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. 🙂
This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
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, ciabatta, 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 and homemade brioche, which are also rich doughs. (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.
- Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
- Brown Butter Sage Dinner Rolls
- Honey Butter Rolls
- Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls
- Oatmeal Molasses Dinner Rolls
- Multigrain Rolls – Here is my Multigrain Bread recipe that you can turn into rolls.
They’re also fantastic with a simple swipe of homemade honey butter or homemade cinnamon butter.
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 with slow cooker turkey meatballs, 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.
Soft 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. This recipe is also in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
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 (4 Tbsp; 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 at room temperature 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 or Glass Mixing Bowl and Wooden Spoon / 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
Reader Comments and Reviews
Is the oven temperature for a conventional oven or a fan oven.
Thsnks
Hi Griff, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
Hey Im on my second try with these buns and i cant get them to rise. What could i be doing wrong?
The dough forms a skin and stays the same size. When i first did it the weather was warm, this time it is colder so i found a warm spot but no luck
Hi Gabrielle, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Is your yeast expired by chance? Or is your milk too warm? If the milk is too hot, it can kill the yeast and prevent the dough from rising properly. Since it’s happening on both days, it sounds like it may be one of these two issues. Our Baking with Yeast Guide may also be helpful to review. Let us know if we can help further!
I have been making these for couple years now I cut recipe in half and not make so many recently I found great way to make them in muffin pan brown all way around and put two pieces and get pull apart rolls wish I could add a picture
Can I change the whole milk to 2% milk in the recipe.
Hi Aubrey, that will work in a pinch.
How do I proof my red star active dry yeast when using the soft dinner roll recipe. I want to make sure it is still working before making the whole recipe. I have made it on numerous occasions and love it but this is new yeast
NO I have never asked this before
Hi Sandra! We do this in step 1 – if the yeast bubbles up, it’s active.
Can you use this recipe for sandwich rolls? Hoagie or hamburger
Hi Sue, these will make very light and fluffy hamburger or hot dog buns and we fear they wouldn’t support the meat very well. Though you can still certainly try it. You may want to try our bread bowls dough instead. We’re unsure exactly how many either recipe would make, so let us know if you try it!
Thank you. I will give it a try and let you know.
All I can say is wow. I made the Cheddar Dinner Rolls, but I modified slightly by having 50% whole wheat & 50% white flour. I also added 2 tbs Avocado oil. Best buns ever!!!
Thank you for all of your great recipes.
I made these rolls before and they didn’t have enough flavor. What can be done, more salt or sugar?
Hi Stephanie, we have several other dinner roll recipes on the site that have flavors incorporated into them you could try! Sea salt herb rolls, sweet potato dinner rolls, brown butter sage dinner rolls, and honey butter rolls.
Hi Sally,
Love this recipe. Wondering if it can be doubled?
Thank you!
Hi Victoria, for the best results, we recommend making separate batches rather than doubling. So glad you enjoy these rolls!
This recipe is perfect! Fantastic Rolls! PLEASE NOTE!!!
This recipe makes the best hamburger buns I’ve ever made!
Thanks, I’m so happy with this recipe.
I also made Bread Pudding with this recipe. It was excellent!
Hi,
I was wondering if I could use a glass baking dish for this recipe. If so, do I need to adjust my cook times/temp?
Thank you.
Hi Jess, we prefer baking the rolls in a glass 9×13 inch baking pan because we find they brown a little too quickly in metal.
I’ve used this recipe for a few years now. Always turns out great. I’ve tried other recipes, this one is the best.
They’re good with AP flour, but turn out amazing with bread flour.
My to go recipe whenever i want soft buns. From the first time i have tried this recipe til now, the results are exceptionally amazing,
Made these dinner rolls exactly as instructed and they came out literally perfect! My family said they taste like restaurant quality rolls! I topped them with the suggested honey butter. Soft pillowy inside and nice golden top. Delicious!
Hello there! Is this recipe okay to double or triple to make about 3 dozen?
Hi Maddy! For best results we recommend making separate batches instead of multiplying.
I made the rolls and they rose really well but were hard to the touch after baking. Any advice on what went wrong?
Hi Bethany! Could they have been over-baked by chance?
Hi Sally…I’ve just made these rolls and they are lovely – definitely the best I’ve made. I used my bread making machine to produce the dough. It was quite moist and therefore I needed to use a fair bit of flour to enable the kneeding, cutting and shaping. Should I reduce the milk or increase the flour next time around? Many thanks for your help.
Hi Mandy, There are a lot of variables that go into the consistency of dough, even down to the weather and humidity in the air. There’s nothing wrong with adding just a little more flour to bring the dough into a less sticky and knead-able consistency. We’re glad you enjoyed the rolls!
Love this recipe! Is it okay to switch out the regular flour for whole wheat flour?
Hi Meg, 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.
Best dinner rolls!
I do a lot of baking, and these are by far my favorite dinner rolls. Great recipe, thank you.
These rolls are fantastic! The only thing I did different was I brushed egg wash on top before baking (1egg + 1TBL water, mixed), because the first batch I made wouldn’t brown in my oven. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly and they were perfect.
Hi, I love this recepie and have made them before as rolls! They turned out great!
This time I want to try shaping them more like hot dog buns – should I do anything differently for this new shape?
Thanks!!
Hi Em, these will make very light and fluffy hamburger or hot dog buns and we fear they wouldn’t support the meat very well. Though you can still certainly try it. You may want to try our bread bowls dough instead. We’re unsure exactly how many either recipe would make, so let us know if you try it!
Made these this weekend for Easter dinner. Have never made homemade bread before and decided to give it a whirl. These were a winner! I followed the recipe and instructions exactly as directed.
The best and only recipe for dinner rolls you’ll ever need!
I made these today for our Easter dinner. They are delicious
I made these today for our Easter dinner. It’s a winner! They are delicious!!! Next time I will make two batches and freeze some after baking them. Thank you for the recipe.
I have a process question- if you’re using instant yeast as called for in this recipe, why do you need to let it sit for 5 minutes in the warm milk mixture? Instant yeast doesn’t need to activate like standard yeast was my understanding. Does this 5 minutes serve a different purpose?
You are correct that instant yeast does not need to be proofed, however I still take the few minutes to do it, just to be certain the yeast has not expired. I recommend it.
Hey I’m thinking of making these for my family inspired by our trip to the Cayman Islands. We had mango dinner rolls there which were basically your rolls with chopped up mango inside. Can I add chopped mango to this recipe? Also can I half this recipe?
Hi Emma, we haven’t tried these with mango. You could certainly halve the recipe and bake the rolls in an 8×8 pan. It would be best to divide the egg – to halve an egg, simply crack it, whisk, and then use half. Or, the baked rolls freeze wonderfully, so you could bake the full batch and save half for another time. Let us know how they turn out!
I just made these for the first time, and they were freaking perfect.
• I used active dry yeast, and gave the first rise about 1.75 hours.
• I kneaded by hand.
• I used 2 cups of AP, and 1 cup whole wheat flour, then used AP to dust during the kneading process.
• I weighed the full dough ball with a kitchen scale, then divided that by 15 to portion out exact-sized rolls—even though the recipe doesn’t require it.
• I baked for 22 minutes in a glass 9 x 13 pan, in a gas oven on the middle rack. (I don’t have a digital thermometer, but my meat thermometer read almost 200 degrees. Not sure if that’s good or bad?)
• I lightly brushed with melted salted butter after they came out.
• They were very nicely browned on all sides, with an amazing, soft crumb inside.
Thank you, Sally!
I only have salted butter. Do I omit the added salt or use half? Thank you!
Hi Marie, If using salted butter, you can reduce the added salt to 3/4 teaspoon, or leave it out if that suits your tastes. Enjoy!
Mine are on 2nd rise right now and I can’t wait to try them! Thanks for the recipe. Will keep ya posted. Very easy to make
I have made these before and love them! Was wondering if I can use 2% milk instead of whole and what difference that would make to the rolls. Thank you!
Hi Jessica, 2% milk will be fine here. The dough may be very very slightly less soft from the lower amount of fat.
If doubling- do you need to double rise time?
Hi Lauren, we recommend making two batches instead of doubling.