Soft and Fluffy Dinner Rolls
These pillow-y dinner rolls are pretty easy and straightforward to make. They require minimal ingredients, but are so soft, fluffy, and buttery. They are easy enough to be made on a weeknight! The last time I made them, they were gone within hours!
A little back story on how I achieved the perfect dinner rolls recipe. I have been trying for a long time to perfect a Trinidadian Hops Bread recipe. Everything about the recipe was great, except it lacked the traditional crusty exterior. Turns out, that same recipe made the best dinner rolls ever! It just needed a good brushing of melted butter over the top, and voila! So that's the story of how this recipe was created.
And stay tuned, because I think I've finally come up with a recipe for the Hops Bread I mentioned above!
Ingredients for the Best Dinner Rolls
Water + Milk: these will be the liquids of the recipe to help bring everything together. The milk also adds a nice softness and sweetness to the bread.
Yeast: the active yeast is what allows the bread to rise.
Brown Sugar: not only does the brown sugar feed the yeast to allow it to thrive, but it also helps to balance out the flavours.
Unsalted Butter + Shortening: these two ingredients together will create a softer, fluffier, richer, and moist dinner roll.
All-Purpose Flour: this is the structure of the bread.
Salt: not only does salt boost the flavour of the dinner rolls, but it also helps tighten the gluten strands, which adds strength to your dough.
How to Make Perfect Dough Balls
Once you get the hang of it, creating perfect little dough balls is a breeze. It's a little hard to explain, but I'll try my best. First, you need to divide the dough into 16 balls. You don't need to be perfect, but you can use a scale if you want even balls.
Next, you will hold one ball in your hand and begin pulling in the ends toward the middle and tucking in. Then you will place the ball onto your work surface, seam side down; cup your hand over the ball and begin moving your hand in a circular motion. This will create a nice even ball. Repeat this for all the dough balls.
If that explanation didn't help, this blog post at Simply Recipes does a great job at explaining it and giving visuals as well. Check it out with this link. How to Shape Dinner Rolls (A Visual Guide)
How to Make Dinner Rolls in Advance
If you'd like to get a head start the day before, you can absolutely make these in advance. All you need to do is follow the instructions as normal. Once you place the individual balls in the baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Once you are ready to put them in the oven, remove from the fridge and let come to room temperature. During this time they will rise a bit more. Then, bake as instructed!
You can also freeze the dough balls for up to a month. Once you arrange the dough balls onto the baking tray, place in the freezer until frozen. Then transfer to a freezer bag. When ready to use, remove from freezer and let come to room temperature (a few hours). They will also rise a bit during this time. Lastly, bake as instructed.
What to Serve Dinner Rolls With
Dinner rolls go well with so many different foods. My favourite is eating it with roasted chicken and vegetables--perfection. It's also great on the side of lasagna, chili, or even spaghetti and meatballs.
Having dinner rolls with butter and cheese is simple, but so satisfying, as well.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for buttery, soft, and moist dinner rolls. Leave a comment if you tried it!
Enjoy!
Homemade, buttery dinner rolls with a soft and fluffy interior. Makes the perfect side to almost any meal.
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tbsp active yeast
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp shortening
- 4 cups all-purpose flour + extra for kneading
- 1 tbsp salt
- extra butter for brushing
Mix water and milk together. Heat this mixture in microwave or on stovetop to about 37-43°C (100-110°F). You can also test this on your wrist. The mixture should be very warm, but not scolding at all. Add the yeast and brown sugar to the warm mixture and stir. Leave the mixture in a warm place for a few minutes.
While the yeast is proofing, prepare the other ingredients. Melt the unsalted butter and shortening together. Set this aside.
In a large bowl, measure in the 4 cups of flour (read the blog post above to measure correctly). Add salt to the flour and mix to combine.
The yeast should now look bubbly and creamy. Pour the melted butter and shortening into the yeast mixture and give it a quick stir.
Pour some of the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with your fingers or a spoon. Continue to pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, gradually, mixing after each time. Keep doing this until you've poured all of the liquid ingredients.
At this point, depending on the humidity in your area, you may need to sprinkle in some extra flour. You will continue to bring the dough together with your fingers or spoon for about a minute. If it feels too sticky, sprinkle in some flour.
Once dough has come together, turn over onto a floured surface and begin kneading the dough; sprinkle in flour as needed. Knead for 7-10 minutes until you get a smooth dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a slightly warm area for 45 mins to 1 hour, until dough has doubled in size.
Once dough has doubled in size, punch down to remove excess air. Divide dough into 16 equal sized balls. Form and shape balls as noted above in the blog post. Arrange dough balls on a greased baking dish with some space between. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another 45 mins to 1 hr.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake dinner rolls for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Check doneness with a toothpick.
Remove dinner rolls from oven and brush on melted butter. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Serve warm and enjoy!
- Ovens vary so be sure to keep a close eye on your dinner rolls, especially nearing the end of cook time.
- If you don't want the rolls to touch each other, use a bigger baking dish to spread them out more.
