30 minutes or so, or until the dough has its original volume.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and brush with melted salted butter right before serving. Serve warm from the oven. You can reheat leftovers in the microwave or wrapped in foil in the oven. These freeze well.