Make your own copycat version of Hawaiian Rolls at home with this easy, made-from-scratch recipe that makes soft and fluffy Hawaiian sweet rolls!
Hawaiian rolls are quite possibly the most delicious rolls ever. They are soft and buttery and sweet.
They can be made into smaller dinner rolls or buns for slider, or they can be made into larger, bun-sized rolls. They pair well with everything from burgers to ham, which makes them perfect for baked ham and Swiss poppy seed sandwiches.
“This is my new go-to dinner roll recipe! Very easy to make and everyone loves them. It’s also very easy to cut the recipe in half when I don’t need so many. I love this recipe!” – Julie
Why you’ll love these rolls
- They’re soft! The rolls are soft and fluffy.
- They’re tasty! The rolls are sweet and buttery with a bit of sweet pineapple flavor thrown in.
- They’re easy to make! The rolls are simple and don’t require much hands-on time.
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Pineapple Juice: I use the mini cans of pineapple juice that come in a 6 pack. However, any 100% pineapple juice should work.
- Yeast: An equal amount of instant yeast will also work. Just skip proofing the yeast and continue with the recipe as written.
- Butter: I use salted butter in this recipe.
- Flour: I’ve also made these rolls with all-purpose flour when I didn’t have any bread flour. I had to add about 1/2-1 cup additional flour for a total of 6-6 1/2 cups of flour.
How to make homemade Hawaiian rolls
Here you’ll find step-by-step photos showing how to make this recipe. The full recipe is given below.
Step 1: Grease 2 9×13-inch pans. Set aside.
Step 2: In a small saucepan, heat pineapple juice over medium-low temperature until juice reaches about 105 F.
Step 3: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Step 4: Once the pineapple juice is at temperature, add to the bowl. Stir, and let the yeast mixture stand for 5-10 minutes, or until foamy.
Step 5: Once the yeast is foamy, add the remaining sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and eggs; stir to combine.
Step 6: Switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook, and add 3 cups of flour and salt. Stir on low.
Step 7: Continue adding flour ½ cup at a time until dough clears the sides of the bowl. The dough will feel slightly sticky. It takes 5 ½ cups of flour for my rolls.
Step 8: Once the dough comes together and clears the sides, continue to knead for about 1 minute.
Step 9: Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and let it rise until dough has doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.
Step 10: Shape dough into rolls. If you would like smaller, dinner-sized rolls, shape into 24 rolls. If you would like larger, bun-sized rolls, shape into 12-18 rolls depending on desired size. Place half of the rolls in each pan.
Step 11: Cover rolls with plastic wrap, and let rolls rise until doubled, about 1 ½ hours.
Toward the end of the second rise, preheat oven to 350 F.
Step 12: Bake rolls for about 20 minutes (for dinner-sized rolls), or until rolls are golden brown. Immediately brush rolls with butter.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Tips!
- Freezing the rolls: To freeze the baked rolls, let them cool to room temperature. Wrap the rolls tightly in plastic wrap and then place in a freezer-safe container. Freeze the baked rolls for up to 1 month.
- Gluten Free: While I haven’t tried it, I have heard from people who have successfully used measure-for-measure gluten free flour in this recipe.
Storage
The rolls should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll keep for up to 3 days when properly stored.
More delicious roll recipes!
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Hawaiian Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups pineapple juice
- 4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar divided
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature, plus extra for brushing rolls
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 5-6 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Grease 2 9×13-inch pans. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, heat pineapple juice over medium-low temperature until juice reaches about 105 F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- Once the pineapple juice is at temperature, add to the bowl. Stir, and let the yeast mixture stand for 5-10 minutes, or until foamy.
- Once the yeast is foamy, add the remaining sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and eggs; stir to combine.
- Switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook, and add 3 cups of flour and salt. Stir on low.
- Continue adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough clears the sides of the bowl. The dough will feel slightly sticky. It takes 5 1/2 cups of flour for my rolls.
- Once the dough comes together and clears the sides, continue to knead for about 1 minute.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise until dough has doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.
- Shape dough into rolls. If you would like smaller, dinner-sized rolls, shape into 24 rolls. If you would like larger, bun-sized rolls, shape into 12-18 rolls depending on desired size.
- Place half of the rolls in each pan.
- Cover rolls with plastic wrap, and let rolls rise until doubled, about 1 ½ hours.
- Toward the end of the second rise, preheat oven to 350 F.
- Bake rolls for about 20 minutes (for dinner-sized rolls), or until rolls are golden brown.
- Immediately brush rolls with butter.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Video
Notes
- Flour: I’ve also made these rolls with all-purpose flour when I didn’t have any bread flour. I had to add about 1/2-1 cup additional flour for a total of 6-6 1/2 cups flour.
- Nutrition facts are estimates.
Nutrition
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Originally published April 8, 2013.
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Comments & Reviews
PEGGY KELLEY says
I made these for Thanksgiving. I bought a pkg of Hawaiian rolls from the store. My family and I did a taste test. Each person got a homemade Hawaiian roll and a store bought roll. Everyone loved the homemade Hawaiian rolls over the store bought rolls. This is a keeper. I even used this recipe to make cinnamon rolls with. They were amazing, I didn’t even have to icing the cinnamon rolls they were perfectly sweet enough
on there own. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Kate Dean says
Thank you! I love the idea of using the dough to make cinnamon rolls! I’m going to try that over Christmas break.
Ryan says
Can we use instant yeast instead of active yeast?
Kate Dean says
Yes, you can use instant yeast.
Lisa says
Love this recipe!
Kate Dean says
Thank you!
Amanda says
I made this recipe for thanksgiving. I think the important step is proofing the yeast; you have to make sure you do not kill the yeast. This will make anything you make dense. I made sure my juice was at 100-105, not above. If it foams after you mix the yeast and juice- it will be successful. It always takes my dough longer to rise- 2 hours, at least. Then I proof my rolls in the oven on the proof setting. I made these rolls and they came out great. Everyone loved them and they were very good. I mine puffed up during cooking, the time to put into each step can’t be skipped.
Kate Dean says
Thank you!
Lisa says
The fluffiest yeast rolls ever! I made the dough in the bread machine. I slowed down the the rise in the fridge, for timing w the rest if the meal. The flavor was on point, although next time I’ll make in the convection oven and egg wash? They weren’t golden brown that was probably error on my part. Thank you for the recipe!!
Kate Dean says
Thank you! I’m glad that you liked the rolls!
Breanna says
Hello, I tried to make these yesterday and they didn’t rise. I used instant yeast and skipped the proofing as suggested in the recipe but they came out extremely dense.
I thought it was my yeast because so I went and bought Fleischmann’s ActiveDry yeast which foamed during the activation process. However I can’t seem to get them to rise during the proofing and they came out slightly less dense then yesterdays. Do you have any ideas on what I could be doing wrong?
Kate Dean says
There are a couple of things that could be going on. First, the pineapple juice is too hot and is killing the yeast. Are you using a kitchen thermometer to test the temp? If not, it should feel warm but shouldn’t be too hot for you to comfortably touch – like warm bath water temperature.
Second, are the rolls rising at all? If they are rising but just not as quickly, you may just need a longer rise time. If your kitchen is cool, it can slow down the rising, which is ok. It just means you need a longer rise. It sounds like the yeast is foaming, which is good, so it may be this issue. One thing you can try is to turn your oven to 350F and let it preheat for exactly 60 seconds. Then turn it off. This creates a nice, warm spot for the rolls to rise.
I hope this helps!
Jessica Small says
Do you know how much flour you use in grams? I made these yesterday and they were extremely dense, so I think I may have used too much flour?
Also my kitchen is a little warmer, usually around 75 degrees F, should I let them proof for shorter than 1.5 hours? Trying to get these right before Thanksgiving!
Thanks!
Kate Dean says
Hi! If you click “metric” just above the ingredients, it will give you the weights for the ingredients. I usually use about 5.5 cups, or 660 grams, of flour. The amount of flour varies a bit depending on things like how humid it is that day, but it’s usually pretty close to that amount.
If your kitchen is warmer, you may not need the full rising time. If the rolls have doubled in size, go by that and don’t worry about the full rising time. Please let me know if you have any other questions!