What holiday meal or Sunday dinner is complete without homemade easy soft dinner rolls? These irresistible soft and tender rolls are the perfect addition to most any menu plan. Serve alongside our sausage stuffing or cheesy funeral potatoes for a truly scrumptious holiday food feast!
These easy soft dinner rolls are absolutely holiday worthy. Made with pantry staple ingredients like flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk and butter it doesn’t get any easier.
Elevate any meal by adding a side of these homemade fresh rolls. They are especially perfect paired with our Lentil and Coconut soup, Potato and Sausage soup or a big hearty bowl of our favorite Sweet and Spicy Chili.
What are the three steps to making Dinner Rolls?
When it comes to making homemade easy soft dinner rolls there are really three different parts you are going to focus in on. Your first stage is to prepare the dough. Once the dough is ready and has had a chance to rise your next step will be to form your rolls and give them another chance to puff up a bit and rise again. Once they have had a chance to rise a second time the only step left is to bake them to golden brown perfection.
PREPARING THE DOUGH
How do you activate Yeast?
First thing we want to do is activate our yeast. But even before we do that we want to check and make sure our yeast has not expired. This is so, so important! Once the yeast is good to go we are going to add it to warm water and gently stir it. Set the bowl aside for five minutes so it can get frothy and proof
Butter, Sugar, Salt and Milk
In a small bowl combine your melted butter, sugar and salt and set it aside while you heat the milk. In a pot heat your milk until small bubbles start to appear on the edges of the pot. Remove milk from the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add your prepared butter mixture to help the milk cool down a bit.
Add last of the ingredients
In your empty small butter bowl, beat two eggs with a fork while you give the milk mixture another minute to cool. You don’t want to add eggs too soon or they will cook. And there is nothing good about having scrambled egg bits in your dough!
Once milk is slightly cooled and just warm to the touch add eggs and the prepared yeast mixture to the larger bowl with milk and butter. Stir everything together gently.
Adding the Flour
Add two cups of flour to liquid mixture. When measuring flour loosely fill your measuring cup by spooning in the flour. You do not want to scoop the flour straight from the storage container or it will get packed in and you will have too much flour in your dough.
Less Flour is More
Less flour means lighter, fluffier rolls. Mix together your dough for about 5 minutes taking short breaks between to allow the dough to rest a little. It will look silky and shiny when you are ready to add in more flour.
When ready add two cups of flour to the wet dough mixture and stir to combine. Dough should still be pretty sticky or mushy to the touch at this point.
How do you know if there is enough flour?
Slowly add in the last cup of flour, a little at a time being careful not to add too much flour. You may not end up using the entire fifth cup of flour.
You will know your dough is ready when it feels slightly tacky to the touch. When you use clean, dry fingertips you could push on the dough and it would not stick to them. Add the last cup of flour a tablespoon at a time so you don’t over flour your dough. Dough with too much flour makes for tougher rolls.
Kneading the dough
Once dough comes together into a soft ball and is only slightly sticky we are going to knead the dough lightly. You want to fold the dough over on itself again and again several times. Kneading your dough helps release the gluten which is what makes for a bouncy, elastic dough and super soft, yummy rolls.
After kneading for a few minutes, you will want to place your dough in a greased large bowl. Flip the dough over in the bowl twice to allow for it to get greased on all sides. Cover the bowl loosely with cling wrap and let dough sit and rise for 30-35 minutes.
Shaping the Easy Soft Dinner Rolls
To get ready for shaping the rolls you will want to first grease a baking sheet. Go ahead and put down some extra grease in one corner of the pan to roll each dough ball in.
To form your rolls, you will pull sections of dough off from the larger ball and form roll the smaller dough chunk into a rough ball shape. Coat each ball with the cooking spray by rolling it in the extra greased corner of your pan.
How to get perfectly shaped rolls.
To get perfectly shaped easy soft dinner rolls you will want to pinching the sides of each roll and pull the edges into the center, tucking them into the bottom of the roll for a nice smooth top. Watch the video recipe above to get a better visual of this step.
When you’ve got your roll perfectly shaped place it on the pan so that the dinner rolls are sitting an inch or two apart. Repeat this with each ball of dough until you have 12 LARGE rolls on the pan. When you place the dough ball on the pan to rise you want them to be close enough together that they looked “squished” once risen. When they bake they should bake into each other, this way the sides are soft and not crusty after baking.
Set your tray aside to allow the rolls to rise for another 30 minutes before going in the oven. You want to be careful not to let your rolls rise for too long at this point and over extend the yeast. If the rolls proof for too long they will become deflated and be not nearly as pretty as they could. At about 15 minutes in you will want to go ahead and turn the oven on to 400°F so it can pre-heat.
BAKING THE ROLLS
After the thirty minutes are up and the dinner rolls have risen for the final time place the pan in the oven. They will need to bake for 10-12 minutes. When golden brown pull tray from the oven. And while still hot brush each roll with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt.
Dinner Rolls
Baked to golden-brown perfection these rolls are the perfect addition to your holiday plans. Scrumptiously homemade they are extra fluffy and oh so tender!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 5 cups flour
- extra butter to brush on rolls
Instructions
- Add yeast to warm water in a bowl and gently stir. Set bowl aside.
- In a small bowl combine butter, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.
- In a pot heat milk until bubbles start to appear on the edges of the pan.
- Move milk to a large bowl and add butter mixture, stirring to combine. Set bowl aside.
- In a small bowl beat two eggs with a fork while milk mixture cools. (You don't want to add eggs too soon or they will cook.)
- Add eggs and yeast mixture to the larger bowl with milk and butter. Stir gently.
- Add two cups of flour to liquid mixture. When measuring flour loosely fill your measuring cup, do not pack the flour. Mix together for about 5 minutes taking short breaks between to allow dough to rest It will look silky and shiny when you are ready to add in more flour.
- Add to cups of flour to the wet mixture and stir to combine. Dough should be still pretty sticky to the touch.
- Slowly add in the last cup of flour, a little at a time being careful not to add too much flour. You may not end up using the entire fifth cup of flour.
- Once dough comes together into a soft ball and is only slightly sticky knead dough lightly until it is bouncy.
- Grease a large bowl and place dough inside. Flip dough over to allow it to get greased on each side. Cover the bowl loosely with cling wrap and let dough rise for 30-35 minutes.
- Grease a baking sheet, spraying extra grease in one corner of the pan.
- Pulling sections of dough off form rolls by rolling them into a rough ball. Coat each ball by rolling in the extra greased corner to coat.
- Pinching the sides of each roll, pul the edges into the center tucking them into the bottom of the roll for a nice smooth top.
- Place the dough ball on the pan so rolls are sitting an inch or two apart. Repeat this with each ball of dough until you have 24 rolls on the pan.
- Allow rolls to sit on pan for 30 minutes to rise before going in the oven. At about 15 minutes in, turn oven on to 400°F to pre-heat.
- Once risen place pan in the oven and allow to bake for 10-12 minutes. When golden brown pull pan from the oven.
- While still hot brush each roll with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy!
Notes
- You can prepare this dough in a mixer if preferred. I like using a bowl and spatuala as it allows me to fully scrape the sides as much as I want to.
- Make sure milk and butter mixture isn't too hot before adding eggs. You don't want them to cook!
- You don't want to add too much flour to your dough mixture. Less flour means lighter, fluffier rolls. When measuring flour spoon it into your measuring cup instead of packing it in.
- When you place the dough ball on the pan to rise you want them to be close enough together that they looked “squished” when they rise. When they bake they should bake into each other. This way the sides are soft and not crusty after baking.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 283Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 45mgSodium: 250mgCarbohydrates: 47gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 8g
