Delicious Dinner Rolls
November 16, 2011 by Lara
On the lookout for delicious recipes with the holidays right around the corner? This is a MUST try! One bite of these delicious, buttery, melt in your mouth dinner rolls and you won’t be able to stop eating!
Is your mouth watering yet? 
This is my family’s very favorite dinner roll recipe. My mom, sister, and I are always asked to bring them to events. They are so easy and they turn out beautifully. No one will believe you MADE them!
The ingredients you will need:
1 1/2 cups of milk
3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon salt
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 cups of warm water
about 9-10 cups of all purpose flour
at least 1 cup of butter
To start out: Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of butter, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. Cutting the butter into pieces helps it melt faster. There will probably be some little cubes of butter still floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.
We are going to add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be too hot to just dump the yeast straight in (it would kill it!). To cool it down stir in 1-2 cups of flour, then add 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon of salt, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, in a measuring cup dissolve 2 Tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly.
**Keep track of how much flour you are adding!!!
Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling and add the yeast mixture!
Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour (counting the flour you have already added to cool it earlier). I would recommend only adding 2 cups at time and stirring in between. These rolls turn out so much better when they are mixed by hand.
At the end the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir, you can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if needed. Be sure not to add too much flour. Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it in a warm place and let it raise.
I came across this fun Thanksgiving idea on Pinterest – for Gratitude Rolls. I thought it was so cute and wanted to show you all how it’s done! Gather a list of things for which your family is thankful. Type it up in columns, then print it out. Yes, my 3-year-old said he was grateful for chocolate milk.. but I’m pretty sure we can all agree
Cut the list into strips with scissors or a paper cutter. Then set them aside.
When your dough is close to raising completely, butter 2 cookie sheets and set them aside.
Let the dough raise until it has doubled in size.
Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls. Eyeball the sizes, then lift them up and feel the weight of each ball. Try to make them even, but they don’t have to be perfect.
Using one ball of dough at a time: roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter. Once it is rolled out spread the top with butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 Tablespoons per circle of dough.
Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.
Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces. You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.
If you would like to add the thankful notes, now is the time!
Place one thankful note lengthwise on the triangle of dough.
Make sure you spread plenty of butter when using these notes, It will prevent them from sticking!
Whether or not you include a thankful note, you will roll the dough starting with the wide end of the triangle.
Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet. You will make 3 rows, with 8 rolls per row. This will give you 24 rolls per pan. Two balls of dough will fill 1 pan. You will get a total of 48 rolls!
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pans of rolls in a warm place (on top of the oven if possible) to let them rise. Once they are touching and full in size, bake (one pan at a time) in the oven ’till they are golden brown. About 10 – 15 minutes, It may take longer depending on how hot your oven cooks. Keep a close eye on your first pan to get the right time for the second.
While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.
The kids will love opening these thankful rolls. It’s just like a fortune cookie!
Read aloud the many things you are grateful at your Thanksgiving feast.
Make it a game and guess who’s thankful note you are reading!
These yummy dinner rolls will be a hit at any event!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of milk
- 3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon Sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons yeast
- 2 cups of warm water
- about 9-10 cups of all purpose flour
- at least 1 cup of butter
Instructions
- Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of butter, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. Cutting the butter into pieces helps it melt faster. There will probably be some little cubes of butter still floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.
- add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be too hot to just dump the yeast straight in (it would kill it!). To cool it down stir in 1-2 cups of flour, then add 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon of salt, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, in a measuring cup dissolve 2 Tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly.
- Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling and add the yeast mixture!
- Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour (counting the flour you have already added to cool it earlier). I would recommend only adding 2 cups at time and stirring in between. These rolls turn out so much better when they are mixed by hand.
- At the end the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir, you can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if needed. Be sure not to add too much flour. Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it in a warm place and let it rise.
- When your dough is close to raising completely, butter 2 cookie sheets and set them aside.
- Let the dough raise until it has doubled in size.
- Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls. Eyeball the sizes, then lift them up and feel the weight of each ball. Try to make them even, but they don’t have to be perfect.
- Using one ball of dough at a time: roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter. Once it is rolled out spread the top with butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 Tablespoons per circle of dough.
- Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.
- Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces. You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.
- Roll the dough starting with the wide end of the triangle
- Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet. You will make 3 rows, with 8 rolls per row. This will give you 24 rolls per pan. Two balls of dough will fill 1 pan. You will get a total of 48 rolls!
- Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pans of rolls in a warm place (on top of the oven if possible) to let them rise. Once they are touching and full in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven ’till they are golden brown. About 10 – 15 minutes, It may take longer depending on how hot your oven cooks. Keep a close eye on your first pan to get the right time for the second.
- While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.
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You can get some of the ingredients for this recipe FREE over at Vitacost using your $10 credit!
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I hope you all enjoy them as much as my family does.
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Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!! My first time making bread and found your recipe very easy to follow made wonderful rolls , cinnamon rolls and Bieroxs … was very nervous trying this but with your easy to follow recipe i have all the confidence that i can do it again !!! Thank You Again
I have made these rolls several times now….wait for it…Gluten free!!! Wish I didn’t have to be gf, but such is life. These rolls are the BEST rolls bar none I have ever had. They rise beautifully, smell heavenly and taste amazing. The only tweak I had to make was adding an extra egg, simply because gf flours need the egg. Today I made caramel pecan rolls with the dough and they were bar-none the best ever. I cannot express to you my gratitude for sharing your wonderful recipe!! I feel so normal now
I see you made GF, just curious as another person who also has a child who is GF, what did you do to change this recipe to GF? What type of flour did you substitute? Thanks in Advance for any info!
Hi, i love your Ideas but I’m in Germany and not familiar with the there Cup – would you hav Gramms for me? Looooaads of regards Indi
Indi, 1 cup is 250 ml. not sure how many grams
I have just rolled out my first try. My question is how do I get them all the same size what is your measurement for each roll. Very nervous they will be a mess due to my ineptitude with a rolling pin. Thank you for the recipe I hope these are as good as they smell.
I am so excited to make these for 2 seperate family Christmas dinners next week! If I make them in advance- will they be good- ie: if I make them on Sunday will they be good on Tuesday?
Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe!!
Your printable version doesn’t work!
I will be making these for Christmas day lunch. Wish me luck! I have never rolled my own dough let alone bought yeast. Any pointers for a young woman?
JoAnn, I printed the recipe. It downloads as a pdf first, then gives you a prompt to print
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Thank you so very much for this great recipe. It seems harder than it really is, so go ahead and give it a try! I just finished baking mine and they are so delicious , thanks again for such detailed instructions and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas !
Y’all, these are the absolute BEST rolls. I have never had any luck with yeast rolls and these turned out perfect. Lara, you truly are amazing and so precious for sharing this special recipe!
I found this recipe on Pinterest and its amazing! I wanted to try them for Thanksgiving and I made a “test” run since I’ve never done rolls and with the way my coworkers/taste testers ate several at a time, I knew it was a hit. I made them for Thanksgiving and I just finished making the dough for tonight! Thanks so much for sharing!
I made these rolls for Christmas Eve dinner, then made more for a Christmas dinner. Everyone loves them! I decided to try something with the extra dough I had left over (because I didn’t need two whole batches). This morning, I took the dough (that had already been made, risen to double in size and separated into fourths, then refrigerated overnight). It was very sticky, but I scraped it from the bowl, onto my floured surface… Rolled it out to a circle, then buttered it like the normal recipe calls for. This time, I added a layer of crumbled brown sugar across the butter layer, then sprinkled cinnamon over that, then cut and rolled them up as normal. OH My Land! Talk about DeLiSh!!!
Btw… After the cinnamon rolls were made, I sprinkled cinnamon on the tops of the rolls, then popped them in the oven… And swiped butter over the tops when they came out. Try it for breakfast. My kids couldn’t stop eating them (and neither could I).
D
I will be sharing this great recipe with my readers!! My husband made these and we have fallen in love with them. They were perfect for Christmas Dinner!
Also I love your pictures!
Compared this to the recipe I’ve been using for a dozen years. It’s almost exactly the same except that this recipe doubles the salt. Makes me wonder if they’re a little bit salty. Also, my recipe just uses water instead of milk, so to the person who asked if skim milk matters I would say no, it doesn’t matter since I use water and people rave about them.
Can’t wait to try this recipe!
I freeze these all the time and they come out better than when I don’t freeze. The only difference is freezing them makes them a little denser.
I let all the dough rise the first time then I put half of it in the freezer without letting it rise a second time. When I take the dough out of the freezer I leave it on the counter to thaw and rise then bake like usual
I added quite a bit of vital wheat gluten and needed for about 10 minutes. Anyone ever tried this? I’ll let you know how they turn out!
Better then DELICIOUS and they freeze well now I want to try and freeze before baking.
dough is rising now, cant wait to taste these.
I have made these once and they were a huge success.
Just took a lot longer as my pans are smaller I think.
I was just wondering what the measurements of your pan are?
Thank you
I started these early in the afternoon and a couple hours later it had doubled in size. I wanted to make sure I did this soon enough to figure out the rising time and with a added child in my house today I am babysitting, I didn’t want to wait to the last minute. I still have a couple more hours before I even need to start rolling them out to bake. Can I go ahead and roll them out and stick them in the fridge until it time to bake? Let them come to room temp then bake like normal? Can I just let it stay in the bowl for a couple more hours without harming the bread?
SOOO good!!!!
I made these for Christmas, and they were the hit of the meal. All of us just kept eating them! Wonderful recipe!
Hi, I am making these for dinner tonight and just realized by going through comments that you don’t recommend whole or skim milk. Whole is all we keep in our house. Is there a reason you say that? Thanks.
I have a birthday party on Friday, and need to make Pretzels, Pizza Dough, and Breadsticks. Do you think this could be a one-stop recipe? Comparing my separate recipes for everything, it looks like everything is the same. Thanks muchly for the recipe, my mother and I have never used anything other then this for homemade rolls since we found it.
I baked these up today to take to our Church potluck/soup sunday and they were a hit. I ended up cutting them in half so everyone could have one. Very popular and no leftovers!
From start to finish, how long do these take to make
I made these for my family for Easter. HUGE hit :] Thanks for the recipe. It was very easy to follow and yielded fabulous results.
I am not very savy when it comes to things that require yeast, so tell me, what kind of yeast do you use for this recipe? rapid rise, bread machine, instant…..??
I just found these rolls on pinterest and I made them today. They were so good!!! I even blogged about them here http://imonalimb.blogspot.com/2013/04/awesome-crescent-roll-recipe-and-no.html. Thank you so much for the recipe!
I’m interested in using whole wheat flour. How would this work as a substitute? Would it be too heavy? Do you have any suggestions for substituting whole wheat?
Thank you for such an easy recipe! I knew I had most of the ingredients, so set off to bake bread for the first time ever (yes, I know, you can stop the gasping). I used bits and pieces of flours. Whole grain spelt, white spelt and a tiny bit of white flour ( for the board). It’s a cool Sydney evening, so I preheated the oven to 50C, turned it off, and did the first rise in there.
To cut and shape, I found the dough quite sticky. I guess that’s what makes them so fluffy. Took 20 mins to cook on a fan forced oven at 180C.Delicious doesn’t start to describe them!!! No preservatives and I know exactly what went ino them. Thank you again.
These look so yummy! These rolls will BAKE in an oven…
Cooking is what we do on the stovetop!
nice catch – I just changed it.
Wow just made these and they are just like the pictures!! Love the step by step guide. Very helpful and made the visualization a reality!
Hey, I have a question: if I do it right, is the taste similar to that of .. bread???
Thanks for the wonderful recipe and the great directions! I love this recipe!