Airy, fluffy dough always dries out quickly. There is only so much you can do about that.
Having said that, a Tangzhong/Yudane helps a lot with slowing down the retrogradation of starch.
There also are all sorts of commercial dough enhancers that purport to address retrogradation, but they are frequently not available to home bakers and they tend to have other effects on the dough which might be undesirable.
Another option would be to heat up the rolls right before eating them. You can even spray them with water first before doing so. Heat can temporarily alleviate retrogradation, but that's only a short-term fix and you can usually only do so once. Storing the rolls in the freezer is another option to delay the staling process. It doesn't extend the usable life indefinitely, but it can certainly get you a few weeks.
Thank you! I have used Tangzhong before and it doesn't seem to have a huge impact. As for reheating I'm making the rolls for my partners lunch sandwiches. I guess I could freeze the dough and get up early to bake the day of?
I would really rather not use dough enhancers... Have you used them before?
What percentage of flour did you use in your Tangzhong. Many recipes only use less than 5%. That's on the low end of what you would want. That's also the reason why you might have to go with a Yudane instead. It's basically the same thing, but Yudane is kept at lower hydration, allowing you to convert more of your flour.
You can go up to about 30%, but that might make the dough hard to handle. Somewhere around 15% to at most 20% is probably the sweet spot, if you want to use scalded flour as a form of natural dough conditioner. Look up "NovitaListyani" on YouTube. I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, but she certainly puts a lot of effort in backing up her recommendations with scientific research.
As for commercial conditioners, no I haven't used them myself. I have done some reading, and they seem to be a mixed bag and not universally useful for home bakers.
