Old Fashioned Dinner Rolls Recipe - The Baker Chick (2024)

ByAudra

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When it comes to family dinners and holiday meals, nothing beats the smell of homemade dinner rolls filling up the kitchen. Today I’m sharing a recipe for old-fashioned dinner rolls that are not only easy to prepare but also melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Follow these step-by-step instructions for creating the perfect batch of buttery, fluffy rolls that will elevate any occasion, from Thanksgiving dinner to everyday family gatherings.

Ingredients for homemade rolls:

  • Flour
  • Sugar
  • Active dry yeast
  • Milk
  • Melted butter
  • Salt
  • Warm water
  • Eggs

What you need for Old-Fashioned Yeast Rolls:

  • Large bowl
  • Baking sheet
  • Whisk
  • Bench Scraper if you have
  • ​Warm spot for proofing (I like a barely preheated oven)
  • Electric mixer with dough hook (optional)

The Process:

  1. Warm the milk until it’s at room temperature. In a bowl, combine the warm milk, sugar, and butter. Let cool until room temperature.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl with hands, combine half the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the eggs and milk mixture and knead, adding the rest of the flour as needed. Use the dough hook attachment and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms. You’ll know the dough is ready when it easily releases from the sides of the bowl.
  3. First rise- Transfer the dough to a oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 1-2 hours or until it doubles in size.
  4. Punch down the risen dough and on a lightly floured surface divide it into equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and place them in a greased baking dish or muffin tin.
  5. Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap and let them rise for a second time until they puff up and fill the baking dish. This step ensures that your rolls are light, airy, and perfectly fluffy.
  6. Preheat your oven to 350F. Uncover the rolls and bake them until they turn a beautiful golden brown on top.
  7. Once out of the oven, brush the warm rolls with a little butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Allow them to cool on a wire rack.
  8. Enjoy your buttery rolls with soup, for mini sandwiches, or as a side for your holiday meal!

Old Fashioned Dinner Rolls Recipe - The Baker Chick (5)

Make-Ahead Options:

These old-fashioned dinner rolls are perfect for make-ahead preparations. After shaping the rolls, cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next day, let them come to room temperature and go through the second rise before baking.

Old Fashioned Dinner Rolls Recipe - The Baker Chick (6)

Storage:

Store any leftover rolls in an airtight container or wrap them in aluminum foil. They can be reheated in the oven or microwave, making them a convenient and delicious addition to your meals.

Interested in more homemade bread recipes?

My famous Brown Butter Cinnamon Rolls are always a crowd pleaser!

Pumpkin Parkerhouse Rolls are another amazing holiday bread option!

Old Fashioned Dinner Rolls Recipe - The Baker Chick (7)

Yield: 24-30 rolls

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for brushing
  • 1/4-1/2 cup sugar*
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 6-8 cups all-purpose flour
  • Sea Salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Place milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter and sugar stir until sugar is dissolved. Let cool to luke warm.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast, warm water, milk mixture, eggs, salt and half the flour.
  3. Mix for a few minutes until combined, scraping the bowl down with your spatula if needed. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time until dough comes together and forms a soft, loose ball. (The dough will be very soft but shouldn't be too sticky. I used 7 cups total flour.)
  4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand for about 5 minutes, adding a bit more flour if the dough is still very sticky, until smooth.
  5. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a clean towel, and proof in a warm place for 60-70 minutes, or until doubled.
  6. Turn proofed dough onto your floured surface, punch it down a bit, and roll or spread the dough into a rectangle. Shape into rolls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. **
  7. Cover again and let rise for another 20-30 minutes.
  8. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
  9. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt.

Notes

*The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, which definitely gives the rolls a little bit of a sweet taste. I didn't mind it, but will cut it down to 1/4 cup next time just to make it a bit more subtle.

** If I had wanted these to be perfectly the same size, I would have measured each one to weigh 1.5 oz on my kitchen scale. I eyeballed it though and was fine with them being a bit more rustic. To shape them into round rolls, I cut off the portion of dough, turned all the edges under and pinched them together to form a ball.

Recipe adapted from The Food Network

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

Old Fashioned Dinner Rolls Recipe - The Baker Chick (2024)

FAQs

Should you brush dinner rolls before 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.

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.

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

Add Sugar

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.

How do I make my rolls more airy? ›

Tips for Making Fluffy Dinner Rolls
  1. Don't get the milk too hot. The optimal temperature for milk is around 100 degrees F. ...
  2. Make sure your yeast isn't old. ...
  3. Use a combination of all-purpose and bread flour. ...
  4. Mix your dough long enough. ...
  5. Don't rush the rising time. ...
  6. Don't over-bake.

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

Adding butter to hot rolls before baking them can provide the following benefits: Moisture: Butter adds moisture to the rolls, making them soft and tender. Flavor: Butter imparts a rich, buttery flavor to the rolls, making them more appealing and delicious.

Should I bake rolls on parchment paper? ›

Baking rolls on a baking sheet: These rolls can also be baked on a rimmed baking sheet if you'd prefer not to have the tear-away edges. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking liner and space the rolls a few inches apart.

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).

Why are my dinner rolls tasteless? ›

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

What makes rolls taste yeasty? ›

Too much sugar in the dough can make the yeast grow too fast or too high for the dough. Letting it rise too long can promote a more yeasty flavor also.

Why are my homemade dinner rolls dense? ›

The dough was under or over proofed. This is the most common reason for dense bread because it can be hard at first to determine when dough is ready to bake. But both under and over fermenting can cause dense bread.

What kind of pan is best for baking rolls? ›

If you don't have a large 11 inch cast iron pan, you can use a glass baking dish sprayed with nonstick spray. A 9×13 size would work well. It's best to have the rolls all touching each other when you arrange them in the pan, and I'll tell you why…

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

Too much flour results in a dry, crumbly dough that's unpleasant and difficult to work with. It doesn't stick to itself and tends to fall apart when kneaded.

Should rolls touch when baking? ›

Arrange the Dough For Baking

Arrange the rolls closer to each other, with enough room for them to expand into each other as they rise and bake. More traditional dinner rolls might be arranged on a baking sheet with lots of space in between so you get little orbs of golden brown goodness that don't touch.

How can I make my bread lighter and fluffy? ›

Simply put, you have to control the temperature of the bread. Allowing ample time for your bread dough to rise and the yeast to form will create the holes in the bread that give it a lighter texture. Letting your dough get puffy and grow before it goes into the oven is critical.

Why are my homemade rolls so dense? ›

There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.

Why is my bread heavy not fluffy? ›

The usual reason why bread becomes too dense is due to using flour with low protein content. When your loaf is spongy and heavy, you might have also put too much flour into it or made the dough in a cooler or too warm setting.

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