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
Had house guests for weekend and at 4 pm I decided to make these rolls for dinner. I live in Jamaica so put them in the sun to rise – acting like a warm oven. 30 min later I realised I forgot the salt so punched dough down, While kneading I gradually added salt. Let them rise a second time, 35 min later they were ready to shape, rise and bake. They turned out perfectly, with GREAT reviews from my guests.
This recipe gets 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It was first attempt at baking dinner rolls and I was amazed at the result . They were so fluffy and everyone loved them so much that they asked me for the recipe .
I just want to bake them over and over again. My favorite. Yummy
This was my first time making bread (and baking with yeast in general) and it was such a success!! I followed the recipe to the T and oh my, these rolls are to die for. Highly highly recommend! I used bread flour instead of all purpose flour and I’m so happy with the finished product. Thank you so much Sally for breaking it down to such simple steps (and also for the video. SO helpful). My only question is in terms of storing it – it says to cover it tightly and store at room temperature for 2-3 days. What kind of container is best for storing? Is a normal bowl with aluminum foil ok? Tupperware?
These are great- I have a (nother) batch rising right now next to the oven for dinner tonight. Soft and right now, my family’s favorite roll. Thanks for a great recipe. Made as written.
Comes out perfect every time and looks exactly like the picture in the recipe! My roommates are obsessed and call it “grab and go bread” haha. I make it probably one to two times a week now! The batch I currently have on their second rise I mixed some cheese in and I’m very excited to see what happens! Thank you!
I made this recipe for the dinner roll today and it came out perfect . Thank you.
I decided to divide the ingredients in half to make a dairy free version for my son and an original for my husband. Both seem to have been received well. They both look very light and fluffy on the inside. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
I had to come back and find this recipe to give it a good rating!! Hands down THE BEST rolls I’ve ever made! I will be saving/sharing this recipe for sure! The rolls turned out so soft and fluffy on the inside, with a slight flaky crust on the top and bottom. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Made these for Easter dinner this year. I never made dinner rolls from scratch before. They were delicious. I need more practice on shaping them.
We have always shined away from baking bread due to what seamed random outcomes and tirelessly time wasting when removing the loaf out the oven to find we made a brick that would probably hold its own next to some of the mortar that holds the house walls up. All that has now changed due to this recipe. Dinner rolls, sub rolls and a loaf of bread… All that has been created using this recipe and all have turned out to perfection. Thank you Sally for the amazing recipe and for re-energising my love for baking!
I made these today – was perfect! Thank you Sally .. and I have never really been one to bake before the lockdown …
Omg, so soft and fluffy! Perfect recipe. I reduced proofing time to half for both rises because of our warm weather here.
I live in Florida, and although I don’t think my house is humid per say, I have made a few of your recipes I’ve noticed my dough is very wet using your prescribed amounts. Should I reduce the liquid, or increase the flour to reach a specific texture? I tried your cinnamon rolls and added extra flour and they came out a little bit heavy. Right now I’m trying your yeast rolls and added about a half cup extra but stopped because I was worried about getting the same results. The dough is sticky, it would have been way too sticky to knead by hand.
Hi Shannon, I’m glad to help. A dough’s consistency relies on many variables including how you measure the flour, brand of flour, even the weather and humidity in the air. While this should be a sticky dough, it sounds like yours is a little too sticky. Don’t be afraid to add a little more flour at a time until it’s soft, but still manageable to knead.
These are the best rolls I’ve ever tried! Golden on the top, super soft, light and fluffy! Thank you for the great recipe!
I tried this recipe last night… And what an amazing result! Pity I can’t post a Pic on this site.. They came out soft and fluffy on the inside… And golden brown on the outside…
Thank you for an amazing recipe…
OMG! Tried your dinner roll recipe today and it came out perfect! 🙂 the honey butter was the perfect touch too
Best bun recipe ever!! Spread the tops with honey butter mixture and they melted in my mouth.
Hi Sally,
Greetings from Singapore! Thank you for sharing your recipe, it worked really nice for me! Although, just a question. Are the tops of the rolls supposed to be soft or a little firm upon cooling?
Hi Sally,
Can I use this recipe for hamburger or hot dog buns or will they be too soft?
Hi Dina, I haven’t personally tried it but other readers have with success.
These are the best dinner rolls I have ever made! Simple and clear directions with ingredients I have on hand. I have been making these once a week since pandemic hit and they turn out perfect everytime. I have even made them with one cup whole wheat bread flour and two cups all purpose white flour, absolutely perfect! Thank you, thank you!!!
I was so skeptical to try this recipe, but thank God I did! This has to be the softest bread in history!! Literally melting your mouth!!! Thank you so much for sharing this
I made your hot cross buns and they turned out great. However, my soft dinner rolls need work! I noticed that the first rise collapsed. Did I leave it too long? The second rise didn’t rise enough. The buns came together to touch each other in the pan but didn’t rise up enough. From reading the above comments perhaps I machine mixed and kneaded the dough too much. What speed on your Kitchen Aid mixer do you use? They recommend # 2 for kneading. I am new to yeast baking and a mixer and appreciate the information that you share on your websites. Looking forward to trying these again with your advice.
Hi Shanna! I’m sorry you experienced some trouble, but I’m happy to help. If the dough rises for too long, the yeast will tire and the dough can collapse. This can happen during/after the first rise, second rise, or even in the oven. Kneading too much (or working the dough too much in general) can produce heavy rolls/bread. I usually mix dough on the lower side, around speed 2. I think you’ll find a post I wrote very helpful– it’s called Baking with Yeast and I wrote it with Red Star Yeast, some pros in the bread-baking world!
These rolls were amazing. So easy. Light fluffy. Golden. A keeper recipe!!
OMG this is my first time making dinner rolls and this recipe came out PERFECT! I did mistakenly add 2 1/2 tsp yeast instead of 2 1/4 but fortunately this didn’t have a negative impact. We devoured half of them within minutes – can’t wait to do them again!
Hi Sally. I tried your recipe 2x. I used bread flour and kitchen aid to mix the dough But took me about 15 mins for the dough to come together but still sticky, and used my hand to knead for about a minute just before the 1st rise. The 1st one came out very good. It was fluffy and soft inside. I was really encouraged. So I tried the following week. This time, it didn’t come out the same as the 1st time. The dough was very sticky and cannot be handled by hand. It took me longer in the kitchen aid mixer too (about 25mins) since the dough didn’t come together. After baking, the roll came out heavier. I really loved it in my 1st try. In both tries, I didn’t achieve the consistency of the dough in your video after 2 mins of mixing in the kitchen aid or by hand. By the way, I used speed no 4 in the kitchen aid. Hope you can suggest what can I do better the next time to achieve your dinner roll. I would love to try this recipe again. Thank you.
Hi Heidi, 15 minutes and 25 minutes of mixing is too long for this dough. The rolls tasted heavy because the dough was overworked. I’m happy to help though! Try adding another 3-4 Tablespoons of flour and only mixing for 2 minutes. Then, using floured hands, knead on a floured work surface. This dough is supposed to be on the softer side.
and Hi Sally, I just did batch adhering strictly to your recipe and method and I am so happy to share with you; the result is really good. I wish I could post the photograph here for you to see how great your recipe is. Thank you so much.
It’s my 2nd time to do this recipe and they were both perfect! Bread here in Morocco is quite different and I’m glad I was able to come up with a taste more familiar to me. I added garlic powder and thyme and my buns smell so good! Thanks, Sally.
Could I turn these into burger rolls by making 6 larger ones? Of so, should anything be adjusted? Thank you!
Definitely. The bake time will be longer since the rolls are larger.
What an excellent, clearly explained recipe! They turned out super light & fluffy – something I have never been able to achieve with baking bread before. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Can these rolls be stuffed? Thinking of shredded chicken or cheese
I can’t see why not!
Wish I could put the picture on as they have turned out perfect
Thank you
I really love this recipe but i used gluten free flour,almond milk and olive butter for my gluten and casein free diet son and it Worked!Thanks sally!