You only need 7 ingredients to make these dinner rolls. Flaky, soft, and buttery, these fresh dinner rolls outshine any main dish. If you’re a bread beginner, read this blog post to learn more about the yeast rolls recipe, including how to prep the rolls ahead of time. You can also reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
- Do you long to bake homemade bread but are too intimidated to start?
- Does yeast dough send you running for the hills?
- Do bread recipes seem overly complicated and confusing?
I’m teaching you how to make homemade dinner rolls. These are the best homemade dinner rolls I’ve ever had and it all starts with a straightforward 7-ingredient dough. I make these rolls whenever I get the chance and even brought a pan to our friends who just welcomed a baby. They’re pillow-soft with the most delicious flaky and buttery texture. Everyone will demand you bake them on repeat.
And with this recipe, I guarantee you will finally feel confident baking bread. 🙂
Video Tutorial: Dinner Rolls
Let’s start with a video tutorial.
Overview: How to Make Homemade Dinner Rolls
- Make the dough. Continue below to learn more about this dough recipe.
- Knead the dough. Reference my How to Knead Dough video tutorial if you need extra help with this step.
- Cover the dough and let it rise. The dough rises in about 1-2 hours in a relatively warm environment.
- Punch down the dough to release the air and shape into rolls.
- Let the rolls rise for about 1 hour.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. If desired, brush the warm rolls with a little honey and melted butter for extra flavor.
As shown in the video tutorial, the dough comes together with a mixer. You can use a paddle attachment or a dough hook. You can also make the dough by hand, but it requires a bit of arm muscle. After the dough comes together in the mixing bowl, it’s time to knead. You can simply continue beating the dough with the mixer for this step or you can knead the dough by hand. I chose to knead the dough by hand so you can see me doing it in the video above.
If you’re new to bread making, my How to Knead Dough post and video can help even more with this step. And my Baking with Yeast Guide is a wonderful resource for all bread beginners!
Soft Dinner Rolls Require a Rich Dough
The crustier and chewier the bread, the less fat in the dough. This is known as a lean dough. The softer and richer the bread, the more fat in the dough. This is known as a rich dough. Unlike chewy homemade bagels, focaccia, and my artisan bread, soft dinner rolls require a rich dough. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that the dough is swimming in cash. Rather, “rich” correlates with the amount of fat. For example, this dough has milk, butter, and egg.
You need 7 ingredients total. They’re the same ingredients in my easy cinnamon rolls, which is also a rich dough. (Though I use more sugar for sweeter cinnamon rolls, of course.)
- Milk: Liquid activates the yeast. For the softest dinner rolls, use whole milk. Nondairy or low fat milks work too, but whole milk produces phenomenal flavor and texture.
- Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise times will be a little longer. I recommend Platinum Yeast from Red Star, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers.
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast, increases its activity, and tenderizes the dough.
- Egg: 1 egg provides structure and flavor.
- Butter: Butter promises a flavorful and soft dinner roll. Make sure it’s room temperature.
- Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
- Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or bread flour in this recipe. All-purpose flour is convenient for most, but bread flour produces chewier dinner rolls. There are no other changes to the recipe if you use bread flour.
Once you make the dough, let it rise:
After that, punch down the risen dough. Shape into balls and arrange in a baking pan. Don’t worry if they’re not all uniform in size.
Let the shaped rolls rise before baking. Look how puffy they get after 1 hour of rising:
How to Shape Dinner Rolls
You can shape this dough many different ways including twisted rolls, knotted rolls (how I shape garlic knots), cloverleaf rolls, or even hot dog buns. Let’s stick with the basic round shape. Divide the dough into 14-16 pieces. Take a piece and stretch the top of the dough while pinching and sealing the bottom. Make sure the rolls are smooth on top and sealed on the bottom. I shape hot cross buns the same exact way.
How to Make Yeast Rolls Ahead of Time
The rolls require around 3 hours of rising. Not everyone has 3 hours to spare, so let’s discuss another option! Prepare the dough, let it rise, and shape the rolls. Cover the shaped rolls tightly and refrigerate for up to about 16 hours. At least 3 hours before you need them the next day, remove the rolls from the refrigerator and allow to rise on the counter for about 1-2 hours before baking.
And here’s how to freeze dinner rolls: Follow the make-ahead instructions and instead of refrigerating overnight, freeze the rolls in a baking pan. Once frozen, they won’t stick together anymore and you can place them in a freezer bag. Let them thaw and rise for about 4-5 hours, then bake. You can also freeze the baked dinner rolls. Therefore, if you want a smaller batch, you can make the entire recipe and bake only a few fresh rolls at a time.
These make-ahead options are especially helpful if you want fresh-baked rolls for Easter brunch, Thanksgiving dinner, or on Christmas.
Dinner Roll Flavors
How about some pizazz? Mix in these ingredients when you add the flour.
- Rosemary Dinner Rolls – 2 Tablespoons fresh or dried chopped rosemary.
- Cheddar Dinner Rolls – 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Other cheese varieties work, but avoid super soft cheeses.
- Garlic & Herb Dinner Rolls – 2 teaspoons each: dried rosemary, dried basil, & dried parsley, along with 1 teaspoon garlic powder.
- 100% Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
- Brown Butter Sage Dinner Rolls
- Honey Butter Rolls
- Multigrain Rolls – Here is my Multigrain Bread recipe that you can turn into rolls.
This dough is not ideal for a big loaf of bread. Instead, I recommend using a leaner dough, such as my sandwich bread or whole wheat bread recipes. If you need an egg free dough, try homemade breadsticks instead. And if you love pizza, try these pizza pull apart rolls next!
3 Success Tips
- Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide, which answers many common yeast FAQs.
- Make sure your yeast isn’t expired. Expiration date is on the package.
- Directly from the pros at Red StarYeast: Measuring flour correctly is key to avoiding a dense dough, which leads to heavy (not soft!) rolls. Spoon and level your flour, do not scoop it out of the package.
My final piece of advice? Don’t limit these rolls to suppertime. They’re welcome anywhere, with any meal, any time of day. Use for sliders, breakfast sandwiches, soaking up your favorite tomato sauce, alongside salad, or dunking into a bowl of creamy chicken noodle soup. Above all, don’t doubt yourself because you, too, can become a bread baking pro.
See Your Dinner Rolls!
Many readers have made this recipe! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos on social media. 🙂
PrintSoft Dinner Rolls Recipe
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 14-16 rolls
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You only need 7 ingredients to make these dinner rolls. Flaky, soft, and buttery, these fresh dinner rolls outshine any main dish. See recipe notes for freezing and overnight instructions. You can also reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons Platinum Yeast from Red Star instant yeast (1 standard packet)
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (390g) all-purpose flour or bread flour* (spooned & leveled)
- optional topping: 2 Tablespoons (28g) melted unsalted butter mixed with 1 Tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, yeast, and 1 Tablespoon of sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes. *If you do not own a stand mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl and in the next step, mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/silicone spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula is a better choice.*
- Add the remaining sugar, egg, butter, salt, and 1 cup flour. With a dough hook or paddle attachment, mix/beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, then add the remaining flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. If the dough seems too wet to a point where kneading (next step) would be impossible, beat in more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough, similar to the photos above. Dough should be soft and a little sticky, but still manageable to knead with lightly floured hands.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 5 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- 1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 1-2 hours or until double in size. (I always let it rise on the counter. Takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan or two 9-inch square or round baking pans. You can also bake the rolls in a cast iron skillet or on a lined baking sheet.*
- Shape the rolls: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Divide the dough into 14-16 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) A bench scraper is always helpful for cutting dough. Shape each piece into a smooth ball. Arrange in prepared baking pan.
- 2nd Rise: Cover shaped rolls with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise until puffy, about 1 hour.
- Adjust oven rack to a lower position and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). (It’s best to bake the rolls towards the bottom of the oven so the tops don’t burn.)
- Bake the rolls: Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top, rotating the pan halfway through. If you notice the tops browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil. Remove from the oven, brush with optional honey butter topping, and allow rolls to cool for a few minutes before serving.
- Cover leftover rolls tightly and store at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Prepare recipe through step 6. Place shaped rolls in a greased baking pan, cover tightly, and freeze for up to 3 months. Once frozen, the dough balls won’t stick together anymore and you can place them in a freezer bag if needed. On the day you serve them, arrange the dough balls in a greased baking pan, cover tightly, then let them thaw and rise for about 4-5 hours. Bake as directed. You can also freeze the baked dinner rolls. Allow them to cool completely, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then reheat as desired. If reheating the whole pan, lightly cover and reheat in a 300°F (149°C) oven for about 10 minutes or until warm.
- Overnight Instructions: Prepare the recipe through step 6. Cover the shaped rolls tightly and refrigerate for up to about 15 hours. At least 3 hours before you need them the next day, remove the rolls from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise on the counter for about 1-2 hours before baking. Alternatively, you can let the dough have its 1st rise in the refrigerator overnight. Cover the dough tightly and place in the refrigerator for up to about 15 hours. Remove from the refrigerator and allow the dough to fully rise for 2 more hours. Continue with step 5.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Stand Mixer | Glass Mixing Bowl and Wooden Spoon or Spatula | 9×13-Inch Glass Baking Pan | Bench Scraper | Pastry Brush
- Baking Pan: I prefer baking the rolls in a glass 9×13 inch baking pan because I find they brown a little too quickly in metal. As long as you bake the rolls on a lower oven rack and keep your eye on them, any pan is great.
- Yeast: Platinum Yeast from Red Star is an instant yeast. You can use Red Star Yeast active dry yeast instead. Rise times will be slightly longer using active dry yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or bread flour. All-purpose flour is convenient for most, but bread flour produces chewier dinner rolls. The rolls are still soft and fluffy no matter which you use. Either flour is fine and there are no other changes to the recipe if you use one or the other.
Adapted from Homemade Bread Bowls and Honey Butter Rolls
Fantastic. These are the best rolls I’ve ever made. I used exactly 3 cups of bread flour, I followed Sally’s method of shaping the rolls, and I baked them lower in my oven in a glass 13×9 pan. They turned out beautifully. I’m learning so much from this blog, and I so appreciate it! Thank you, Sally!
Oh my gosh! These are fabulous! My husband said to mark this recipe as “THE ONE” (which is the highest honor a recipe can get in our house). I followed the recipe exactly using 3 Cups plus about 2 Tablespoons of White Lilly Bread Flour. I gave a few to my sister and she raved about how they were better than restaurant rolls. I experimented by letting half of them rise & baked them and froze the other half. I followed the directions and put them in a greased pan and let them thaw and rise for 5 hours. Holy cow – they were just as good as the first ones!!! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Sounds like an easy recipe to follow, thanks for all the details. I wanted to use this roll for chicken salad. Wondering if I made the dough ahead of time and froze, could I put in fridge at night to thaw to bake early in the morning? Would sitting on counter for an hour (after thawing in fridge overnight) work.? OR alternatively would it be better to bake the rolls and freeze ahead of time, then thaw overnight on counter and just use in morning since we don’t need them hot? Thank you.
Hi Susan, see Freezing Instructions and Overnight Instructions in the notes after the recipe. Hope you love these rolls!
It was my first time baking dinner rolls. It was delicious!
I made the rolls this past Sunday and they were a hit. I’d like to make more, can the recipe be doubled?
i made it today…they were easy to do..we love them..but i found i had a taste of yeast or flour…and maybe because my butter need to be out of fridge sooner..or is it because the second time i should had left them more time to rise or not enough cook? it was my first try..but will sure try it again..
Really delicious dinner rolls. I made them for the first time today but they were so nice that they didn’t last long .
Hi Sally,
I made this bread today and while it tasted very good, I had a few problems. I made this dinner roll with walnuts, cranberries, and raisins. The bread is fine, but I was looking for the light and fluffy puffed-up roll rather than a denser together roll if you know what I mean. What could have contributed to this? Under/over kneading, not enough proofing? (1st rise I waited 1 hr 45 mins and 2nd rise I waited 45 mins).
Hi Veronica, it’s likely that all of those add-ins weighed down the crumb. Could you leave them plain? Or reduce the amount of add-ins. You can also try extending that 2nd proof to 1 hour next time.
I love these rolls! I go with the rosemary and sea salt topping- they’re a hit in my house!!
I also dip each roll as I’m shaping them in melted butter, something my mother taught me when making homemade rolls!
Hi Sally!
These are sooooo good… I made these and I was so happy with the end result- they’re fluffy, soft, and just as pictured. Your recipe was so detailed and helpful, and it made the making of bread/buns so much easier than I thought it’d be. I’m so, so thankful that I found your blog and you’ve turned me (a 13-year-old) into a baker and helped me discover my new hobby. 🙂
I was just wondering, though, can I add filling into these buns (I’m thinking of something like red bean paste)? Will it impact the rising of the buns and weigh the buns down? If it’s do-able, would I add it in after or before the 2nd rise?
Thank you so much! 😀
Hi Sally,
I just made there rolls, and followed the recipe to a “T”, using bread dough.
However, even though I baked the for at least 25 min, they seem a bit doughy.
Any reason for this? The rising seemed just right. What else could affect the cooking?
Thanks,
Peter
Hi Peter, Thank you for trying this recipe! All ovens are a little bit different so don’t be alarmed if your rolls take longer in the oven. We always recommend using an oven thermometer – see number seven in these Top 10 Baking Tips for details. If you notice the tops browning too quickly before the centers are fully baked, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil while they finish baking.
My first time ever making rolls. I let the mixer do all the kneading. I followed the instructions and they were delicious!! I didn’t brush them with the honey butter mixture but I may try that next time.
I made these for dinner and they were SO good. My husband and I couldn’t help thinking how good they would be as hamburger buns. Any tips on what size pan or how many buns this recipe would make? Thank you!!
Hi Karen, These will make very light and fluffy hamburger buns and I fear they wouldn’t support the meat very well. Though you can still certainly try it: simply divide the dough into 8 pieces and keep everything else the same. You may want to try this bread bowls dough instead.
I use themwith bread flour for burger buns and they work perfectly!! I would say though that when it comes to shaping them before the last rise, they need to be shaped very taught.
These came out sooo good! 5 stars from my 3 boys! This recipe is a keeper and thanks for sharing!!
The texture of these rolls was divine! So soft and pillowy. The honey made them a little too sweet for me, I will only add 1/2 tbsp next time. Will definitely be making these often.
Disappointing. Very bland. Needed more salt. Wish I had used bread flour. Didn’t like the texture. More notes about which flour to use would have been appreciated.
Can u use instant yeast instead of regular? (Btw I’m 13 and I love ur channel.)
Hi Lydeeyaa, you can use instant yeast or active dry yeast in this recipe. See recipe notes for more details. We hope you enjoy this recipe!
Update: I egg washed them and sprinkled some salt then out of the oven brushed with copious amounts of honey & butter mixed together. They were delicious. Next time I will add more salt to the dough and use some bread flour in the mix.
Super easy — turned out delicious. We brushed the rolls with garlic butter (chopped up garlic, lightly browned in couple pats of butter). A definite keeper of a recipe. Thanks for making bread-baking less daunting!
This is my all-time favourite dinner roll recipe! I top them with melted butter and a bit of coarse sea salt – to die for!
Followed the recipe exactly and the rolls came out perfectly soft and flaky! I would only make two changes for my family: 1) add a little salt to the honey butter, and 2) since the heating element in my oven is on the bottom, the rolls bake more evenly on the middle rack. Will be making these often!
First time making dinner rolls, this recipe is not only super easy to follow, but so true that you get the softest, flakiest rolls. They were a hit in our Christmas dinner table. Bookmarked it make again for sure. I was lucky to find the right spot in my oven. Definitely recommend. Thank you so much!
I found this recipe the day before Christmas after we realized we forgot to get rolls and all the stores had closed. I did a test run using all purpose flour for dinner yesterday, and a second batch today for Christmas using bread flour. I found using bread flour that I had to use more flour, about 3 1/2 cups, but when I used all-purpose it ended up being 3 cups even. Also, pan placement is crucial, too high, and as the author says they brown too quickly, but too low and they don’t brown at all. You’ll have to find the sweet spot for your oven. Other than that, this recipe is great.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found that I needed more bread flour! I was concerned I did something wrong.
Super easy! Made these today so delicious! Will be my go to from now on. I brushed them with some melted honey butter yum
I just made these for Christmas dinner, and they were a huge hit! I don’t have a stand mixer, and they still came out great.
Regarding the overnight instructions to put shaped dough in a pan in the refrigerator overnight for up to 15 hours and then take out of the refrigerator at least 3 hours before baking…. is it OK to leave them on the counter longer than 3 hours after removing from the refrigerator? Or, if that’s a problem, can I leave them in the refrigerator longer than 15 hours?
Hi Donna, I wouldn’t leave the shaped rolls in the refrigerator for much longer than 15 hours for fear that they would begin to over-proof either in the refrigerator or when they sit at room temperature. No matter which overnight direction you choose, I would bake these within about 18 hours of making the dough. You could also freeze the dough if you need more time.
I made these for the first time the other day and left them on the counter for about 4 hrs and they came out amazing. I’m not sure if this is ok or if I just got lucky, but thought I’d chime in.
I’m glad yours turned out so well, Kristen. Unfortunately, mine were barely edible. Luckily, I did freeze several and I’m looking forward to following the directions to bake the frozen rolls. This will be a lesson learned for me… I’ll certainly try again!
Thank you for an excellent recipe! These are absolutely delicious!
Hi Sally,
I made these using bread flour (390g) and the dough hook attachment. The dough came out way sticky and didn’t have the ability to form into a ball. I ended up adding more flour to it in order for it to do so. Is it because I used bread flour?
Hi Jennifer, I don’t think you necessarily did anything wrong– and it wasn’t because of the bread flour. (I love using bread flour here.) A dough’s consistency relies on many variables including how you measure the flour, brand of flour, even the weather and humidity in the air. While this should be a sticky dough, it sounds like yours was a little too sticky. Don’t be afraid to add a little more flour at a time (as you did) until it’s soft, but still manageable to knead.
I’ve made these a couple of times and they have always been a big hit. And I’m going to be making more tomorrow for Christmas dinner. I was wondering if you could add cheese and herbs to the dough mixture or does it have to be done differently? Also could they be made with bread flour instead of AP flour.
Hi, I’m using my toaster oven ( Delonghi) to bake cookies and carrot bread, etc.It is big enough to fit 12” x 9” cookie sheet. Is there adjustment on the temperature and time? Thanks.
Hi Vicky, We have never tried baking these in a toaster oven so I can’t say for sure. If it uses conventional heat settings there shouldn’t be any adjustments. If it’s convection heat the general rule is to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees F and check for doneness earlier than the recipe says as they may still bake faster. Let us know how they turn out!
My family loves these dinner rolls. This has become my go-to recipe. I have not bought any premade in ages now. Thank you!
I like this recipe, can I use dry powder milk instead of whole milk?