The Best Darn Dinner Roll Recipe
This dinner roll recipe…oh my word, it’s amazing. And I promise I’m not just saying that because I’m a writer and I’m trying to fluff up this post.
We’ve* been making them for friends and family for more than a decade and everyone says the same thing.
Like, they’re so amazing that the second you sink your teeth into one of these warm, fresh-from-the-oven dinner rolls you’ll automatically close your eyes, let out a big, “mmmmmmm,” and savor the heck out of that first bite.
People may look at you silly until they, too, take a bite; then the get it.
You’ll both look at each other, nod, and agree that this is the best darn dinner roll you’ve ever tasted.
*Okay, the cat’s out of the bag: my husband makes these. I sit at the table and give him moral support while he mixes, kneads, and makes the rolls. Then I help him quality check them once they come out.
Dinner Roll Recipe
Best Darn Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- ¾ cup milk
- 6 Tbs unsalted butter melted (plus 2 Tbs for brushing)
- 6 Tbs sugar
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 2 ¼ tsp Instant Yeast Rapid-rise; 1 packet
- 3 cups flour
Instructions
- Mix together milk, 6 Tbs melted butter, sugar, and salt to a bowl.
- Add eggs and yeast; mix well.
- Add in flour; kneed until cohesive, elastic dough is formed.
- Transfer dough to lightly floured work space; kneed dough by hand two to four minutes, until not sticky anymore.
- Lightly spritz medium-sized bowl with nonstick cooking spray or oil. Transfer dough to oiled bowl. Lightly coat surface of dough with cooking spray; cover bowl lightly with a damp towel.
- Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free location until it doubles in volume (2-3 hours)
- Once dough has doubled in size, shape dough into 12-16 equal shaped balls.
- Arrange shaped rolls on lightly oiled pans about one inch apart. Spritz the rolls with more oil; cover prepared pans with plastic wrap. If making them the same day: leave out and covered for at least two hours (for a second rise). If making them the next day: refrigerate for up to 24 hours. *If refrigerated take out of the fridge 4-6 hours before you plan on baking them.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400°
- Remove plastic wrap from room-temperature dough balls. Brush rolls with remaining 2 Tbs melted butter.
- Bake for about 10-15 minutes. When rolls turn golden brown, use a food thermometer to check the internal temp. Rolls are done when they reach 190°. Put a foil tent over rolls if this heat has not been reached, but if the rolls are already browning on top.
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes; serve warm.
What Makes this Recipe so Good
I’m going to throw out a word here that people love to hate: these are soooooo moist.
Move over, dry rolls; these are flakey, buttery, fluffy, and full of flavor, but they’re also light and strong enough at the same time to hold up as the foundation for a great leftover Thanksgiving sandwich.
We make these for special occasions (like Thanksgiving), but also on random Tuesday nights to go with a warm bowl of soup.
The nice thing is that these freeze really well, so you can make them, bake them, and then freeze them in a freezer bag. Pop them out when you want one (or a half dozen), and either let them defrost naturally, microwave ’em for about 30 seconds, or bake for a bit to warm them back up.
Have You Tried Them?
When you give these a whirl, let me know what you think about them!
These rolls were a hit with my family this year! It did take awhile for the dough to rise though (longer than the 2 -3 hours the recipe indicates) turns out my kitchen was too cold but placing them in the oven as it was cooling down from another meal really helped!