Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls (2024)

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This is our all-time favorite best Buttery Dinner Rolls recipe made with instant yeast in your bread machine or by hand. This is definitely a staple for holidays and family dinners in our house!

Like many young people, who leave the nest and head off to college, I gained the “Freshman Fifteen”. I can pinpoint my extra pounds to one thing… it certainly wasn’t from the not so great dorm food. It wasn’t even because I partied hard and consumed my calories in beer. Just about every single extra pound came from the most delicious, fluffy, buttery soft dinner rolls at the restaurant where I waitressed.

I think I have bad eating habits now…when I was in college my eating habits were pretty awful. The restaurant I worked at had a bakery with these giant dinner rolls that were served fresh from the oven, with loads of melted butter dripping off the golden brown tops. The aroma of the homemade rolls wafted through the restaurant and man… it was impossible to resist. On my short breaks, I would always grab a roll (or a couple) to quickly snarf down so I could get back to my tables.

Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls (2)

Homemade bread, especially homemade rolls, has always been my weakness.

As soon as I had a home and kitchen of my own, I decided to try and perfect making the rolls from my college days. I scoured the internet for the perfect homemade dinner rolls recipe and finally came upon an easy recipe that seemed very doable. I loved that I could use my bread machine to make the dough or I could use my stand mixer with a dough hook to make the process easier as well.

This Buttery Dinner Roll Recipe is from Food.com and is one I’ve been using for the past 10 years for our family Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. It is simply the best dinner roll recipe I’ve ever tried so I haven’t felt the need to stray too far looking for anything better. In fact,I really really love these other yeast bread recipes, but this recipe I’m sharing today is the one my family begs for the most.

Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls (3)

What Type of Yeast Should I Use When Making Dinner Rolls?

Red Star Yeast recently launched a revolutionary yeast they have called “Platinum Superior Baking Yeast“. They sent me some to try out and I am so amazed! Each loaf of bread I’ve made using this yeast has risen and yielded the most amazing loaves of bread. From the Red Star Yeast website: “This simple-to-use yeast strengthens and improves your dough, increasing oven spring and finished volume of any recipe.” I love this yeast for bread baking perfection, but you can use any other active dry yeast as well.

I know so many of you might be scared of working with yeast but trust me. Yeast wary friends can rejoice as this yeast seems to be the no fail answer to your bread baking prayers! You can feel comfortable knowing that with this recipe, you’ll produce some of the best yeast rolls without a lot of effort the very first time. It’s a great beginner recipe and one that you’ll keep forever and ever.

What Equipment Does This Recipe Require?

The following list may contain affiliate links where if a purchase is made we’d earn a small amount at no additional cost to you.

For best results, the following equipment is recommended when making this dinner rolls recipe:

If you decide to use your bread machine for this recipe, it’s best to simply follow the instructions for the order of ingredients from your ABM’s manufacturer.

Here Are Some Ideas for Additional Items To Serve

I personally think there’s nothing better than soft and fluffy dinner rolls and would be happy to call this dinner. However I know not everyone is as bread obsessed as I am. For additional recipes to make your table complete, check out these links:

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family has and it becomes one you make time and time again! Enjoy!

Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls (5)

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5 from 1 vote

The Freshman Fifteen {Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls}

The best buttery dinner roll recipe around. Bread Machine version can be found on this post Original recipe can be found at Food.com

Ingredients

  • 1 cup water plus
  • 1 tablespoon water 70-80 F
  • 1 large egg
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 1/4 cups bread flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 tablespoons shortening optional

Instructions

  • Combine all the ingredients, minus the shortening and butter, in the bowl of your stand mixer in the order listed in the ingredients. Knead with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic.

  • Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

  • Once dough has risen, remove from bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into 15 uniformed sized balls (you may have to have shortening on your hand as you do this to keep from sticking)

  • Lightly butter a 9x13 baking pan. Place rolls onto baking pan, cover and let rise until double in size (approximately 30 minutes).

  • Bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes or until a light, golden brown.

  • After removing from the oven, brush with melted butter. Serve warm.

Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls (6)

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Red Star Yeast. All opinions expressed are my own.

This blog post was originally published on November 2nd 2012 and updated November 14th 2019.

Recipe: The Best Buttery Dinner Rolls (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to butter rolls before or after baking? ›

Butter basting: Rolls can be brushed with butter before, during, or after baking. While it doesn't brown the surface as much as egg wash will, it does promote browning and adds a lot of flavor.

Why are my homemade dinner rolls dry? ›

Either, you added too much flour or you possibly used all bread flour. Alternately, not giving your dinner rolls enough time to proof and get puffy before baking could yield dense rolls.

How do you make store bought dinner rolls taste better? ›

3 steps to making supermarket dinner rolls taste like homemade
  1. Step 1: Warm the rolls. The most important thing to remember is that warm rolls will almost always taste better than cold rolls. ...
  2. Step 2: Use a brush to coat the rolls in butter. ...
  3. Step 3: Garnish.

What is the best oven setting for bread rolls? ›

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake rolls in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 18 to 20 minutes.

Should I use parchment paper for dinner rolls? ›

I suggest using parchment paper to line the baking dish to ensure that the rolls are easy to remove from the pan to serve. Once the homemade dinner rolls are formed and placed in the baking sheet, let them rise again until they are doubled in size (30-60 minutes).

What is the secret of soft buns? ›

The secret to soft, light rolls, if you're looking for something like a dinner roll, is an enriched dough that contains butter or other dairy, eggs, or both. If you want something more bread-like, you want a high hydration dough that's been properly kneaded and given at least two bulk fermentations before shaping.

How can I make my bread fluffier instead of dense? ›

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

What ingredient makes bread light and fluffy? ›

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

What happens if you add too much flour to dinner rolls? ›

Mistake to Avoid #2: Tough Dinner Rolls

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing.

How to keep homemade rolls soft? ›

Brush the rolls with butter.

Melt the butter and brush it over the risen dinner rolls. This helps the tops to brown and keeps the crust soft.

When to brush butter on rolls? ›

Preheat oven to 375°F. Brush tops of rolls with egg wash and bake until golden brown on top, about 20-25 minutes. Remove rolls from oven and immediately brush with butter. Serve warm.

How to amp up dinner rolls? ›

3 Tiny Steps to Make Store-Bought Dinner Rolls Taste Amazing
  1. Brush with melted butter. Before warming the store-bought rolls in the oven, brush them generously with melted butter. ...
  2. Sprinkle with fresh herbs. ...
  3. Finish with flaky salt.
May 1, 2019

What makes rolls taste good? ›

Salt: any rolls or bread would virtually be flavorless without salt! Garlic Salt: is my secret ingredient in both my homemade pizza dough and this dinner roll recipe. It is optional, but I never make this recipe without it. It adds flavor and depth to the rolls.

Should you butter bread before baking? ›

According to Food52, that is exactly what happens when you butter bread first and then put it in an oven or toaster oven. Instead of just melting on the outside, the butter will sink into the entire slice of bread, soaking every little bread molecule in delicious fat, while still crisping up the outside.

When should I add butter to dough? ›

When adding butter to bread dough in large quantities, it's best to add it last, after kneading the other ingredients (flour, water, salt, potentially sugar and/or milk) a bit. In fact, the dough should be strengthened enough to pass the windowpane test before butter is added.

Is it better to bake with butter or spread? ›

But when you're baking, butter triumphs over margarine every time. For cakes, cookies, and pastries, butter (unsalted, that is) provides richer flavor. (It begins as cream, after all, and margarine is made from vegetable oil.) Butter's high fat content is also what gives baked goods their texture.

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