Homemade dinner rolls! Make the best soft and fluffy dinner rolls with this easy recipe! These yummy rolls are so simple to make.
My family can't get enough homemade bread! Homemade bread is just one of those things that can't be beat.
The smell alone is enough to bring even my pickiest kid to the table. But a lot of people find working with yeast and making homemade dinner rolls to be intimidating.
So, let's fix that!
I've included step-by-step photos, tips, and plenty of notes to help you make amazing dinner rolls.
How to make dinner rolls (from scratch)
Begin by mixing 3 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, salt, milk, butter, and egg in a mixing bowl until combined. Continue adding flour until a soft dough forms.
The dough should cling to the dough hook and clear the sides of the bowl, and the dough should feel soft and slightly sticky but shouldn't come off on your fingers when you pinch it.
After kneading, cover the dough and let it rise.
After the dough rises, divide the dough into 24 pieces. There are notes just below the recipe that explain how I divide the dough.
Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Cover, and let the rolls rise.
Once the rolls have risen the second time, bake the rolls. If the rolls brown too quickly, tent the rolls with aluminum foil.
The rolls should be golden brown. Once the rolls have finished baking, brush the hot rolls with melted butter before serving.
Tips
- Temperature: Temperature is important when working with yeast. The milk should be warm, but it shouldn't be hot. If it's too hot, it can kill the yeast.
- Using a kitchen thermometer is the best way to check the temperature of the milk. There're about $10, and you can use a kitchen thermometer for a variety of cooking and baking tasks.
- Butter and eggs: the butter and egg should be at room temperature. Otherwise, if they're cold, they can bring down the temp of the dough and cause the rolls to rise more slowly.
- Yeast: Using fresh yeast is key! Old yeast can lead to a dough that doesn't rise.
- Flour: A range in flour measurements is given. You only need to use enough flour to form a smooth, slightly sticky dough.
Recipe FAQs
You can make the dough by hand. I recommend adding an additional minute or two to the kneading time if mixing by hand.
You can! If using active dry yeast, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm milk in a small bowl. Let it stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy. If the yeast doesn't foam, start over, or the rolls won't rise.
You can! Make the rolls through step 9. Place them in a freezer-safe container, and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Let the rolls thaw and rise through the second rise before baking. I recommend increasing the amount of yeast by 20% to help with the yeast die-off in the freezer.
Storage
The rolls should be store, covered, at room temperature. These rolls should keep for up to 3 days.
More dinner roll recipes!
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Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 4 -5 cups all purpose flour divided
- 2 tablespoons instant yeast
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups warm milk¹ about 105-110 F
- 6 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
Instructions
- Grease a rimmed 9x13-inch baking dish. Set aside.
- Combine 3 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, salt, warm milk, 6 tablespoons butter, and egg in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Mix on low using the dough hook until the ingredients are combined.
- Continue adding flour, ¼ cup at a time, until the dough clears the sides of the bowl and clings to the dough hook. The dough should feel smooth and slightly sticky but shouldn't come off on your fingers if you pinch it.
- Increase speed continue to knead on low for 2 minutes.
- Cover the bowl.
- Let the dough rise for 30 minutes in a warm, draft-free spot.
- Uncover, and deflate the dough by punching down.
- Divide dough to form 24 rolls.²
- Place rolls onto prepared baking pan.
- Cover, and let rolls rise for an additional 30 minutes in a warm draft-free place.
- Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 375 F.
- Bake the rolls for 12-15 minutes, or until light golden brown.³
- Remove rolls and brush with the 2 tablespoons melted butter.
Video
Notes
- Anything from skim to whole milk will work. Whole milk will give you a richer roll.
- I divide the dough in half. Then, I divide each half in half to form 4 pieces. I then divide each of the 4 pieces in half again to form 8 equal pieces. Each of those pieces I divide into 3 rolls to form 24 rolls.
- If the rolls are browning too quickly, tent the rolls with foil.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
Originally published 4/18/19. Updated with a video and new tips and answers 11/18/19.
Bev
Hi. These look delicious. Are they a sweet bread (like Hawaiian)? I noticed there is a lot of sugar in the recipe.
Thanks
Kate
Hi! Thanks! No, they aren't sweet like a Hawaiian roll. The recipe makes 24 rolls, so maybe that's why it seems like there's more sugar. A lot of recipes make 12 rolls, which, if you halved this recipe, would be about 2.5 tablespoons of sugar. Also, you could reduce the sugar in the recipe to 1/4 cup, but I don't recommend reducing it any further. I hope that helps!
Sloth
I loved this recipe when I cooked it for Thanksgiving! So yummy!
Kate
Thank you!
Marla
This is the best bread/bun recipe I have ever made.‼️
Kate
Thank you! I'm so glad that they turned out well for you!
Trish
I have made these multiple times and every time they turn out amazing! I am wondering if I could use wheat flour?
Kate
Thank you! I haven’t tried that with this recipe. When I sub in whole wheat flour in recipes, I start by replacing half of the ap flour and then go from there. Hope that helps!
Rose
I’ve made these dinner rolls and they are absolutely delicious!
Kate
Thank you so much!!
Virginia
I really want to make these for our Easter Dinner. I don’t have time the day of. I saw some one comment and it says they made them, let them rise once, shaped the rolls covered and refrigerated over night. Then get back to room temp and bake. Have you tried that? Do you think it will work?
Kate
I haven't tried it with this recipe, but I think it would work!
Barbara
I just made mine for tomorrow . Did the same thing last year. Soo good
Kate
Thanks!
Theresa
It would work with a traditional dry yeast but not a quick yeast
Sonia
These are hands down, without a doubt the best recipe for rolls I have ever found! Thank you so much for sharing, my husband and I are addicted to them!
Kate
Thank you so much!! I'm so glad that you like them!
Cassandra
I've used this recipe a ton but we just found out my daughter has an intolerance to eating dairy & grain together, so I made them with coconut milk, and a vegan butter, and they still turned out fantastic. We have also had trouble finding a good hotdog bun, so with a bit of reshaping I made 6 hotdog buns, and 12 dinner buns. This Recipe freezes well, and has a permanent spot in our kitchen! Thank you
Kate
That's so hard! It can be so difficult trying to adjust to food allergies and intolerances! I'm glad that you've figured out a way to make this work for you! Thank you for sharing your notes about that.
Neil Jamieson
I would love to make these but May I use garlic butter instead of ordinary butter would it affect the dough.
Kate
Hi! I've never used garlic butter to bake rolls, so I'm not sure how it would work.
Suzanne
Made for Christmas 2020 -- sooooo good!
I actually made them about 6 days before, wrapped them in saran-wrap in "rows" of three and froze in gallon storage bags. Just took them out of the freezer the day before and they were delicious!
Kate
Yay!! I'm so glad that they turned out well for you! Thanks for sharing your notes!
Brittney
I’m going to use fleischmanns Rapid release instant yeast. It says only one prove? This is my first time
Kate
Hi! I've used that type of yeast before in other recipes. The yeast calls for one rise and one rest, and I think you'll be ok to just follow the recipe as-written.
Kim Grande
Amazing! I made these on a whim for Thanksgiving 2020 & took them to a friend's house for dinner. Everyone was raving about them all day! Super simple & easy to follow recipe.
Kate
Thank you! I'm so glad that they were a hit!
Amy
I do not :( Should I get one?
Kate
I think it's really useful to have one, and I use mine all the time. In the mean time, you can check the water by feeling it. If it's too hot for you, then it's too hot for the yeast, and it could kill it, which would keep your rolls from rising. You'll want it to feel like warm bath water, so hotter than lukewarm water and cooler than hot water. Hope that helps!
Katelyn
Can I make these in the morning and cook them right before we eat?
Kate
I'm afraid that they would overrise if they sat for several hours.
Kaja
Hi! I’m excited to try these but what kind of butter am I using? Salted or unsalted?
Thank you!!!
Kate
Hi! I use salted butter in the rolls, but it’s really just what you prefer. Happy Thanksgiving!
Verónica D
Best dinner rolls that have come out of my kitchen. Easy and soooo good.
Kate
Thank you!! I’m so glad that you liked the rolls!
Amy
Hi, sorry, I't's my first time making dinner rolls (and bread), when it says "warm milk" does it mean room temp? Or do I need to microwave it until it's a certain temp? (If I need to heat it up, please tell me how warm it should be)
Thank You. :)
Kate
Hi! No worries! =) No, it calls for the milk to be about 105-110F. Do you have a kitchen thermometer to check the temp of the milk?
Pat H
What kind of flour do you use?
Kate
The recipe calls for all purpose flour.
Lisa
Can I prepare these in advance refrigerated until tomorrow then bake them?
Kate
Hi! I haven't tried that to say for certain how it will work out.
Meredith
Yes! I made this recipe for Thanksgiving. And I have it on the menu for Christmas as well. I let them rise I made the rolls and then I put them in the refrigerator on the pan covered and took them out the next day to get to room temperature before baking.
Michelle
Hi! I made them twice and the taste is really good, but there must be something I am not doing right because it wasn’t soft and fluffy. Help!
Kate
Hi! Thanks! Let's get this figured out! Can you tell me more about the texture of the rolls? That would help.
Jen
Love this recipe! So much so in fact that we use it as our bread recipe now for sandwich bread as well as for rolls LOL I am allergic to sugar and we are dairy intolerant so I use coconut sugar and oat milk and they turn out perfectly. We do okay with butter so I use it still but usually goat butter.
Kate
Thank you! I'm glad you like them! Thanks for sharing your notes, too!