You Don't Have to Choose Between Biscuits and Rolls
It's a false dichotomy.
Thanksgiving dinner rolls function both as gravy mops and day-after sandwich bread, making them a non-negotiable component of your Turkey Day spread. We have three favorites: ever-soft potato rolls, towering buttermilk biscuits, and our popular version of Maque-style Mexican Bisquetes—a special roll that combines the fluffy texture of a yeast-raised roll and the rich flavor of a buttery biscuit.
Maque-style Mexican Bisquetes
The first time I made these rolls, I couldn’t believe how uniquely airy-light and soft they were. How could a biscuit this good be this easy to make? The answers lie in the unusual combination of leaveners and the mixing method.
Our bisquetes are inspired by those from the Maque bakery in Mexico City. While their recipe is proprietary, we developed ours to replicate their very specific light texture with a combination of baking powder and yeast. To further tenderize the dough, we blend the butter into the dry ingredients at the beginning of the recipe. This allows the fat to coat some of the flour and “seal” some of the gluten proteins, preventing excessive gluten development. Tenderizing ingredients (or shorteners) like egg yolks and butter keep the bun delicate and using bread flour provides structure. The result is a tall bun that, once split, presents a lofty but light crumb.
The texture is short and tender like a biscuit, but borders close to dinner roll territory, with a uniform crumb and plenty of air. A small amount of sugar incorporated into the dough gives these a flexible flavor profile; you could eat them alongside beef stew or slathered with strawberry jam. If your Thanksgiving crowd is split between biscuits and rolls, our Maque-Style Mexican Bisquetes are the perfect option to please everyone at your table.
Garlic-Parmesan Potato Bread Dinner Rolls
For those who prefer more of a classic dinner roll, these Garlic-Parmesan Potato Bread Dinner Rolls are an excellent choice. You can make them without the robustly savory butter finish, if you must, but I wouldn’t. The finely grated garlic and minced rosemary strike a distinctive note when they work together. I am not much of a rosemary fan, because I don't love the notes of pine tree, but when paired with garlic and butter, all three elements transform into an entirely new and irresistible aroma and flavor. The sharp, piney scent takes a back seat, leaving behind more of a nutty fragrance than anything else. A generous parmesan sprinkle melts to form a shattering shell on top of the rolls, with salty-crisp frico edges.
If those flavors don’t sell you, don’t forget this roll is indeed a potato bread. The utterly soft and squishy reputation of potato bread precedes us, but our recipe cuts out the tedious work of boiling, peeling and ricing whole potatoes. Instead, we skip ahead in the process with dried instant mashed potato flakes. The flakes absorb and hold onto moisture, while knocking out several steps. The result is a plush roll with savory flavors to match your feast.
Buttermilk Biscuits
Some families live and die by dinner rolls, but I enjoy a salty buttered biscuit at Thanksgiving. I can’t resist the crispy top and feathery layers inside. Our recipe uses classic techniques to keep the butter layered within the dough, and we use cake flour instead of all-purpose flour to ensure a tender crumb.
Be sure the butter pieces are as cold as possible while mixing and working the biscuit dough. This keeps the butter in discernible clumps and clusters, so when they bake the butter melts away and leaves behind a small pocket of air, creating flaky layers. If the dough is room-temperature, or becomes warm, the fat will blend smoothly into the dry ingredients and you’ll lose the layers. Serve these alongside your Thanksgiving feast or split with a smear of butter and leftover cranberry sauce for a much-deserved post-holiday treat.
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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
