These dinner rolls are soft and fluffy, easy to make, and practically melt in your mouth. They are truly the most amazing dinner rolls ever. Just read all the rave reviews!
This dinner roll recipe took Chef Rachel Farnsworth over 5 years of testing to develop. It has since been enjoyed by millions of people around the world with thousands and thousands of rave reviews, heralded as the best dinner rolls on the internet. In addition to being published in her best-selling cookbook The Stay At Home Chef Family Favorites, this dinner roll recipe is used in restaurants and bakeries around the world.
Whether you are new to bread making or an experienced baker, this recipe is sure to please. Be sure to review the frequently asked questions for any troubleshooting and watch the included video demonstration so that you too can enjoy these famous rolls at home.
What if I don’t have a stand mixer?
No mixer? No problem! You can knead your dough by hand! Start out by stirring with a spoon until it becomes too difficult to stir. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead it with your hands, gradually adding in more flour and folding, pressing, and working the dough (kneading) until you have a soft and smooth dough ball that is tacky, but not sticky enough to stick to your hands.
What is the difference between active dry yeast and instant dry yeast?
Instant dry yeast can be added straight to dry ingredients and doesn’t require any waiting period or proofing. It also rises a bit quicker. Active dry yeast is a bigger size of granule and generally needs to be dissolved in a liquid before adding to a recipe. It activates a bit slower so expect 10-15 minutes extra in rise time.
What should the dough feel like?
The dough should be smooth and slightly tacky, but still very soft and pliable. If it is sticking to your hands or the sides of the bowl, you need more flour. If you add too much flour and the dough stiffens, your rolls will also get a little stiff so always add additional flour a small amount at a time. The exact amount of flour you add in bread making can vary a great deal so it’s important to go by feel. I like to say you can feel a soft roll just by touching the dough.
How should I measure the flour? Should I sift it?
The flour you buy at the store these days is generally pre-sifted. There is no need to sift your flour. I prefer the scoop and sweep method as it is ultra-convenient. Simply give your flour a fluff, use your measuring cup to scoop out the flour, and level off the top. Weighing your flour using a kitchen scale is the only way to ensure complete accuracy. Even then, bread making is both fickle and forgiving and the actual amount of flour you add can change just due to the humidity in the air. When making this roll recipe, it is best to go by the touch and feel of the dough. 1 cup of flour is approximately 125 grams.
Can I substitute gluten-free flour?
This recipe was not designed to be gluten-free. Gluten free baking involves completely different chemistry. In general, you cannot substitute gluten-free flour in baking recipes and expect it to work, however, several people have reported that a blend like Cup for Cup will work.
How do I make my rolls equal in size?
The best way to ensure that your rolls are equal in size is to weigh them. Weigh the entire batch of dough using a kitchen scale and divide that weight by 24. This will give you your target weight for each roll. Usually, this is somewhere around 2.5 ounces.
How do I shape dinner rolls so that they are round?
Once you have your dough divided into 24 pieces you can shape your rolls. Place your hand into a cupping shape parallel to a clean countertop. Place the dough ball between the palm of your hand and the countertop. Roll the dough in a circular motion between your palm and the countertop for approximately 30 to 45 seconds until you have a smooth, round roll.
Does this roll recipe make a good loaf of bread? What about cinnamon rolls?
We love a good loaf of bread and we know that the amazing results of these rolls will quickly have you wondering if you can turn it into a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, the incredibly soft and melt-in-your moth results of this roll does not produce a sturdy loaf. Instead, we worked tirelessly to bring you the ultimate guide to homemade bread instead.
This recipe does make an incredible batch of cinnamon rolls. Be sure to check out the best homemade cinnamon rolls ever!
Freezer Instructions
You can freeze dinner rolls for later baking immediately after you shape them into rolls. When ready to eat, remove them from the freezer and allow to thaw and produce their second rise until double in size before baking. This can take anywhere between 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature in your home.
Make-Ahead Instructions
Need to make your dough ahead of time while you are busy doing other things? Make your dough as directed and let it rise for the initial 90 minutes. Shape the dough into rolls and place them on your baking sheet. Instead of letting them rise for an additional 60 minutes, cover the shaped rolls with plastic wrap and place the pan directly into the refrigerator. While it doesn’t stop it completely, the cool temperature of the fridge will slow the growth of your yeast. Your rolls will only rise slightly while refrigerated and you can hold them this way for up to 24 hours.
When ready to bake, remove them from the fridge and allow the rolls to rise at room temperature while your oven preheats, about 30 minutes. Continue to bake as directed.
Watch the video below where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and we’ve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes on YouTube, Facebook Watch, or our Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
These are seriously amazing! Thank you for sharing with us. Made them for dinner tonight, made a half batch as it was only 3 of us. So good!!!
I made This recipe twice. The first time I thought the 2 Tablespoons instant yeast was a misprint so I used 2 teaspoons instant yeast. They turned out wonderful. Today I made it again; One batch with two teaspoons, One batch with 2 Tablespoons yeast side by side. I weighed the dough balls at 2oz each for both batches, used the same type tins and cooked one tin of each side by side in the oven. As expected the batch with more yeast rose faster both times. but by the end of the second rise there was little size difference. The tin with more yeast was lumpy looking the others were perfectly rounded. I cooked them in 3 batches, switching out which side of the oven I put them on for each batch. The results were consistent. The tin with more yeast did not brown as well or evenly as the others, They were lumpy looking. The surprise was that they were not as light feeling in the mouth either. I will stick with using 2 to 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast for this recipe.
Thanks for sharing your results. I prefer that they rise faster and don’t brown as much which is why I call for so much yeast. As far as the lumpy factor and lightness, my testing of this recipe yielded different results. In fact, it yielded the opposite.
These are by far the absolute best dinner rolls!! I followed your measurement exactly and they turned out perfectly! This will definitely be my dinner roll recipe forever ?
Thanks for sharing!
i just made these rolls, and they turned out perfectly!
I hope you see this soon! I’m trying to make these for dinner tonight! Can I rise these in a warm place to cut the rising time down? Is it enough for the dough to double?
Yes. Proofing the bread with a little heat is a good way to speed up rising time if you know what you are doing.
I made these amazing rolls yesterday.
This is the most delicious rolls I have ever made .
Just made these bread rolls and we’re best ever. I used buttermilk and rolls were very light and airy. Used only 1 sachet of yeast as I don’t like the taste of yeast. Would recommend this recipe to everyone. It’s now on my Facebook for everyone to see. Ps.I live in spain the whole world should know about this incredible recipe.
I forgot to mention I sieved the bread flour before adding to bread making machine.
By the way I done the whole process in the bread making machine on dough setting. Cut recipe down to half and made 8 rolls 90grms.each. cooked completely and whèn cold put them in freezer. Took one out today to thaw out and it was PERFECT. So no need to freeze uncooked dough. The bread machinedone a good job at kneading for me.
So glad you liked them!
Look yummy,,,but we are eliminating white flour and sugar. Can these be made with whole wheat flour and pure cane sugar (or even Stevia)?
It will be a much more dense roll.
I like to make homemade bread and really want to try rolls again – my first time was a disaster a few years ago haha! My thing is that I am only making them to go with our chili tonight and 4 of us won’t eat all of them. Can I half the recipe and maybe bake them in a 13 x 9 cake pan? Or would I be better off doing the full recipe?
Thank you and wish me luck, I am good with bread but rolls not so much
You sure can! This recipe is really easy to halve.
I just made these. I have never made homemade buns. This is a fantastic recipe. My husband has just polished off 3 warm buns. Do you have a bread recipe. Thanks know you for sharing your wonderful talent.