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.
Ingredients Needed
- Milk – Whole milk is best. You can use 2% in a pinch, but avoid 1% or skim.
- Active Dry Yeast – 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 – 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.
- Sugar
- Butter
- Salt
- Warm water
- All-purpose flour
- Eggs
How to Make the World’s Best Dinner Rolls
- Combine milk, sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. It’s salty. It’s sweet. Yum.
- 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 sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes or until the yeast is very bubbly and the mixture has risen significantly. 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 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.
- 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.
- 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 (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°F.
- 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.
Storing and Other Tips
- Homemade rolls are best eaten the same day as baking. If you do need to make them a day ahead of time, make sure they are cooled completely before storing in an airtight container.
- For best results, consume rolls within 1-2 days.
- P.S. Using this cinnamon roll filling or these cinnamon or orange roll filling, this dough makes fabulous cinnamon or orange rolls. Just bake at 375°F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
My rolls are dense and doughy. What happened?
There could be a few culprits here. If your yeast is old or not activated properly, the dough will fail to rise and create air pockets, leaving the final product flat and dense. Too much flour will do the same thing. Make sure your yeast is fresh and active and refer to the pictures above to see how your dough should look when it has the perfect amount of flour! Lastly, don’t rush the rise. If your house isn’t very warm, it will take longer for your rolls to proof and be ready to bake!
Can I use rapid rise yeast and skip the first rise?
In theory, this would work ok, but I have not personally tried that method with this recipe. If you feel like trying it out, give it a go! If you’re looking for a recipe designed for use with rapid rise yeast, try out these One-Hour Dinner Rolls.
World’s Best Dinner Rolls
These reader favorite dinner rolls are soft and fluffy. Perfect for holiday dinners!
Servings rolls
Equipment
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
- ⅓ cup butter 5 ⅓ tablespoons
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 packages active dry yeast or 4 ½ teaspoons
- ⅔ cup warm water 105-115℉
- 8-9 cups all-purpose flour divided
- 3 beaten eggs
Instructions
- Combine milk, ½ 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, about 5 – 6 cups. 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 two 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.
- For best results, consume rolls within 1-2 days.
- P.S. Using this cinnamon roll filling or these cinnamon or orange roll filling, this dough makes fabulous cinnamon or orange rolls. Just bake at 375°F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Nutrition
Serving: 1roll, Calories: 214kcal, Carbohydrates: 38g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 30mg, Sodium: 231mg, Potassium: 89mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 141IU, Vitamin C: 0.002mg, Calcium: 35mg, Iron: 2mg
Calories: 214kcal
Cost: $8
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Questions & Reviews
I am looking for a recipe that I can use in place of Rhodes when frying scones for breakfast or navajo tacos. Would this work? Do I fry before the second rise? Thanks!
Sally, do you have our cookbook? We have the perfect recipe in there for scones and navajo tacos!
I have been making yeast rolls for years, but this, by far is the best recipe I have ever used. The rolls are feathery light and just delicious. Several postings have asked about freezing them before baking. I have done this with previous recipes, but have not tried it with this particular one. I do plan to do this with the next batch I make. However, I did bake the rolls until they were just starting to brown, removed them, and after cooling, froze the rolls. Then I just remove them a few at a time from the freezer, let them thaw out for about 10 minutes, and bake. This is a quick way to have freshly baked yeast rolls in just a few minutes. What a special treat to have after coming home from a hard day at work!
So easy, and so delicious!! I made 48 smaller rolls, baked them in 2 pie plates and 2 round cake pans. I’m going to make pecan sticky buns with the next batch!
Bravo for another great recipe!!
I made these rolls and they really are the BEST rolls ever!!!I also froze them after they baked and cooled and when i defrosted them and ate them they were still soft and perfectly delicious…thank you so much for this recipe
You may have trouble with these if you use salted butter. The salt will do you in every time. Use unsalted butter and add a bit extra with the flour = )
I saw a few times where this question was asked but never saw an answer. Can I make the dough in my breadmaker on the dough cycle? If so what do you suggest I do about the amount of flour added?
I’ve never had much success with breadmakers, so I sold mine about 5 years ago and have never tried it with these rolls–sorry I can’t be of more help!
These dinner rolls are the best…the recipe is simple and easy ..i will keep this recipe in my book….thank you
Can you say “rocked my world”? These are incredible! We made sandwiches out of them with some shredded BBQ chicken. Hubby said that these were the missing piece to our holiday dinners! Definitely going on this year’s Thanksgiving/Christmas menu!
I made these for dinner last night and they were AMAZING! we didnt eat any out of the second pan because there were only four of us and we had lots of other food. So when I was pulling the rolls out of the pan to put them up I noticed the second pan was doughy still especially in the middle. I wonder why this happened since the first pan turne out so great. I cooked them on the same rack in the oven. It was kind of high because we had the other part of dinner cooking at the same time. Should it have been more in the middle of the oven? I will definitely make these again! It was pretty easy even without a stand mixer. And my husband said these were “like the good rolls they served at school that you paid another quarter for to get seconds!” Lol
I have made these a few times and they’ve always turned out great! I wonder if they just needed to be baked all by themselves instead of with the rest of dinner?
They just need to be baked in a hot oven 🙂
I made two half-batches of this dough yesterday. Once to preview it, as it has been years since I last made bread except as pizza dough and the second time to take to a dinner party. I started to try to do the egg split by using the Tablespoon/Teaspoon equivalents after beating the eggs. However, it is almost impossible to get egg to stay inside of a spoon. In the end I just used 1/3 of a cup.
The first half-batch I made half (1/4 of the recipe as written) as cinnamon rolls by rolling it into a ten inch circle and then covering with a mixture of 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, cutting into 8 wedges and rolling-up. They baked up beautifully in a 9 inch square pan. Very light and tasty. The other half of the dough I made into dinner rolls and baked in a small Corningware dish. Both batches went in at the same time and baked 15 min. The dinner rolls were overbaked a bit and didn’t have the same lightness as the cinnamon rolls, though I promptly ate two of them and two of the cinnamon rolls just for argument’s sake. I am wondering if one reason folks sometimes have trouble with these is due to baking them too long.
The batch that I made just before leaving home for the dinner party was light and 6 out of ten folks at the party made a special point of saying how much they liked them. I am so glad I did a Google search for Best Dinner Rolls and was lead to your site.