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
I may never get store bought dinner rolls again. These came out fantastic! They were soft and delicious. What a great recipe!
I made them exactly to the je recipe except used salted butter, and they turned out absolutely gorgeous. Also used a cloverleaf roll design.
Hello, I was wondering if I should brush the rolls with egg wash before I bake them?
Hi Nathalia, there’s no need to unless you want to add a topping before baking such as oats, nuts, seeds, etc– that way they will stick. These rolls are brushed with a little honey butter after baking. (Optional addition but recommended.)
Hi would it affect the recipe if I put half the sugar in as my partner is diabetic. Thanks
Hi Katie, that should work just fine for a less sweet roll. Enjoy!
Hi thanks that’s great. Could I ask just one more question please. I have baked the rolls in a glass oven dish and they are the right colour on top but a little wet on the bottom is that right? (End up after brushing with butter tipping them upside down on to a metal sheet to finish off the bottom) Thanks
Ps even with this I can’t make enough mums friends now asking for them
Are these supposed to taste super yeasty? Last time I made them, they did and I’m not sure if this is right. And if not, than why they tasted this way
I see that you replied to your own comment- I think that I read that another way you can use half and half, just reduce a little of the butter!
Also, if you ever don’t have half and half or cream, you can do the opposite, too(milk plus butter, I mean), depending on the recipe of course.
There is advice on the internet about this 🙂
I bet that dry milk would have been fine. I’ve read if you do something like that to just add the dry milk with the dry ingredients and use water ( a little less than the milk that was called for) in place of milk then.
These came out great! I actually made them with Oat Milk and they were just as fluffy and delicious. I also made the rolls a bit on the bigger side and left them in a little longer. Next time I’ll make them smaller for a faster bake. So good! Thank you for the recipe!
Hi. Did it and loved it. Thank u so much sally.. but I have a question, how long do u think will the dinner rolls last? And, can I refrigerate them?
I am a novice bread baker and these rolls were a total home run! Soft, airy deliciousness!! I will be coming back to this wonderful recipe many times! Thank you!
Thank you for this recipe !!! I’m delighted with the results First time ever making dinner rolls and these came out perfectly. Thank you again for sharing.
I wanted to reply that I did use the half n half and water to make one cup. These rolls were delicious. I used regular flour and put it in my bread machine. The dough was easy to work with. I ended up covering them with foil during the last 6-minutes. They came out light and fluffy. Definite keeper!!!
Do you think I could adapt these to work as hamburger buns?
Hi Aimee, These will make very light and fluffy hamburger buns and we 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. Let us know if you give either a try!
these were amazing!! super soft & yummy! I will be making these again!
These rolls are totally amazing! I couldn’t believe how soft and tasty they were. A real triumph! I’ll definitely be making these again. Thank you so much for this recipe. will try some of your many others.
Made these tonight. I used my stand mixer using the exact amount of flour (400 grams) + 1 tablespoon. Although the dough appeared to be too sticky, I buttered my hands and proceeded to put it into a rising bowl, covered it, put it on top of the gas range, set my oven to “keep warm”, and set the timer. 13 minutes less than 2 hours I formed 13 rolls and again set the timer for an hour. Brushed the tops with butter and baked for 20 minutes. Results are that the new title in my recipe book for these rolls is, My happy dance dinner rolls”.
They were light, moist, fluffy, and delish. Thank you!
Sally, I love your recipes. I’m a home cook that rarely baked anything from scratch, except pies, until about 2 months ago. I ran across several of your bread recipes and they’ve been my go-to recipes ever since. Love these rolls, they turned out great. It’s a lot of fun learning to bake breads, cakes, pastries, etc. Thank you!
First time making dinner rolls and they turned out PERFECT! Whole family is raving! I added a bit of thyme since I was serving them with soup, and now I think I need to make another batch of plain so we can also make some jam buns! Super easy and clear to follow, probably one of my most successful recipes done on the first try!
I used powdered (dry) whole milk and they turned out spectacular. Chewy, soft, with a hint of sweetness. Thank you for the recipe.
I made this recipe and it was a hit!!!
I added more honey!!
Thanks!!
How many calories per roll?
Hi Felinda, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Wow, made these today and they turned out great. I’m not sure I understand what others mean by saying they are good dry. I found this a great recipe and will make it again and again. Thanks for sharing
My first time trying to make yeast rolls, as I like to think I’m a wonderful cook, but not a great baker… absolute perfection! I did need to add a bit more flour as you recommended if the dough was too wet to knead. I am so thrilled! My mom and mother in law can’t wait to try! This is a forever recipe for my family and I! Thank you so much! Xoxo
Superb soft tasty rolls. I halved the sugar (plenty sweet) and put it with the yeast/warm water mix for 20 minutes; omitted (forgot) brushing tops with melted butter, but still soft; dusted with rice flour (tastier crust); divided into 12 X 73gram portions. The recipe us a definite keeper. Thank you!
What a success! Thank you Sally for such a great recipe. As a beginner at bread making your tips and tricks really helped. The only thing I struggled with was trying to guess when the bread was fully baked because it had a nice brown colour on the top but being in the tray I couldn’t take the rolls out and check the bottom. I think they came out OK after 22 minutes and they were really soft and sweet. I’d definitely like to try some more of your bread recipes next.
This is a great recipe – I used a mix of flours – whole meal and plain. (1 cup
Wholemeal) and glazed the rolls with milk wash and sesame seeds. The result was light and fluffy. Perfect! I did take a pic but can’t see where to upload to
Hi Sally, I tried this recipe once & loved it. I was looking for a buttermilk rolls recipe & wondered if it would work in this recipe, substituting buttermilk for the whole milk called for. Thank you
This recipe is quite simple to make, but the only complaint I have is that the soft buns turn out to be too dry. I’ve made this recipe tons of times, but it always tends to be dry. Yes, I’ve measured my flour correctly, but I think this recipe tends to be dry due to its low fat content. So if your looking for a bette recipe that stays softer for longer, I recommend ‘joy the baker’s’ Parker house rolls recipe.
I made this over the weekend for my family and they loved it! Thank you for the recipe!
Did you use regular flour? 1/4 cup of butter and an egg makes a rich dough. Mine were not dry.
I’m not sure why the yeast needs to proof. Almost all bakers say that proofing rapid rise or instant yeast is not recommended. I made the recipe as directed (with bread flour) and found that 400g made a very soft dough. I added an additional 3T of flour but it still was very soft. I think the rolls needed a bit more structure. I would modify the recipe to skip the blooming and add at least an additional 50g of flour.
I’ve made them a few ways now and if I don’t let the yeast proof they are very dense. I’ve never needed even an extra tablespoon of flour.
I have made these twice now, my family devours them. I used ap flour the first time and started with bread flour the second time. I found the dough too soft and sticky. After the 3rd tablespoon of extra flour, I threw the dough away and started again with ap flour. They were perfect.
I am only using ap from now on.
My rolls are now on their second proving but iv just realised that I made the mistake of watching the video only. On the video the dough is hand made (like I did) and there is practically no kneading.
I left to prove for 2 hours, turned onto floured surface then rolled and divided into 15. They are now on second prove. Iv just realised on READING the method that I should have kneaded the dough as I do when making my loaves. I will still bake them when the hour is up. And I will give you the results .
These were da’ bomb! I consider myself a relatively experienced baker but not with yeast. Fast forward to 2021 and I have a LOT of time at home. This dough came together beautifully but midway through the first rise I realized I had forgotten the salt. Following the first rise, I spread the salt on the counter with some flour and proceeded to knead it in. I split the dough into 15 balls in a 9×13 pan. They rose, I baked, and they turned out beautifully! The video was a super help in all aspects. I almost never comment on a recipe but maybe my experience will encourage others to try something new.