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 (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 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
Made these tonight and I don’t even have appropriate words for how delicious they are! My great-grandma used to make pepperoni rolls but nobody has her recipe. I asked other family members but everyone now uses frozen bread dough. I was compelled & determined to make them from scratch and your recipe helped me achieve my mission. I shoved a couple pepperoni pieces in them and sealed & rolled shut before the 2nd rise. It brings back such memories of baking with my grandma as a young child and smelling something delicious baking in the oven. Thank you x infinity!
Hello from Europe – can you tell me the quantity of fresh yeast I would need for the recipe for the soft dinner rolls?
Thank you and best wishes,
You will find my Baking with Yeast Guide very helpful!
Hi, I am a first-time bread baker and I loved the ease of this recipe. Two things: I cannot see the video anywhere on this page for some reason. Like there is literally no play video button anywhere that I can see. I think it might just be me because other commenters have watched the video.
Secondly, my rolls are in the oven but they aren’t browning on the top. I preheated the oven for 15 minutes before putting them in. How do I fix that?
Hi Haniya, Do you see the sentence “Let’s start with a video tutorial.” and directly under that is a horizontal photo of the rolls. In the center of that photo there is a triangle that is the play button which you can click on. You might have to disable your ad blockers.
How long were your rolls in the oven? Mine take 20-25 minutes before the tops being to brown.
My 5 year old love this recipe so did I. I made them with cheddar cheese and omg weren’t they fabulous! Fool proof recipe as always Sally . Loads of love
Is it possible to over-knead this type of dough in a stand mixture? Does it make the end result different? thanks!
It is– too much kneading will lead to a dense tasting bread or roll because the gluten has been over-worked.
Hey Sally, Trying to figure out where i failed in making this recipe for dinner rolls.
I thought all went well with the dough rising , but they didn’t rise during baking.
Any ideas why this could have gone wrong?
Hi Becky! A few things and it’s a lot to type out so I’m going to send you to my Baking with Yeast Guide. Specifically, see my What if My Dough Isn’t Rising? section. This also applies to breads rising in the oven. See if any of that helps for next time.
Your recipes are always foolproof! These are amazing! Soft and delicious, thank you for explaining the difference in doughs as well it helps me to understand baking bread. Thanks for sharing !
I tried this recipe last year for your challenge and have made them at least 15 times in the past year! Favorite soft rolls recipe ever! Thanks for the consistently great recipes Sally. We love your site.
Hello Sally, I have a great success today to follow your recipe to bake the dinner roll for the first time in life. I like the softness and the texture and more importantly, it is easy to do it.
If I want the roll to taste more salty or sweet, can I just add in more salt or sugar to modify the taste? What about if I try to mix in a small quantity of dried raisins?
I am a beginner in baking soft bread, despite I frequently bake baguette, the only bread I know. Your recipe has boosted my confident in trying out other types of bread. Thank you again.
Hi Patrick! I’m so glad you enjoyed these dinner rolls, thank you for leaving the review! You can certainly add more salt and/or sugar to fit your tastes with no other changes to the recipe. You can also add raisins to the dough, too. Enjoy!
I loved this recipe. I am gaining more confidence in baking. I will make these rolls every Sunday. You are a God sent.
Hi Sally! I wanted to pop on to tell you how amazing your recipes are. I’ve been interested in baking for sometime. I never understood all the ins and out so I felt incompetent. Well by following your thoroughly explained recipes and guides I feel so much more comfortable baking. I’ve made these rolls twice now with great success both times. I’ve made some other recipes as well with the same results. Your guide to yeast is so thought out and explained so well that I no longer fear yeast. It really is just another ingredient. I love, love, love that you’ve decided to take the time to share your wealth of knowledge with the world and I appreciate it more than you know! You are now my go to for all things baking! You truly are amazing and your teaching skills are simply the best! I hope you have a great day and again I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me! P.S. My other favorite recipe is your pizza crust, oh my goodness! Who would of thought I could make pizza from scratch and impress my family so much!! Big hugs from Louisiana!
Can these be used as Runza rolls?
Loved this super easy recipe, added kosher salt after brushing with melted butter. Huge hit with the family!
Baking in the oven now. Best recipe ever for dinner rolls. I put all wet ingredients in bottom of bread maker, put in flour and made a ‘well’ for the yeast. Put on dough setting and let the bread maker do the kneading. Let rise until double and shaped the rolls. I have patience for kneading. This is a fantastic recipe.
Fantastic recipe, another winner Sally!
I Made these today and baked in my cast iron skillet.They turned out Delicious and will try more of your recipes. Thank you so much for sharing your Love of baking!
Tried this last night and it was amazing! Soft and fluffy and tastes wonderful!
Thank you Sally 🙂
So I know this is my fault for not following the recipe exactly, but I didn’t have access to an electric mixer tonight and tried to make it by hand. When initially mixing all of the ingredients, it was so sticky that I panicked and added more flour until it was knead-able… I realize now as my bread is rising that I should have mixed it with a wooden spoon for a lot longer probably?
Do you know how this will affect my rolls? Would it be better to make it into a full loaf instead of the rolls? I’m imagining they’ll be a lot less soft. 🙁
Wow! This is now my go-to bun recipe. I tried them with ap flour, but bread flour is a thousand times better. Thanks for the great recipe!!
OMGEEE!!!! I was always afraid of dough recipes as mine always came out… NOT RIGHT!!! But for the love of all that is holy, these were freaking awesome!!! I’m my son’s new best friend…’these taste like heaven mommy’ needless to say within 30min coming out the oven, there’s was a fight over the last one…and guess what…THIS MOMMY WON 🙂
This is the best recipe I have ever used! The first time they were perfect. The second time I had no milk, so used evaporated milk and I think it was even better! Bread flour is a must. The left over evaporated milk is great for coffee cream.
These are excellent dinner rolls. I feel I’ve tried nearly every recipe out there for a basic dinner roll and nothing comes close to these. They’re very soft and tender as Sally explains. We had them with spaghetti last night and my family practically fought over who got the last one!
I have never commented on a recipe and usually kind of just come and go, but this recipe was just so good that I felt I had to leave a review. It’s not only super easy but the bread is soooooooooooooooo so so soft. I’ve made various breads before but they’ve never turned out quite like this one. I’ll be keeping this recipe in my bookmarks for when I need a study break!!!! Thank you so much! ❤️
This recipe was seemingly straight forward but was not clear that the yeast was in fact instant. I then reduced my instant yeast thinking it was regular active. As a result my rolls didn’t rise. Instead of listing a yeast brand – suggest it edited to the yeast type with brand suggested. I love this blog and this is the first time I’ve had a failure! 🙁
Hi Ashton, Thank you for trying this recipe and I’m sorry that this wasn’t clear! There is a numbered list in the above blog post and number 2 states that you can use active dry yeast or instant yeast, but if using active dry yeast, the rise times will be a little longer. I recommend Red Star Platinum Superior Baking Yeast, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers.
Oh my gosh, I have never had any luck making bread but following your recipes, step by step instructions with video means I have made these rolls and they are the BEST!! Will they make Christmas day or will I have to make a new batch . I have also made the jalapeño bread and the cranberry bread and all are amazing and so much easier than every imagined. Thank you Sally, you are the best.
This is a great roll recipe.
, always turn out good! Quick question: I have completed the steps,through step 6. They have chilled over night, and I will do the second rise, I realize that I forgot to grease my pan how bad are they going to stick?
Tried this recipe tonight for burger sliders! I halved the recipe except for the egg, I used the whole one. I reduced the liquid by 20 grams to adjust. Also added in 40 g of mashed sweet potato. It was just divine! Halving the recipe made enough dough to make nine 50g balls that I put in a 8×8 glass baking tray. Will definitely be making this again!!
Is there a multi purpose dough? I’d be looking to make pepperoni rolls and just adding a little pepperoni in the center – would that work with this recipe?
It definitely would, yes! This dough is great for all kinds of rolls.
I made these for the first time for Thanksgiving; they turned out perfect! The directions were easy to follow and everyone loved them.
These turned out fantastic! Perfect Thanksgiving rolls! I am planning on making them again with country ham for a party appetizer, any tips for making them smaller/party-size?
I made these the other day and I knew I should have added more flour. After kneading in mixer the dough seemed way to sticky but figured I would follow recipe. They didn’t turn out.
Not one to give up I tried again today. They came together but, again, after kneading in the stand mixer they turned to a gluey mess. So I threw the dough out on the counter and kneaded in some more flour until the dough seemed like the right consistency.
They just came out of the oven the kitchen smells wonderful, and the rolls came out as you wold expect them to.
Will keep the recipe but omit kneading in stand mixer and figure in a little more flour.