My yeast recipies seem to harden somewhat after baking
Using a dough hook versus hand-kneading won't make your bread harden after baking. If your rolls are hardening then you have either overcooked them, or there's not enough water in the dough. This can happen for several reasons:


The recipe doesn't call for enough water. Use a different recipe or add a bit more water to the one you have
The flour your are using is a higher protein content than the recipe is designed for. Gluten is a protein, and higher protein flours use more water. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, gluten makes your bread stretchy. The answer is the same: add more water
You are adding too much flour when kneading. I made this mistake for years! When you put flour on your surface to keep it from sticking you are reducing the moisture content of your dough as you work it in. This can turn a dough dry very quickly. If you want flour to knead with then reserve some of the recipe flour, but don't use more. Some doughs are meant to be sticky. If you want to keep it from sticking knead with oil instead. Personally, I let the dough stick and use that stickiness to stretch the glutens, it makes for faster kneading that way