Sweet Dinner Rolls … From Scratch!
There’s something about soft, warm, fresh homemade dinner rolls that makes them nearly impossible to resist. They’re so irresistible that I could happily and easily make a dinner out of dinner rolls. Until these sweet dinner rolls, I had never made dinner rolls, but they turned out to be the best dinner rolls I’ve ever had. They’re going to be a very tough act to beat and even though my search for the perfect end-all-be-all chocolate chip cookie recipe isn’t over, I think my dinner roll recipe search is. Rarely does recipe karma strike so perfectly that the first attempt at a recipe is the one I want to live with forever, but in this case, I struck dinner roll gold.
Recipes for dinner rolls are like chocolate chip cookies. There are so many and they all promise to be the best. In chocolate chip cookies, among other variables, the ratios of brown and granulated sugars, butter, flour, baking soda or powder, dough chilling, baking times and temperatures all vary from recipe to recipe. In dinner rolls, making the dough with water or milk, using butter or oil, including an egg or not, sweetening the dough and to what degree and with sugar or honey, kneading or no-knead recipes, are among the many wild cards. Before making these, I read dinner roll, honey dinner roll, honey wheat dinner roll, and Parkerhouse dinner roll recipes like it was my job. Having a slightly sweet dinner roll was a priority, and one sweetened with honey was even better. Honey is used twice in these golden puffballs, both in the dough and it’s brushed on top of the rolls just before baking them using a honey and melted butter mixture. The resulting rolls are slightly sweet and the flavor of the honey is present and discernible. Sometimes when I bake with honey it gets lost, but not in these. The final sweeps of honey-butter brushed on the rolls before their stint in the oven goes a long way to enhance the overall honey-butter punch.
As a bonus, whatever mixture pools in the bottom of the pan creates a slightly caramelized and chewy honey-butter crust on the base of the rolls. If could pick off just those golden sticky bases from all the rolls in the pan, I would, just like I pick off muffin tops. I used oil in the dough rather than butter. In my mind, butter-based doughs are reserved for pie crust, brioche, or decadent cinnamon rolls. Even though I wanted a buttery, soft, tender roll, butter wasn’t the way to that goal; oil was. In doing research about bread-making, I’ve learned that oil keeps bread dough softer and more pliable than butter, much like using oil instead of butter in cakes keeps them moister and more tender, too. The from scratch dinner rolls are soft, tender, supple, moist and the glorious honey-butter mixture brushed on the rolls before baking provides plenty of buttery flavor. The rolls are light, but not feather-light, and retain enough density for some hearty chewing.
Bread flour, rather than all-purpose flour, is used exclusively, and because of it’s higher gluten and protein content, it creates marvelous chewy texture. It’s always better to chew your food rather than just inhaling it, and these have just the right amount chew-factor; enough so that you don’t mindlessly inhale three in three minutes as is the case with feather light, flaky croissants. It’s rare for me to say, but the rolls are fabulous plain and don’t actually need butter. But twist my arm, cinnamon sugar-butter or honey butter won’t hurt. These dinner rolls are every single thing I could ever want in a white dinner roll recipe. Light and fluffy balanced with chewy and hearty. Moist, soft, and tender and the slightly caramelized crust that forms on the base from the honey-butter is dreamy. They’re generously sized, too. One is probably all you need, but needs and wants can vary when the sweet smell of bread baking has been tantalizing you.
What’s in Sweet Dinner Rolls?
To make this sweet dinner rolls recipe, you’ll need:
Water Instant dry yeast Honey Egg Canola oil Salt Bread flour Unsalted butter
How to Make Sweet Dinner Rolls From Scratch
If you’ve never made bread using yeast before, these are not hard at all. The rolls can be made, from start to finish, in about three hours. Making the dough is a snap and it comes together in just minutes, about the same time as it takes to make cookie dough. Using a stand mixer is easier, but making without is completely viable. After making and kneading the dough, it’s placed in a bowl and allowed to rise for about 90 minutes. Because the dough is made exclusively with white bread flour, and because I used Red Star Platinum yeast, there is almost no way to screw up the rising with this recipe. In fact, my dough rose so well it almost blew the plastic wrap off the top of my bowl. When canning, the sound of a sealing jar is music to my ears and in bread-making, a big bowl of high rising dough is one of the most beautiful sights ever. Not worrying that the dough didn’t want to rise is a moot point with this recipe.
After the first rise and the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and knead it gently for a minute or two. Then, allow it to rest for 10 minutes, which makes shaping the dough into rolls easier because it gives the gluten a chance to relax a bit. Then, from the big wad of pillowy dough, form one dozen rolls and place them in a pan and allow them to rise for about 30 minutes. Immediately before baking, brush the rolls with honey-butter and bake for 15 minutes. They bake up very fast and are baked in a very hot oven because that blast of really hot oven air helps contribute to them rising well, known as oven spring.
Can I Prepare the Rolls in Advance?
Yes, these soft and fluffy dinner rolls can be made in advance! As is the case with most any bread, you can make a batch of the rolls from start to finish, freeze them, and then on the big day or on any day for breakfast, a snack, or to eat with dinner, just pull out one or four or two dozen, and allow them to thaw. Warming them gently in a low oven immediately prior to serving them gives them that just-baked quality, with zero work on the day-of, which is my kind of recipe for Thanksgiving or on a busy Monday night for dinner. Effortless and stress-free at crunch time keeps the cook, and everyone around her, much happier. Although I haven’t tried it, I would also venture to guess that after the first rise of 90 minutes, and after the dough has been shaped into rolls and placed in the pan, you could cover the pan and refrigerate it overnight, and bake the rolls off the next morning; a loose interpretation of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day principles.
Tips for Making the Best Dinner Rolls
For the dough to rise properly, it needs to be in a warm, draft-free environment. Preheating your oven for 1 minute to 400F, then shutting it off (make sure you shut it off!), and quickly sliding the bowl of dough in so the hot air doesn’t escape is one way to create a warm environment. Because of the high oven temperature in conjunction with the honey and the butter brushed on top of the rolls, they can burn as the baking time draws to a close. I recommend hanging out in the kitchen while these bake because things can change quickly and you don’t want burnt buns. I am unsure if this recipe can be made in a bread machine as I don’t have one. I suspect the dough could also be baked in loaf pans; I’d use two 9-by-5 inch loaf pans, but I have not tried it.
More Easy Yeast Bread Recipes:
ALL OF MY YEAST BREAD RECIPES! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! No-Knead Rolls with Honey Butter — These soft, light, fluffy yeast dinner rolls are so easy to make! They’re practically work-free because there’s no-kneading involved.
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls — These rolls are soft, slightly chewy, and the pumpkin puree keeps them moist and adds just enough tooth-sinking density.
No-Knead Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls — These 100% whole wheat dinner rolls are soft, light, fluffy, and so easy. They’re practically work-free because there’s no kneading.
Copycat Outback Steakhouse Wheat Bread — If you’ve never made yeast-based bread, this is an easy one to tackle. A very short ingredient list, no mixer, and nothing fancy is required.
How to Make Sourdough Bread— This easy sourdough bread recipe uses yogurt and sour cream in place of a traditional sourdough starter, which makes it possible to prep a loaf in less than a day!
1 Hour Breadsticks — Warm and fresh from the oven, these vegan buttery breadsticks are ridiculously good. They’re soft, fluffy, tender, and make your house smell amazing while baking.
