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Cheese Rolls with Buttery Parmesan Crust

Yield: 15 rolls
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 18 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 18 minutes

Ingredients

Dough:

  • 4 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
  • ½ cup warm water
  • 1 cup lukewarm milk
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • ¼ cup (57 g) butter, softened
  • ⅓ cup (71 g) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5-6 cups (710 to 852 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling:

  • 8 ounces (227 g) cheddar or pepperjack cheese, cut into 15 cubes

Topping:

  • 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
  • ¼ cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs
  • ¼ cup (29 g) grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Instructions 

  • For the dough, combine all the ingredients and mix and knead until you have a soft, elastic dough (don’t add too much flour – the key to soft dinner rolls is a soft dough!). Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover, letting rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.
  • Prepare a 9X13-inch pan by lightly greasing the bottom and sides with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Deflate the dough and divide into 15 pieces. Shape the pieces of dough into rounds and punch a cube of cheese from the bottom up into the center of each piece. Pinch the dough tightly together to close the bottom. Place the rolls, pinched side down, in the prepared baking pan. Cover and let rise again for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until nearly doubled.
  • While the rolls are rising, melt the butter and stir in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Set aside.
  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. When the rolls have risen, brush the tops with the egg yolk beaten with water. Sprinkle tops of rolls liberally with the bread crumb mixture. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops of the rolls are nicely browned. Remove from the pan immediately and cool on a rack. Serve warm.

Notes

Flour Amount: as with all yeast doughs, I never use the flour amount called for in the recipe as a hard fast rule (unless a weight measure is given and then I pull out my kitchen scale). Because humidity, temperature, altitude and a multitude of other factors can impact how much flour you need in your yeast doughs, I always judge when to quit adding flour by the texture and look and feel of the dough rather than how much flour I’ve added compared to the recipe. This tutorial on yeast may help identify how a perfectly floured dough should be.
Yeast: if you double the recipe, don’t double the amount of yeast – it should stay the same as in the original recipe.