Soft Home Made Dinner Rolls
These fluffy Soft Home Made Dinner Rolls are perfectly seasoned, stay soft for days and are perfect for every occasion!
Don’t even get me started on how soft these rolls are, it’s honestly shocking that you can dinner rolls this sift at home! And they taste amazing too! Flaky, light, buttery and fresh! And they’re low-effort too which makes them the perfect addition to pretty much any meal.
If you’re looking for more bread recipes try my Soft Pita bread or my Turkish Bread which are both really easy to make! I also have an amazing Focaccia recipe you should give a go, it’s stupid easy!
Table of Contents
Why you should make dinner rolls at home.
There are so many things to love about this dinner Roll Recipe!
- Soft – these are ultra-soft dinner rolls. No stale, tough, disappointing bread here.
- Taste amazing – these are buttery and not sweet, they’re nice and savory.
- Can be made ahead of time – You can make these in the morning and serve them for dinner, they’ll stay soft all day! They’re also really freezer friendly too!
- Simple ingredients – Pantry staple ingredients is all you need to make these delicious dinner rolls.
Tangzhong.
Why these dinner rolls stay soft all day!
The secret is something called Tangzhong. Essentially, it’s a flour and water paste that you cook on the stove and then add to your dough before mixing with all the other ingredients. It’s almost like a roux that helps stabilize the wheat starches in bread to help prevent recrystallization which causes bread to go stale. The result is dinner rolls that are really soft and stay soft all day. No dry rolls here!
Ingredients You Need To Make Home Made Dinner Rolls
Note: the whole recipe, including the ingredient quantities, can be found at the bottom of this page – just scroll down to the bottom, or click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button at the top of this post.
- Bread flour – Bread flour is a high gluten flour that results in a chewier dough. Alternatively, you can use regular all-purpose flour.
- Salt – I used fine salt.
- Granulated sugar – this helps feed the yeast to help create gas bubbles which makes your bread so fluffy!
- Instant dry yeast – is sold in the baking isle of your supermarket. It is a dry form of yeast that when activated with wet ingredients creates gas and helps baked goods rise.
- Milk – I used full-fat cow’s milk. You want to make sure your milk is warm to help activate the yeast. It loves warmth.
- Egg – I used a large egg. Make sure your egg is at room temperature. The egg is added for a richer flavor and softer texture.
- Butter – I used unsalted butter for this recipe, you can use salted if you wish, maybe leave the salt in the recipe out. The butter in this recipe helps the bread rise more and helps make the dinner rolls softer in texture.
- Sesame Seeds – to sprinkle on top. You can pretty much sprinkle anything you like on top. Black sesame seeds or poppy seeds, even everything bagel mix would work!
How to make Home Made Dinner Rolls!
- Add the flour and water into a non-stick saucepan.
- Stir on low heat until it thickens to a mayonnaise like consistency.
- Mix the egg and warm milk together.
- Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar together.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix on medium speed using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment until a rough dough forms, about 5 minutes.
- Add the softened butter and continue kneading on medium low speed for 15 minutes.
- A smooth dough will form.
- Let the dough rise in a warm spot until it doubles in size.
- Knead on a floured workbench for 1 minute.
- Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish that’s 1-inch in height.
- Divide into 12 equal sized portions and form into balls.
- Add to the baking dish.
- Allow to rise for 1 hour in a warm spot or until doubled in size.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden in color. Serve same day.
Tips and Tricks For Recipe Success!
- Measure out using kitchen scales – measuring ingredients out by weight and not cups is the best way to get consistent results every time!
- Make sure your yeast hasn’t expired –
- Make sure your milk the right temperature – lukewarm is the ideal temperature which registers 40C/98-105F on a thermometer.
- Make sure your butter is nice and soft!
- Don’t skip the rising times! Breads with yeast need two rising times, each for one hour. One when the dough is made and then after the rolls are formed.
- To get evenly sized rolls weight the dough and then divide by 12 or 24 if making smaller rolls.
- Brush your baking tin with melted butter to ensure the rolls don’t stick. If your baking tin isn’t non-stick, line with baking paper as well.
Frequently Asked Questions about Home Made Dinner Rolls
What do Dinner Rolls taste like?
These Dinner Rolls are savory, not sweet even though they look it! They’re buttery, tasty so soft!
Can I make these without a stand mixer?
Yes, but there’s a fair bit of kneading involved. In the stand mixer they’re kneaded for about 20 minutes all up which gives you an ultra-smooth and chewy bread roll. If kneading by hand, kneed for about 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and bounces back slightly when poked.
How do I store Dinner Rolls?
Store these by wrapping in plastic wrap or in freezer bags and in the fridge for a couple days.
How many Dinner Rolls does this recipe make?
This recipe makes 12 dinner rolls slightly smaller than burger buns or 24 smaller dinner rolls if you’re feeding a crowd.
Can I make Dinner Rolls ahead of time?
Yes! These are a great recipe for making ahead of time because they’re really freezer friendly. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 2 months. Then thaw at room temperature and microwave for 40-60 seconds before serving to warm up and they’re like fresh!
Can I double the this Dinner Rolls recipe?
Yes! Simply double all of the ingredients just make sure you’re baking in two baking trays, not crowding in one.
Can I freeze these Dinner Rolls?
Yep! These freeze really great. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. Thaw at room temperature and then microwave for 40 seconds to warm up.
Gave this a go? Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! Hungry for more? Join me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok for more great recipes!
More bread to make dinner great!
-
Easy No-Knead Garlic Focaccia
-
Soft Pita Flat Bread Recipe
-
Turkish Pide Flatbread
-
Gozleme Spinach And Cheese Flatbread
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @thescranline on Facebook and Instagram!

Soft Home Made Dinner Rolls
Serves 12
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
Dough
- 3 cups (450 g) bread flour (see notes)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast see notes
- 2/3 cup (165 ml) warm milk, warmed (see notes)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (60 g) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds to sprinkle
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp water
Instructions
Tangzhong
- Add the flour and water to a non-stick pot and use a silicone spatula to stir on medium heat until thickened to the consistency of mayonnaise. It’ll take about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
Dough
- Add the bread flour, salt, sugar and instant dry yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix until well combined, about 20 seconds. Add the Tangzhong, milk and egg and mix until a dough forms. Then add all of the softened butter and mix until everything is combined. Continue mixing for 10 minutes on low speed. The dough will be very smooth.
- First rise: Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and allow to rest in a warm spot for 1-2 hours or until it’s doubled in size.
- Line a 9x13-inch/23x33cm baking tin with baking paper. Brushing it with a little melted butter will help the baking paper stick.
- Form buns: Dust your workbench with flour and pour the risen dough onto the bench. Knead a little to form a large ball. Divide the dough into 12 even sized portions. The easiest way is to weigh your dough using kitchen scales and divide that number by 12, making sure they al weight that result when cutting. You can also eyeball it if you like.
- Place a cupped hand over one dough piece and swirl around on the bench top until it forms a ball. See step-by-step image instructions for a guide on how to do this. Place the dough piece in your baking tin with the smooth side up. Repeat this until you’ve shaped all your buns.
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap that’s been lightly oiled (so it doesn’t stick to your buns) and let them rise for another hour.
- 15 minutes before you’re ready to bake, preheat a fan forced oven to 180C/355F (190C/375F for no fan). Once the buns are risen, brush lightly with egg wash (egg and water whisked together) Bake in the middle rack of your oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
2 comments
You mention garlic and honey butter in the title and at the final post bake step but there’s no mention of it anywhere else, do you have a recipe for that?
Hi Phillip! Good spot! I just edited the recipe and took the garlic butter out. These were originaly going to be honey garlic butter dinner rolls but I changed my mind at the last minute and missed that! N x