Homemade Dinner Rolls {Extra Soft and Buttery}

“Those rolls”

These homemade dinner rolls are incredibly soft and pillowy, with the perfect amount of chew and rich buttery flavor. This has been a staple recipe in my family for over 20 years, having long ago established itself in our vocabulary as simply, “those rolls”. 

(Recipe original published in May of 2015. Updated in November, 2019.)

Around my house, these homemade dinner rolls are simply known as “those rolls”. 

As in, “What do you want for your birthday dinner?” Those rolls.

Or, “We would love to come for dinner. What can I bring?” Those rolls.

Or, “When are you going to make those rolls again?”

The secret to perfect, soft homemade rolls is butter, milk, and eggs

Every week I make a couple loaves of sourdough bread. The loaves are chewy, with a crisp outer crust that audibly crackles when you slice it. Sourdough bread, along with most varieties of chewy, crusty bread, does not contain any fat. It’s simply a blend of starter (yeast), flour, water, and salt.

To bake bread that’s soft and pillowy, you’ve got to add fat. In the case of these dinner rolls, that means adding plenty of butter, eggs, and milk. 

• Butter: Fat acts as a tenderizer in bread dough, coating the grains of flour and creating a barrier that slows down gluten development. A strong gluten network creates bread with a sturdy structure and a lot of chew, like sourdough or a French baguette. A weak gluten network creates bread that’s light and tender, like these rolls.
• Eggs: Eggs add flavor, structure, and color to bread dough. In addition to creating tenderness, fat equals flavor. That’s why this recipe contains an egg plus an extra egg yolk, which gives the rolls another boost of rich, buttery flavor.
• Milk: Just like butter and eggs, the fat in milk contributes both flavor and tenderness to this dinner roll dough, making them extra pillowy. In addition, yeast doesn’t break down the sugar (lactose) in milk, leaving it behind to contribute a subtle sweetness to the flavor of the dough.

 

What you need to know to make the best dinner rolls ever.

This recipe makes 24 rolls. If that seems like too many…. you should know that they will go surprisingly fast.

Also, your family will eat some before your guests arrive. (So will you.) It won’t matter if you tell them not to. It won’t matter if you hide the dinner rolls or make terrifying threats. They will risk your wrath and find a way to sneak a few. Just accept it.

Regardless, if 24 rolls is more than you need, you can:

• Cut the recipe in half. The challenge here is in how to cut the 1 egg and 1 egg yolk in half. The solution: make the dough with 1 egg and leave the extra egg yolk out.
• Freeze the leftover rolls. Wrap each roll individually in plastic and then put them in a zip top bag or wrap them again in foil. If they are well wrapped, they’ll keep in the freezer for about 3 months. Since they are individually wrapped, you can pull out as many or as few as you want.

If 24 rolls is less than you need, you can:

• Make successive batches. Unless you have a commercial size stand mixer, I would not suggest doubling the recipe. For standard 4.5, 5, or 6 quart stand mixers, just give your mixer about a 10 minute rest between batches of dough.
• Make one batch in the evening and another the next morning. This is almost always what I do when I need to make a LOT of rolls. Make one batch of dough in the evening, shape the rolls, place them in a baking dish, brush them with melted butter, and cover them with a sheet of plastic wrap. Place the rolls in the refrigerator so that they complete their second rise overnight. Because cold temperatures slows down yeast development, the rolls will rise much slower than at room temperature. The next morning, pull them out of the refrigerator and bake the first batch while you get going on a second batch.

Do you have to have a stand mixer to make homemade rolls?

Definitely not. Even though the directions for these dinner rolls call for mixing and kneading the dough using a standing mixer, you can most certainly knead the dough by hand.

Just mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form and then knead by hand on a floured surface, adding only as much flour as is necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the counter.

The important thing to remember when hand kneading dough is to work the dough long enough to achieve a high level of gluten development. For these rolls, that means hand kneading for at least 12 minutes. 

How to adjust the timing of bread baking to your schedule.

As mentioned earlier, you can adjust the timing of this recipe by simply putting the dough in the refrigerator at any stage. Cold temperatures will not kill yeast – it will just slow down its activity.

If you want dough to rise quickly, put it in a warm environment.

The ideal temperature for dough to rise relatively quickly is between 80 and 85 degrees. Dough will rise just fine in rooms as low as 70 degrees, it will just take longer. If your kitchen is on the cool side, and you want your dough to rise quickly, here are a few good options:

• Use a bread proofer. I have been baking bread for decades under the assumption that bread proofers were relegated to the realm of commercial bakeries and kitchens with waaaaaaay fancier ovens that what you’ll find in my home. I was wrong. I’ve been using this Brod and Taylor Bread Proofer for the last few months and I LOVE IT. It gives me total control of the temperature of rising dough and folds up into a flat little box for easy storage. 
• Let the dough rise inside your oven. For an electric oven or a gas oven with the electronic ignition, heat the oven at the lowest setting for one or two minutes, then TURN IT OFF. In other gas ovens, the pilot light will provide enough warmth, so you don’t need to turn it on at all. You can also place a pan of boiling water inside the oven along with your dough, which will raise the temperature. If you have an oven thermometer, now is a great time to use it. Do your best to keep the temperature inside your oven to between 80 and 85 degrees, and it’s very important that it not get any higher than 90 degrees.
• Let the dough rise inside your microwave. If the inside of your microwave is large enough, it can also be used to create a warm environment for the dough to rise. Fill a small dish with boiling water and place it inside the microwave along with your dough. The water will raise the temperature inside the microwave. 

If you want the dough to rise slowly, put it in the refrigerator.

Slowing down the rise of bread dough by putting the dough in the refrigerator is a super handy trick that I employ all the time to adjust bread baking to my schedule. Here are a couple examples of how this might work for these dinner rolls…

Scenario #1: Mix the dough in the evening, put it in a buttered bowl, brush some melted butter over the top, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, let the dough come to room temperature (this will take about an hour), shape the rolls, put them in a buttered baking dish, brush them with some more melted butter, cover with plastic wrap, and put them back in the refrigerator to slowly rise during the day. In the evening, let the rolls sit out at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, then bake. 

Scenario #2: Make the dough in the evening, allowing the first rise to happen at room temperature. Shape the rolls, put them in a buttered baking dish, brush the tops with some melted butter, cover them with plastic wrap, and put them in the refrigerator, leaving them there overnight.

In the morning, take the rolls from the refrigerator, let them sit out at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, then bake. 

New to bread baking?

No problem. This dinner roll recipe is an excellent place to start because it’s fairly quick and easy. Not as quick and easy as pulling some pre-packaged frozen dinner rolls from the freezer, but quick and easy as far as homemade bread goes. And once you try them, you will never be tempted to purchase dinner rolls ever again.

Watch the video in this post for visual cues on mixing and shaping the dough, and then just dive in. 

Homemade Dinner Rolls are a Building Block Recipe.

Building Blocks are tried-and-true recipes that I find myself coming back to time and time again, sometimes to make them exactly as is, and sometimes as a starting point for something new. -> More Building Block Recipes. 

The dough for these dinner rolls is so soft, flavorful, and delicious, I’ve used it as the starting point for all the delicious recipes below.

The same dough used to make these dinner rolls can also be used to make:

• Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
• Homemade Caramel Rolls
• Homemade Cinnamon Bread
• Apple Fritters with Maple Glaze
• Yeast Raised Doughnuts
• Doughnut Holes Filled with Salted Caramel Pastry Cream

More homemade bread recipes:

• Soft, Homemade Flour Tortillas
• Simple Homemade White Bread
• Simple Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
• Homemade Pizza Dough
• Homemade Potato Rolls

Useful tools for making Dinner Rolls: 

• KitchenAid Stand Mixer
• Staub Ceramics Rectangular Baking Dish, 13×9-inch, White
• Brod and Taylor Bread Proofer
• OXO Good Grips Multi-purpose Stainless Steel Dough Knife/ Scraper

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If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!

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