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
We’ve been hosting Thanksgiving at my house for 10 years. Every year, I’ve tried my hand at home made rolls, and every year my family has suffered with dense, awful bread. This year, with this recipe, my family enthusiastically enjoyed my success!!! Thank you, Sally for helping me finally defeat my nemesis: homemade rolls.
I did “test rolls” from the batch last night, left the rest of the shaped rolls in the fridge. Oh boy! This wasn’t hard, and we had to talk ourselves out of having more (“Oh, we can make more tomorrow, right?)! The others are out of the fridge and I’m hoping they’ll be rising when I check on them. No reason to think they won’t, I trust you, Sally! THANK YOU for making me a star with my husband this Thanksgiving!
I am at a higher elevation.. they came out crunchy on the top and bottom but super soft in the middle.. I wonder what I did wrong, this is my first time dealing w bread.
Hi Sally,
I love all of your recipes and really wanna make these rolls, but I don’t have a stand mixer…….. is it still possible to do without one?
Hi Michelle! You can stir the dough manually and knead by hand, too.
Hi Sally, these rolls were a huge hit last thanksgiving. I’ve made them 3x. Every time I follow the recipe exactly, but when I do the initial combining in the mixer my dough doesn’t pull away—it sort of turns into a puddle of goo. I end up adding more flour (at least 1/2cup) and they turn out fine, but I wonder what is happening? This last time I even weighed my flour to make sure that I didn’t have an issue there. Any ideas? Thx! I love your site.
Hi Danielle! Are you at high altitude by chance? Adding a little more flour is completely normal and some days I add a little extra if the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl. I’m glad you love these!
I have been trying dinner roll recipes for 40 years and never found one that made me completely happy. This is, at last, the one! The rolls came together easily, rose beautifully in the time listed in the recipe (unusual!), and were soft, yeasty, and scrumptious! I just printed the recipe to double for Thanksgiving. Thanks so much!
These rolls are great…made them today as a test run for the holiday! I usually make a cloverleaf roll shape for Thanksgiving, but these reminded me of the shape my grandmother made (way back in the day) so I thought I’d try it. I’ve not used glass pans for rolls before, but that worked well. Thank you so much for the easy to follow recipe!
Hi Sally,
I am going to make these for thankgiving and wondering if there’s a preference of butter – European or regular?
Hi Danielle! I always use regular butter in this dinner rolls recipe 🙂 Happy baking!
I tried this recipe for the first time and the texture of the roll had lots of air pockets, not like the inside of the rolls as you picture. Any idea what I’ve done wrong? My oven has a proofing feature and I put a thick towel in the warming drawer with the lowest temp setting. I used Red Star active yeast since that was all I had. Thanks in advance for your help. ML
Hi Mary, it’s likely that the dough was over-proofed or was in an environment that was simply too warm. If too warm, the dough will rise too fast and actually begin cooking before the yeast has finished acting. I recommend a lower temperature and rising for a shorter period of time.
Thank you for reply which makes sense. I noticed the dough had risen nicely, but it was quite warm when I took it out of the bowl. I’ll try your recipe again using a different proofing method and let you know how it turns out. Thanks again for your helpful response. ML
By the way, I use an Instant Pot for my rises. For the first rise, I place the metal mixing bowl on the trivit (water level up to the trivit) , place a glass lid on the mixing bowl (or even the IP lid) and set the IP to yogurt. Then, for the second rise, I place a wire cooling rack on top of the IP , set whatever pan I’m going to use, keeping the IP set to yogurt. Saves space. Gives constant warmth.
Great recipe! For the first time today I used Platinum Superior yeast by Redstar and found the rise to be MUCH better than any yeast I have used in the past. It cost more…I think I had to order from Amazon. But WOW! Very impressive!
Second time making bread and everyone was impressed. I have always thought bread was intimidating until reading your blog. I live in the mountains so baking can be tricky, I added an extra egg and they came out great! Thanks again : )
Wonderful recipe! I was worried I rushed the first proof, and it’s cold here so proofing in the baking dish took a little longer than an hour, but they are scrumptious!
I made these for dinner tonight, and they’re delish! Super light and fluffy! My family loved them. Another great recipe, Sally!
Great recipe! My daughter is severely lactose-intolerant so I substituted with coconut milk and vegan butter. The rolls came out perfectly – light, fluffy, flavorful, with the right amount of sweetness. I have tried three different recipes and yours was by far the best! Thank you!
Hi Sally.
I have just made these dinner rolls. And they are cooling off with the honey butter topping. They came out better than i thought. I had never made any kind of bread from scratch. I’m really happy i was able to make them at all.
They are delicious! I stole a bite before dinner. But the family still hasn’t tasted it yet.
My mummy is a diabetic so i WILL be making the whole wheat rolls as well for her.
100%. Thank you!
Hi Sally,
Thanks for your clear and concise directions- appreciated. In South Africa we get active dry yeast in sachets only. one Sachet is supposed to be good for 6 cups of flour- I use 7 and get good results with two rises- And I’ve only been baking bread for 5 months. Now we don’t buy shop bread anymore. Home made bread has no added GMO soya, no artificial chemicals and no unknown additives- it’s just good.
Fantastic. I’ve tried a few other recipes for bread, they all used water; so result was a bit on the hard and chewy side although tasted nice. The logic of using fats in this recipe made sense so I tried this one as i’m hunting for a nice bread rolls recipe for bread rolls.
Impressed; came out fluffy, light(ish), springy, good air bubble consistency. I used extra strong white bread flour as meant for bread rolls or loaves, rather than “general flour”.
By far the best bread or bread roll recipe i’ve found to date, many thanks.
How good is this recipe for making a bread loaf instead of rolls? If I wanted to make the bread rolls a bit crispier on the tops (without burning them), what would you suggest?
Hi John! For a loaf, I would recommend leaving out the egg. (That’s what I’ve been doing lately when making a loaf from this recipe.) This will also help the loaf be a little sturdier and crispier on top since you’re missing some wet ingredient.
Thanks for the reply; working on a loaf without the egg as we speak.
Do you need to leave the yeast in the milk for a while (step 1) if using instant yeast and not active yeast, as some other recipes suggest you can mix instant yeast in with the dry ingredients then add the liquids instead? Thoughts? Does it make a difference with instant yeast which method you use to the end result? Thanks.
On another note, your books are for cookies etc – are you doing one for just bread and breaddy type recipes; ie not cakes, cookies, etc? Might be good to make the book for the collection!
This is such a great recipe! I add an extra tablespoon of butter during the kneading process and it makes the rolls so flakey, kinda like croissants! This is definitely my go to!
I am a complete novice when it comes to baking and yet these came out perfectly on my first try! I’ve only ever made cookies and muffins so I was abit nervous to work with yeast but the recipe, instructions and walk through video were so helpful that the rolls turned out fabulously! The USA have sweeter breads in general but these rolls are minimally sweet and better than most you’d find over here in the UK. Hubby was impressed and says I need to make some for subs and hotdogs so it’s definitely a recipe I will be keeping on the fridge 🙂 Thank you Sally!!
My first time baking with yeast. Your step by step instructions, photos, and videos gave me the confidence to go for it. The rolls came out great. Thank you!
I just made these for the first time and they turned out perfectly! Planning f to bake again and bring to a Friendsgiving. Thanks for another great recipe!!
Hi Sally
Tried these out last night and they turned out OK – more crumbly than chewy – not sure what I did wrong! I followed the recipe exactly, but had to use a pie dish instead of the 9×13 – would have be the cause? They are almost like half way to a scone rather than a chewy dinner roll. I’d love to try again and improve – any advice?
Hi Holly! I’m concerned the rolls tasted like a crumbly scone– were they over-baked? Did you make any ingredient substitutions? Make sure your dough rises high (doubles in size in that first rise) and that the yeast hasn’t expired.
I made these tonight for the first time, for guests. LOVE THEM. I’ve tried a few dinner roll recipes and this is by far the best. Thank you!
Can I cook these at prescribed time temp and bottom rack if something else is in the oven above it?
Follow the instructions to a T and these rolls turned out absolutely delicious. Thank you for posting this.
Hi Chris, same oven temperature– but the rolls may take a little longer in the oven if you’re baking something else too.
This was easy and delicious. Just came out of the oven and I ate 3 rolls already… they might not make it for dinner. I added the rosemary and garlic butter on top. On so yummy. Thank you for the recipe.
Just baked these and ate 2 already. Easy recipe and they are fabulous. Thank you for taking the time to share recipes.
Made this recipe for a dinner party and they turned out perfect! I added salted thyme roasted garlic butter to the top of the rolls. In the dough, I added cup of shredded white cheddar, thyme, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Goes great with soup! Thank you for the recipe!
Just took these rolls out of the oven – my oh my the whole house is smelling really good! I followed the recipe as is and they turned out fantastic. Used bread flour and my trusty mixer fitted with a dough hook. I wish there was a way to upload a picture.
Hi Sally! How do i know if my dinner rolls are cooked through aside from browning the top? This is my second time trying to make homemade roll, the first recipe i tried is a disaster. Thanks in advance for replying. Warm regards from the Philippines!
Here’s a little trick I use with yeast breads– lightly tap the top of a baked roll. If it sounds hollow, they’re done!