Question about rolls… hydration, kneading, flour types…

Question:

I’ve lately been using the same recipe for dinner rolls. It’s my wife’s grandmother’s, and it’s a pretty straightforward yeast roll; it’s enriched with butter, milk, egg, and sugar. I’ve been using 60% (I think it was) hydration as a rule for the flour amount; yes, I included the water weight of the eggs, butter, milk, and water when I was calculating.

Here’s the formula:

1 c scalded milk

3 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 egg

1/2 c warm water

519 g flour

bake at 350.

The recipe makes good rolls, always, but sometimes they’re better than others. It’s a parker house roll recipe, so it specifically instructs you to roll out, then cut, fold, and add butter in between the folds.

One other oddity: the recipe specifically says to mix the flour in to make a “soft dough.” Then you proof it, and then you knead it, shape the rolls, and let them rise.

I had been using an Ank to make it, kneading as the flour went in and then for a while after. Last time, I mixed together by hand, let rise overnight in the fridge—without kneading first—and then kneaded the next day, only then adding the last 50g of flour. (Before that it was almost too sticky to handle, but I’d let it come back to room temp.) My reasoning was less kneading = less gluten development = softer, lighter bread. They were good, but not the kind of ethereally light bread I’ve made with the same recipe before.

All that is preamble to my actual question, which is: sometimes these rolls come out gloriously soft and light, and sometimes they’re much more “bready.”

I’m trying to reliably get the former, not the latter.

I’ve used different flour: all White Lily AP, all King Arthur AP, and half of each. I haven’t tried KA bread flour yet.

Since I’m weighing the flour (amount unspecified in the original recipe), variances should all come down to kneading technique, shaping technique, and/or type of flour, correct?

Does this roll recipe need more enrichment/less hydration? Or am I working it too much—or not enough? Should I actually try the bread flour?

I’m using this dough for cinnamon rolls, too… wife’s grandmother did. The wife keeps saying, “you’re close, but hers were less like bread than this. Softer, lighter.” That’s what I’m after, with the rolls AND the cinnamon rolls, but I don’t know how to get there.