Soft and Fluffy Dinner Rolls
Buttery and Soft Dinner Rolls
These pillow-y dinner rolls are the best rolls you will ever have. They require minimal ingredients, but are so soft, fluffy, and buttery, and pretty easy + straightforward to make. 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!
This recipe is a simple one, but is so comforting and cozy, and just brings you back to the simpler times. One of my favourite ways to enjoy this is warm, slathered with butter, with a hot cup of tea. :D
Ingredients Needed
The ingredients to make these dinner rolls are simple, and you most likely have everything you need.
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 Dinner Rolls
- Heat water and milk together until the temperature reaches 37-43C. Mix the yeast and brown sugar into the liquid mixture and set aside in a warm place for about 10 minutes to proof.
- Prepare the other ingredients while yeast is proofing. Melt the unsalted butter and shortening together in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, measure in the 4 cups of flour. You will need to use the scoop and level method; don't use your measuring cup to scoop the flour out, you will have too much flour that way. You want to spoon flour into your measuring cup past the top, then use any flat utensil (like the back of a knife) to push the excess flour off the cup, leveling at the same time. Add the salt to the flour and mix to combine.
- Once yeast mixture has proofed, add in the melted butter/shortening and give it a stir.
- Pour some of this mixture into the dry ingredients, bringing the flour in with your fingers or utensil. Continue to pour liquid and mix until you've used up all the liquid and the dough comes together.
- The dough may or may not be sticky at this point. Sprinkle in some extra flour as needed, continuing to knead until no longer sticky.
- Turn dough over onto a floured surface and begin kneading, sprinkling in flour as needed if it becomes too sticky. Knead for 7-10 minutes, until a smooth dough is achieved. Return to bowl, cover with plastic wrap or damp kitchen towel, set in a warm area, and leave for 45 mins to 1 hr to double in size.
- Once dough has doubled in size, gently punch down to remove air. Divide dough into 16 equal sized balls. Shape the dough balls (see section below How to Make Perfect Dough Balls). Place the dough balls into a greased baking dish. Cover with a damp kitchen towel, and allow to rise for another 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes in an oven that's been preheated to 400F. The tops should be golden brown. Check doneness with a toothpick.
- Remove from oven, brush with melted butter, let cool for 10-15 minutes and serve.
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, check out How to Shape Dinner Rolls by Simply Recipes. It is really helpful, with descriptions and visuals.
How to Make 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
These dinner rolls go so well with many different meals. You can serve these rolls with your Thanksgiving dinner, Marry Me Chicken Meatballs, Roasted Cajun Chicken with Potatoes, Chili, or even thick soups. You can use them to make sliders as well, like my Chicken Tikka Sliders. They're so good! You can also have them with sandwich meat or egg salad! They're pretty versatile.
Having dinner rolls with butter and cheese is so simple, but so satisfying, as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
They are both yeast, but need to be used in different ways, which is why it's important you get the right yeast that the recipe calls for. Active yeast needs to be activated in a warm liquid before using. Instant yeast can be mixed directly into dry ingredients, without activating. Active yeast is used in this recipe in order to allow the dough to rise gently and slowly, two times.
As long as the dough balls can fit comfortably inside the dish, with about 1/2 inch of space between them, it will be fine. I use 11x11 inch for this recipe, but you can use anything similar in size.
Some more recipes you can try: Banana Pumpkin Muffins, Carrot Cake Loaf, Blueberry Muffins
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. 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.