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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Hi, this is my first time hosting Thanksgiving and making a turkey so I decided to throw these rolls on top of it all! I only have one oven and need to cook green beans while the turkey is resting. My questions is can I bake these at 325 degrees for longer instead of 350? The beans cook at 325 and it’s the only way I can figure out how to have these fresh and the timing still work out.
Questions…. do we use whole milk ?? and all purpose flour or self rising flour ??
Just use 1% or 2% milk and all purpose flour
Do you think I could make the dough in my bread machine?
I have have actually never used a bread machine before! But you could give it a whirl and let us know how it turns out!
Mmmmmmm….. am going to have to try these rolls as well and wondering about using whole wheat flour. I only use whole wheat flour in baking, but I use hard red wheat for yeast bread and soft white (pastry) wheat for all the rest of my baking. So will have to see if the gluten (there’s more in the hard red) is more important (since this is a yeast bread) than the fluffiness you would otherwise get with the soft white…
These sound delicious tho!
~Julie
Well I split the dough in half, using soft white wheat for 1/2 & red hard for the other. The red hard (with the gluten) is going to be the winner, I can tell already (the white wheat is done & more “biscuity” – the dark are finishing up in the oven).
what a cute idea of putting thankful notes into the rolls! I love it!
Hi! There are a couple of things that would be very helpful on the printable recipe.
-How thick to roll out the circles (or about how wide…I did 12-14″).
-Approx. how long to let the dough rise the first and second rises. (45 min. to 1 hour, and around 30 minutes.)
And the instructions for freezing, once those get ironed out. I’m SO excited to make these! Thank you so much for posting the recipe!
~Gwen
6-7 minutes is a good par-bake time. You’ll know it’s ready when you poke one, and it does *not* sound like ‘shaving cream’
Freezing one batch, and the other is getting stuck in the fridge for a final bake off tomorrow.
Trying these in the morning!! All the comments are encouraging! Happy Thanksgiving all!
I have these rolls rising on my stovetop right this minute. Thank you for inspiring me to make my own. I messed up and forgot to butter the dough balls before I rolled them out and cut them up. Hope they still turn out. Thanks again!
I love this recipe! So excited about something that doesn’t require kneading. I’m making them today for our Thanksgiving meal…one word of caution if you use bread flour: slow down at 7 and add by the 1/2 cup until you get the right consistency. I’m not sure why but 8 cups of bread flour was almost too much. (I’m in FL in case you wonder about altitude.) Thank you SO much for the recipe!
P.S. For those worried about freezing and the rolls not being as fluffy…here is a free online calculator that lets you halve the recipe so you can make them fresh every time. I love this thing and have created a shortcut to my desktop for when I’m cooking. (We have a large family so I usually need to double or triple recipes but I’m horrible at calculating in my head!)
http://www.fruitfromwashington.com/Recipes/scale/recipeconversions.php
These are AMAZING and so easy!! I pinned them from pinterest and just made them last night for Thanksgiving. UMMM…my family accidentally ate 1/2 a pan! Thanks for the great recipe! We’ll be making again!
Sounds like my family!
I made them this morning, I used 10 cups of flour and they looked nothing like yours (I haven’t baked them yet) but my dough was very sticky and fluffy, hard to work with and roll
What did I do wrong?
If they are still sticky, work a little more flour into them until they are soft (not dense). they shouldn’t be sticky. Hope that helps.
These rolls came out amazing! I always seem to have bad luck with bread, but this recipe was very easy. I followed the directions exactly and they are perfect! Thank you so much!
Good gravy!! I tried these for Thanksgiving today and they are SUBLIME!!! Best dinner rolls ever. Thank you!!
I just took them out of the oven for Thanksgiving and they are delish! I have a great tip to share. My dough wasn’t rising, so I called my mom to ask her about it. She said to put 1c. of water in a 2c. measuring cup and microwave it for 2 minutes. Then put the bowl of dough in the microwave next to the cup and leave it there for 20 minutes. The microwave isn’t running during this time. After 20 minutes the dough had doubled! She said that she does this trick when she’s in a hurry.
When I’m in a hurry, I turn the oven on to 400 degrees for 2 minutes then turn it off. I put the dough in the oven and it rises quickly! Great for that first rise!
My grandma always used a heating pad on low to medium under her dough…it works great to help it rise!
I made these for our Thanksgiving meal and they were DELICIOUS! Everyone loved them! I only made half of them into buns. I put the rest of the dough into bowls and baked them for soup bowls for tomorrow. I mixed the dough with my Kitchenaid and it was perfect!
These turned out beautifully and were a hit at Thanksgiving lunch today. Everyone loved the “I am thankful”…..slips. Thank you for a fabulous, easy recipe and wonderful Thanksgiving idea!
These look awesome!! They make my mouth water and I just want to make them NOW! I will definitely be giving them a go for Christmas. Do you think you could use oil instead of butter? or a dairy free margarine? My son and husband have a bit of an intolerance to dairy, but I’m sure if it wouldn’t work they’d deal with it for such yummy looking rolls!
I made these today for Thanksgiving! I can’t thank you for this recipe! They came out perfect and were delicious! I have to say, people were fighting over who was going to take them home!
Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe!
Dennis
P.S. Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Thanks for the kind comment! We appreciate that!
Made these for Thanksgiving dinner…amazing!
I also made these for Thanksgiving and they were to die for! Thank you SO much for the recipe! It’s a keeper. Happy holidays!
I made these yesterday for Tday dinner. They almost didn’t make it to the table. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I made these yesterday for Thanksgiving and they were wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Oh my, these were amazing, thank you so much for sharing this recipe. They were so easy and they were delicious.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Toni
Oh. My. Goodness. These were the absolute best rolls ever!! I had another recipe for rolls that I always use but your pictures kept luring me to try your recipe. I am so glad i did. My only changes were I used evaporated milk, bread flour ( I used just under 8 cups) and rapid rise yeast so I added the yeast directly to the flour. The result was a soft pillowy dough that turned into the most delicious rolls. My whole family just moaned with delight as they were eating these and it made me feel like a baking super hero. Thanks so much for sharing this fabulous recipe!
Best rolls I have ever made. Thank you. Everyone loved loved loved them. But the time the second round of food started the were gone.
This recipe looks so yummy, can’t wait to try it!
I can’t wait to try these! The “fortune” idea is great! The kids will love that!
OH thank you! I had lost my grandma’s recipe… actually it got wet and smeared to the point of being illegible. This year I didn’t make rolls but these are definitely on the menu for Christmas and the semester end. (yes we celebrate things like the end of the semester and good grades!!)
Holy Moses!! I emailed all of our family members a week ago and asked for every person to email me back with at least 2 things they were thankful for and requested that the focus on the small things rather than “I’m thankful for my family” becuase I figured everyone would say that. I made these rolls (fortune cookie style with the thankfuls in them) with my 4 and 6 year old daughters. These rolls were a SMASHING success!! I’m not kidding in the slightest when I say that very little of the traditional Thanksgiving food was eaten because everyone just wanted to eat more rolls because they were so good and because we were having so much fun guessing who the thankful inside belonged to! Definitely a new family tradtion!!! THANK YOU!!!
Oh and a tip for getting your dough to rise (my house is notoriously too cool to get dough to rise). I put a big pot of water on the stove to boil and then set my bowl of dough on the opposite corner of the stove. Works like a charm.
Thanks for the recipe!! We made it for thanksgiving! It came out perfect. My husband told me I had to thank you for that!!
I LOVE these rolls. I have made them twice this week and they are the easiest rolls I’ve ever made and they turned out great both times.
Thanks for sharing.
I shared them on my blog here, http://macsmenu.blogspot.com/2011/11/buttery-rolls.html
ooh boy there sure are a lot of comments here, and i didn’t have time to read through them all, but i sure wish i had this recipe the days before thanksgiving. will definitely try this out! i love the smell of freshly baked bread.
These look SO yummy! And what a CUTE idea!! LOVE IT!
I made these for thanksgiving. Very good!
Definitely making these…. Every night for dinner:)
Can’t wait to try this recipe!
My latest item I made from your site…… delicious. It made sooooo many. thanks for sharing.
These look incredible. I love homemade rolls. Thanks for the recipe
I made these for Thanksgiving! Fantastic!!
These look DELICIOUS! I’m Bookmarking for later. Love the idea with the hidden note!
M-m-m-m-m my mouth just waters looking at the picture. I love the idea of the message inside of the rolls. I am thinking of using them for Christmas with some other thoughts inserted in the rolls.
Yum….wouldn’t they look great packaged with twine
I love this idea. I cant wait for next year to make them.
I made these for Thanksgiving and they were THE BEST ROLLS EVER. I seriously mean that! I will never make another roll recipe again. So delicious!!! Thank you
I so need help with rolls and I want to win some twin. he he.
OMG made these for Thanksgiving and they were a hit! Never again will I buy the blue refrigerated rolls!
I can’t wait to try these!
I made these for Thanksgiving this year… AMAZING! Everyone should try these! They are fairly easy to make and they are absolutely delicious! They are really great reheated, but I would suggest serving them fresh… they are fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
These rolls are easy and taste fantastic!!!