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
The rolls turned out incredibly soft and pillowy (despite the fact that I swapped out one cup of AP flour for whole wheat). Sally always gives really good and clear instructions on how to proceed with the recipe. Love, love the rolls and I will make them again for sure!
This was such a fun and delicious recipe! I prefer wheat rolls, so I substituted 2/3 of the all purpose flour with whole wheat. To make up for the added density, I used two eggs instead of one. Other substitutions include almond milk for whole and melted butter for room temperature. With both rises in a warm oven, they turned out absolutely perfect. Fluffy, light, and delicious flavor.
Half of the rolls will be eaten with breakfast and dinner this week and half are in the freezer to be enjoyed later. Thanks for the help with meal prep!
These rolls turned out fantastic! Super soft, so soft that my child who just got braces was able to eat them
I will be making them again and again!
I’m very new to baking – so far I have made the artisan “no knead” bread from Sallys website which was a winner!) and also these rolls.
Like the recipe suggests mine needed 2 tablespoons of extra flour as it seemed a bit sticky in the bowl. All though I wonder if after the full knead time it would have been OK.
I also found that I needed to add a small sprinkling of flour to divide it as it was too sticky without.
Rolls came out fantastic – I make this mainly for my sons lunch boxes and he will love these. Soft rich and buttery inside and browned outside, perfect.
Next time I’d leave them in a few mins longer to brown the outside more and maybe even add a egg wash with some seeds for texture before baking.
Cheers Sally!
This will be my go to dinner roll recipe. My husband and son loved them. As did I. I made 15 last night and today they are all gone. So guess what. I’m making another batch right now . I did not have a problem with it being too wet. They are light and soft.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for this amazing recipe!!! I’ve never successfully made dinner rolls before and omg these turned out amazing. So fluffy and bouncy and soft and full of flavour. THANK YOU!
I’ve tried this recipe more than once thinking g maybe I did measurements incorrect or skipped ingredients, after reading comments I see a lot of people had the same sort of feeling about it. These aren’t your standard restraunt dinner roll you’d get. It’s more of a heavy biscuit texture in the inside than that light and airy roll texture. These were bland so I ended up topping them off with garlic butter and just made it work. If u make this be aware that the texture is more biscuity than roll.
Followed recipe precisely. Dough was a bit wet but nice and light. Great flavor and texture. Sprinkled with Maldon sea salt after brushing with butter. Only issue was that even with an extra thirty minutes on each rise, mine did not rise fully. I assume it was the cold kitchen. I had to bake them anyway because it was time for dinner. Will try again.
These dinner rolls were sooo amazing. So nice and fluffy and super easy to do, definitely making them again. I made half the batch thinking it would two much for two people and I ended up having 3 right out of the oven, so good. Thank you
This has become my go to recipe… Never fails, easy to follow.
Thanks so much for sharing it with everyone!!
These were a big hit at our Hygge New Years Eve party. They are perfect, and exactly what a dinner roll should be, from the crust to the rise, to the flavour everything is perfect. The video was extremely helpful to watch before I started the recipe.
Okay, so I made these for Christmas dinner and did a real bone-head move! I followed the instructions and then I reached the part where you knead the dough in the mixer and I look over and realize I forgot to add the butter! Well, I threw the butter in and continued to knead. Then I added 1 TBSP at a time (2) total and the kneaded by hand just a bit and believe it or not they turned out great! I’m gonna call this one a Christmas Miracle! Not sure why they turned out but I’ll take this as a win! Won’t make that mistake again! 🙂
My new go to for dinner rolls. The family loved them so much over the holiday, I had to make three batches. Can this be baked at a loaf?
Hi Jack! We recommend following our sandwich bread recipe instead – enjoy!
I don’t have mixer what can I use?
Hi Cathy, see step 1 for alternate details. “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/rubber 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 rubber spatula is a better choice.*”
I’d like to add in some whole wheat flour to these rolls. Is that doable? I’d like to make a roll with just a little whole wheat. So I can have the benefit of whole wheat, but not with an overly wheaty taste.
Hi Michelle, you could replace 1 cup of the regular flour in this recipe with whole wheat flour, but expect the rolls to taste a little heavy. Or, we recommend these whole wheat rolls if you want to use 100% whole wheat flour.
Such an easy dough – I’ve used this to make cinnamon rolls for the past two Christmas mornings and they’ve come out beautifully!!
Great recipe! I have successfully baked many recipes from Sally’s… just like the other this turned out fantastic. I’m curious why some bakers had to add extra flour. I did not have to add any extra flour. The rolls turned out fluffy and delicious. Thanks again for the great recipe, the rolls were a huge hit.
Just made a batch for family Christmas dinner and they turned out great! Thank you
Recipe calls for too much flour. I shouldve known something was off when it was crumbly instead of tacky. I added a bit more butter and water but they turned out like biscuits instead of rolls. Straight in the trash
I’m VERY new to baking but I just made this recipe yesterday and I actually noticed the same! I did stop adding flour after 2 3/4 cups. I was mixing by hand and noticed it was getting difficult to incorporate the added flour and was worried it would be too “dry”. I was nervous they wouldn’t come out but they were fantastic! What I’m learning is that you want to get the right consistency(the pictures and video were very helpful for me). I have had to break away from exact measurements a couple of times in other recipes too. I hope you find a roll recipe that works for you!
Have used this recipe half a dozen times at least (many more of your recipes even more)! Always pleased with the results! Not only my holiday baking, but my everyday baking has significantly improved since finding this site. Thank you for sharing!
Way too wet of a dough when following the recipe. Like a fellow reviewer I had to add at least another cup of flour before it began to pull away from the sides of the bowl. I am an experienced baker. I tend to stay away from recipes that don’t list ingredients by weight I should have followed my rule and tried this recipe.
This recipe lists the flour by weight which is helpful. However, like with you the dough was too wet so I wound up adding more flour which wasn’t a problem for me because I’m very aware of how the dough should feel when fully or excessively hydrated. My only issue was feeling I’d done something wrong after seeing how wet the dog was at first. My dough balls, which are comfortably resting on the cold porch, turned out fine and based on my great experiences with other recipes on this site, I fully expect the usual “wow!” after I bring them to temp and bake them for Christmas dinner tonight.
How interesting! I’m VERY new to baking but I just made this recipe yesterday and I actually had to stop adding flour after 2 3/4 cups. I was mixing by hand and noticed it was getting difficult to incorporate the added flour and was worried it would be too “dry”. I was nervous they wouldn’t come out but they were fantastic!
My favourite bread roll receipe I sometimes add Italian Seasoning and spice to change it up. Always comes out well and quick when using Instant Rise yeast. my “go to ” buns.
My rolls turned out like biscuits, so I’m hoping someone can help figure out where I went wrong. They tasted fine, but were not fluffy. I followed the measurements as written with all purpose flour, except that I used salted butter. I do not have a mixer so I did the mixing and kneading by hand. This was my first time kneading, and I did it for about 5 minutes. I did the first rise for about 2 hours, and second rise for about 40 minutes. The first rise didn’t seem as high as I have seen in other videos and didn’t seem to have a whole lot of gas. Could it be I didn’t knead enough? Or maybe I didn’t let it rise enough?
Hi Brent, Too much kneading will lead to a dense tasting bread or roll because the gluten has been over-worked – or perhaps your dough didn’t rise enough before baking? Too much flour can also make breads dry and dense, so be sure to carefully spoon and level or use a scale to measure. You may find our Baking with Yeast Guide very helpful!
First of all, well done for trying a new recipe! Beginners should knead a bit longer, since you won’t be quite as quick at it right away. 10 minutes at least would help develop the gluten properly. The dough may have been too dry, as well, which can result in less rise and fluffiness. Good luck!
Can I use buttermilk instead of whole milk? I only have 2% and buttermilk.
Hi Lauren, yes, you can use buttermilk instead with no changes to the recipe. The 2% milk would also be fine.
Ok to do one and a half times the recipe?
Hi Jen, for best results, we recommend making separate batches.
Fantastic recipe.
Do you know if this recipe works with a 1:1 gluten free flour?
Hi Emily, we haven’t tested these rolls with a 1:1 gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of the results. Although some readers report using an all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour in many of our recipes with success, you should expect slightly different results anytime you substitute ingredients. Let us know if you give it a try.
Emily, I’m curious if you tried this recipe with either GF All-purpose flour or GF 1:1 Baking Flour (i.e Bob’s Red Mill) if so how’d it turn out and did you have to include any other ingredients for it to work? Thank you in advance.
Love this recipe and it’s a favorite for my family. Asked to make the rolls every time we have a get together. Delicious.
Could I add raisins to make these a breakfast roll?
Yes you can add 1 cup (140g) raisins. Add them in step two when it says “add the remaining flour.”
How do I no they are done inside .
Hi Pat, After 20-25 minutes the rolls should be golden brown and then insides should be soft and fluffy.
This is my first recipe using yeast ever, and they turned out wonderfully! The video was so helpful. I needed three extra tablespoons of flour and I was worried at the time that the dough was too wet, but it all worked out in the end and they were delicious