Is there anything better than warm bread smeared with melty butter? Thousands of people across the country have fallen in love with these dinner rolls, and for good reason- they truly are THE BEST! They are beginner friendly, so if you’re nervous about working with yeast, don’t be. This recipe makes two full pans of rolls and will definitely fill a standard Kitchenaid mixer to the absolute brim, so feel free to cut it in half if you are feeding a smaller crowd.
Ingredient Notes
- Milk –Â Whole milk is best. You can use 2% in a pinch, but avoid 1% or skim.
- Yeast –Â This recipe calls for active dry yeast. I have not tried using rapid rise yeast, where the first rise is replaced by a 10 minute rest of the dough. If you feel like experimenting feel free to give it a try, just know it hasn’t been tested for this particular recipe. If you’re nervous about working with yeast, check out this post on tips for working with yeast dough.
- Eggs –Â You’ll notice the recipe calls for beaten eggs. Why should you beat your eggs first? Same reason you should combine your dry ingredients before adding them to moist ingredients when making cookies and cakes–it ensures everything is well-mixed and can be evenly-distributed through your dough or batter. If you add the whole eggs, your dough may not be as consistent.
How to Make the World’s Best Dinner Rolls
Ready? Awesome. You’ll need whole milk, all-purpose flour, yeast, sugar, salt, butter, and eggs. Nothing fancy.
- Combine milk, sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. It’s salty. It’s sweet. Yum.
sugar butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. It’s salty. It’s sweet. Yum.
butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. It’s salty. It’s sweet. Yum.
and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts.
2. Remove from heat. Allow to cool to lukewarm. I usually rub some ice cubes along the sides of the pan or pop the entire pan in a sink full of ice cubes to cool the mixture down because this step can take forever. This step is really important because if the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
3. While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes or until the yeast is very bubbly and the mixture has risen significantly.
Before:
10 minutes later:
If the yeast hasn’t bubbled, you’ll need to repeat this step–moving on with yeast that hasn’t been activated properly will only end in heartache.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups of flour and milk mixture.
Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes.
5. Crack your eggs and give them a good whisking (this little heart whisk is one of my favorite tools for jobs like this). Add to dough mixture and mix until well combined.
6. Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough.
8. Punch down dough. Lightly flour your work surface
and turn dough out onto surface.
Divide in half.
9. Spray 2 9×13 glass pans with cooking spray. Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut it into 12 equal-sized pieces.
I like to use a pizza cutter because it has a blade on each side (a plastic bowl scraper is also fantastic), so it cuts right through dough without sticking to the blade. This dough should be very easy to work with, almost like playdough. Shape each piece into a ball and place in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan.
Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. When dough has about 15-20 minutes to go (depending on your oven), preheat oven to 375.
10. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown.
When done, remove from oven. Rub a stick of cold butter over the tops of the rolls. You must now eat one. Now. While it’s hot. Then pop the rest into a bowl and no one will ever know that you cheated.
P.S. Using this cinnamon roll filling or these cinnamon or orange roll fillings, this dough makes fabulous cinnamon or orange rolls. Just bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Related Recipes
Short on time? These One-Hour Dinner Rolls are on the table in a flash.
These French Rolls or this Easy No Knead Overnight Artisan Bread are other great alternatives to traditional rolls.
For Sweet rolls, check out these Overnight Cinnamon Rolls or Everyday Cinnamon Rolls.
FAQs
- Can I make these ahead and freeze? While I do think rolls are best fresh and hot the day you make them, you can in fact prepare these ahead of time. Make dough through the roll-shaping step. Place your shaped rolls on parchment paper in a single layer and place in freezer. Once frozen solid you can place them in a bag together. When ready to cook, leave at room temperature, lightly covered with a piece of plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick spray. They will need to defrost and then also have time to rise (think store-bought rhodes rolls) so you will want to leave plenty of time for that (I’m guessing 3-5 hours). You can also cook the rolls, cool completely, and then freeze immediately.
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World’s Best Dinner Rolls
- Total Time: 2 1/2 hours
- Yield: 24 rolls
Description
These reader favorite dinner rolls are soft and fluffy. Perfect for holiday dinners!
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk (if you’re in a pinch, you can use 2%, but whole is best. Don’t use 1% or skim)
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
- 1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) butter
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 packages active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp.)
- 2/3 cup warm (105-115-degree) water
- 8–9 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 beaten eggs
Instructions
- Combine milk, 1/2 cup sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat. Allow to cool to lukewarm. I usually rub some ice cubes along the sides of the pan or pop the entire pan in a sink full of ice cubes to cool the mixture down because this step can take forever. This step is really important because if the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
- While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes. If the yeast hasn’t bubbled, you’ll need to repeat this step–moving on with yeast that hasn’t been activated properly will only end in heartache.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes.
- Add beaten eggs.
- Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough. This dough should be very soft–it will be coming away from the sides of the bowl, but it will still stick to your finger when you touch it. Don’t worry, it will firm up during the rising process. Part of what makes these rolls so good is that they’re so soft and light; if you add too much flour, they will be heavy and dense. Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean towel; allow to rise 1 hour.
- Punch down dough. Lightly flour your work surface and turn dough out onto surface. Divide in half.
- Spray 2 9×13 glass pans with cooking spray. Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut it into 12 equal-sized pieces. I like to use a pizza cutter because it has a blade on each side, so it cuts right through dough without sticking to the blade. This dough should be very easy to work with, almost like playdough. Shape each piece into a ball and place in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan.
- Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. When dough has about 15-20 minutes to go (depending on your oven), preheat oven to 375.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown.
- When done, remove from oven. Rub a stick of cold butter over the tops of the rolls.
Notes
- MAKING AHEAD: We have received tons of comments and emails asking about making these rolls ahead, or freezing the dough, etc. Note that we have never before tried any of these methods so we can’t give you an answer for sure. You can try freezing the dough after they have been shaped (but before the second rise) and you can certainly try cooking and cooling completely and then freezing. Just keep in mind we only make these fresh and eat them hot from the pan so that’s all the info we can give you.
- Prep Time: about 2 hours
- Cook Time: 15-18 minutes
Questions & Reviews
I have made yeast rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas for over 30 years and these were beyond fantastic! My guests were fighting over how many each could take home with them. Thank you so much . . . my forever go-to recipe!!!
Great recipe! I made 30 rolls out of the dough and baked in 2-9×13 glass dishes. I made the dough the night before I needed them, after the first rise I formed and placed the dough in the pans and covered with plastic wrapped sprayed with cooking oil. Then placed in my very cold garage on the concrete floor overnight:) In the morning I brought them inside to warm up and continue rising (they rose a tiny bit overnight). Baked both dishes in the oven at the same time but switched the pans and rotated 180 degrees 1/2 way through baking. Turned out beautifully! And cut down on the cooking and baking on Thanksgiving Day!!
I did it!! But not without some serious stress… After an hour waiting to rise, sitting on the stove with the oven set to 200 degrees with no action, i turned up the heat to 350, cracked the door and 40 minutes later: BAM! I had massive dough. Those puppies are amazing. I make no apologies for eating three right out of the oven. 😉
Thanks for the great recipe!!
I just made these as a pre thanksgiving trial since I am hosting it this year. This is only my second attempt at baking rolls from scratch, first was yesterday and they came out more like muffins (different recipe). I found this recipe online and tried it out today and wow, perfect! I did the 1/3 recipe since it was a trial and only used two cups of flour total. I baked 9 in a glass pie pan and the other 9 are in the fridge, I put them in before the second rise which I am not sure if that is right or wrong but I guess I will find out tomorrow. I ate three and my husband ate the other 6- delicious, thank you for sharing!
Made these tonight. They were fantastic. These definitely should be sold in stores. They are that good 🙂
Bet you could stuff a little sausage in the middle of the dough before the second rise … kolaches! Yummm (I always boil my little sausages first to get out as much of the grease as I can and then cool and dry them completely before I put them in the dough) 🙂
I struggled for YEARS with yeast dough! I loved it when it worked, but many times it did not. Then I found an almost foolproof method that protects the yeast and speeds up the process resulting in a much more user friendly yeast dough experience! Basically you mix 1/2 the flour and all the dry ingredients, including the yeast. Then you add the wet ingredients gradually as you mix. Once it is all incorporated well, mix for another minute. Then add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time. When the yeast is mixed in with the flour, it insulates the yeast against minor temperature variations, so you are not as likely to accidentally kill your yeast! I have been making breads and rolls like this for over 15 years now and would never go back!
I made these for dinner at my BF’s sister’s house and everyone loved them. First time baking anything involving yeast! They turned out great! Thanks for the help!!!!
I made this for the first time last night with some clam chowder and oh my holy heaven they were amazing! The only thing I did differently is egg wash them before baking. Even my mother-in-law who has been baking for 50 years said that they are the best dinner rolls she’s ever had. After biting into one she says “You need to open a store to sell these!” hahaha Thank you so much for the fantastic recipe!
Holy yeast rolls batman!! These were absolutely AAAHHH-MAZING!!!!! Made these tonight, and normally I don’t go back to comment on recipes I try, but these were too good not to! I only had one egg but they turned out perfect, yeasty and soft and mile-high! My 11 year old said we needed to find a baking competition and enter these, he at 4 and wanted more but I made him stop! They were wonderful!!!!
Is there any substitute for the milk? I would love to make these but we have non dairy meals quite often. Can I uses apple/orange juice, water or soy milk? Or will the recipe be ruined if I do?
These were awesome! Bread isn’t the isn’t thing for me to make at 8,000ft, but this was super! I fed your rolls to the missionaries and they loved them-thanks!
Kneading* lol
I noticed that there was no kneading process. Was all the required needing done in the mixer?
Hi, just wanted to comment that I’ve made these rolls numerous times and they freeze GREAT! I usually make one batch of 12 rolls fresh and freeze the second batch. I shape the rolls and then freeze them just before the second rise. Then when I want to use them, I take them out of the freezer and thaw them in the fridge. Then do the second rise and bake as normal. There is no noticeable difference in quality in the frozen vs. fresh…they are both delicious! Thank you for posting this recipe, it has been a HUGE hit with all our friends and family. Oh, and as a variation I like to top the rolls with melted butter, sea salt and rosemary….AMAZING! 🙂
I am looking forward to trying your recipe. I kinda stumbled across it, so I am excited about looking into more of your recipes. My question is, in reading your recipe I saw no mention of kneading the dough (but I read about it in some of the other comments), so when am I supposed to knead? Just wondering what step you do it before. Thanks so much.
Hi, Carrie! Glad you found us! 🙂 Adide from mixing in the mixer, this recipe doesn’t require any kneading. If you’re making it by hand, you’d knead it by hand in place of mixing it in the mixer, but other than that, you’re good. Hope that helps!
Just wanted to share! I made homemade rolls for the first time EVER, using this recipe, and they turned out perfectly! Thank you!!! 🙂 I was so nervous, because you said Sara hasn’t been successful with these. But they turned out awesome, and they made our Easter meal just absolutely wonderful! Now I feel empowered! Like I want to make bread all day now! ha ha! 🙂 THANKS!!!
I was wondering about maybe using them for Kolaches and stuffing with egg & salsa. What do you think?
Can you freeze the dough for later use????
First, I LOVE these rolls! They’re my Sunday guilty pleasure! (I live on the wild side, I know!) I froze these all in a pan, like you had mentioned in a comment, and when I let them thaw, then rise and bake the bottoms were nasty-soggy-doughy! I’m wondering if you’ve ever tried flash-freezing the dough balls individually (like Rhodes Rolls), and then putting them on a pan to rise then cook? I’m hoping it’ll make a difference! I’d love to mass produce these babies and have an easy go-to option!
Our three children LOVE dinner rolls, but these are their favorite. They are easy to make in a mixer and the most foolproof recipe our family’s used. Thank you for taking the time to explain how to check our yeast, it’s saved our rolls more than once!!!
I’ve made these rolls several times and everyone who tries them loves them! I love this recipe so much that when I decided I felt like making some homemade bread I wanted to try this recipe out and make the dough into two bread loaves instead of into rolls and it worked great! I just used two 9″x5″ bread loaf pans, cooked it at the same temperature (375) for about 30-35 minutes (I actually used a digital thermometer and took it out when it registered 193 degrees). Thanks for this awesome, versatile recipe!
I made these for dinner tonight and my husband went nuts, from now on they are the only rolls he wants me to make and I even got a “these are even better than my mom’s”
Just made these tonight and I’m not sure whether I should thank you or ask you to contribute to a treadmill! Oh my these are delicious! Of course, I never have milk at home since my kids drink almond and coconut milk, but I did have half and half! 😉
Thank you so much! I followed your recipe and the dough, the bread, turned out so perfect! My husband loves it soooooo much. We always eat bread with butter, cheese, and strawberry jam. Delicious! Xxx
I made these rolls for Thanksgiving with my grand daughter. They were easy and absolutely wonderful, the “World’s Best” actually. I found the recipe while looking for no knead breads using my smart phone. I did not bookmark the recipe. What a mistake!!! It just took me an hour and a half of searching to find it again. This time it was printed out. That goes to show you how wonderful these are!!! We had no trouble making these rolls. I live at 7000 feet and the recipe worked out excellently. I will say though, I punched it down 3 times and let rise again, due to the altitude.
this looks delicious. I only had SAF instant yeast so modified the recipe somewhat. I also substituted 3 cups of the white flour for whole wheat. It is rising now while my turkey soup is simmering on the stove. Will let you know how it turns out with the variations I did! 🙂