Baking With Frozen Dough Isn't as Scary as It Looks
Rhodes makes frozen dough products, you buy them at Walmart, and they thaw out into something that looks and tastes like homemade bread. That is basically the whole deal. The line sits in the frozen food aisle next to the ice cream and the TV dinners. You grab a package of Rhodes Dinner Roll Dough or Rhodes Bread Stick Dough, bring it home, and follow the instructions on the box. Most of their products just need to sit on the counter until they double in size, then you bake them. Here is the part nobody tells you about: the thawing time depends heavily on your kitchen temperature. If your house runs cold in the winter, those rolls might take four or five hours to come up to speed. In summer, two and a half hours is plenty. I learned that the hard way one December when I took the rolls out at noon and didn't put them in the oven until 8 PM because they were still dense and raw in the middle. The dough was fine once it finally woke up, but I burned the bottoms trying to compensate. Now I keep a cheap kitchen thermometer near the proofing area and check the ambient temp before I start timing anything.
Rhodes Frozen Dough At Walmart Baking Made Easy For Everyone
The actual process is straightforward. You open the package, arrange the dough pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a little space between them, cover them loosely with oiled plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel, and walk away. Do not press down on them or poke them repeatedly to check if they are done. Let them sit. When they look puffy and about double their original size, which you can tell by gently nudging one with your finger and watching it slowly spring back, you bake them according to the package directions. Usually that is around 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 to 18 minutes depending on the product. One thing people mess up constantly is buttering the dough before it goes in the oven. The package sometimes says to brush with melted butter right before baking, but if your butter is too hot it melts through the dough and pools on the pan instead of coating the surface. Let the butter cool for thirty seconds after you melt it. Same thing with egg washes. A hot egg wash will cook the dough surface prematurely and stop the rise.
What You Are Actually Buying
Rhodes dough is par-baked or partially proofed at the factory before freezing. That means the yeast is still alive but dormant, and the gluten network is already developed. When you thaw it, you are giving the yeast a second chance to produce gas. The texture you get is not quite the same as dough you mixed from scratch, but it is close enough for weeknight dinners and casual gatherings. The crust tends to be softer than artisan bakery bread because the dough has higher sugar and fat content to survive the freezing process. I have used their Cinnamon Roll Dough, Dinner Roll Dough, Bread Stick Dough, and Cinnamon Twist Dough over the years. The dinner rolls are the most consistent product. The bread sticks sometimes come out uneven because the individual pieces vary slightly in size when you separate them from the log. I fix that by sorting them into small and large groups and baking the smaller ones on a separate tray so they do not overcook while the bigger ones finish rising.
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The Tradeoffs You Should Know About
Frozen dough is convenient, but it has real limitations. The flavor depth is one flat compared to something made from a preferment or a long cold ferment. You will not get those complex sourdough-like notes unless you add something yourself. A handful of vital wheat gluten and a tablespoon of honey per batch can push the flavor up a notch, but it will never match weeks of fermentation. Another issue is texture consistency across different brands and batches. Some boxes of Rhodes dough arrive slightly drier than others, probably due to how long they spent in the freezer at the warehouse before shipping to the store. If your dough feels crumbly or stiff when you open it, add a teaspoon or two of water per piece and knead it briefly before shaping. If it feels overly sticky and wet, a light dusting of flour helps, but do not overwork it or you will toughen the finished product. There is also the matter of shelf life once you open a package. If you only use half a box, the remaining dough will dry out within a day even if you wrap it tightly. Freeze the unused portion in an airtight container and thaw it the same way you would a fresh package. The texture will be slightly different, but it is still usable.
Quick Reference for Common Products
Dinner rolls: 350°F for 12 to 14 minutes, yield about 24 rolls per package. Thaw time varies from two to five hours. Bread sticks: 375°F for 10 to 12 minutes. These bake faster than the rolls because the pieces are smaller and thinner. Cinnamon rolls: 350°F for 13 to 15 minutes. Add the icing immediately after they come out of the oven while the surface is still warm so it adheres properly.
Bread dough loaves: 375°F for 25 to 30 minutes. Use an instant-read thermometer and pull the loaf when the internal temperature hits 190°F. The crust should sound hollow when you tap the bottom. Everything I described above assumes you are using a standard home oven with reasonable heat distribution. Convection ovens will cut bake times by roughly 25 percent and may brown the tops faster, so watch them closely during the last few minutes. If you have a problematic oven that runs hot on one side, rotate the pan halfway through baking.
