These Quick Dinner Rolls are soft, fluffy, buttery, and so easy to make. All you need are a few simple ingredients and a minimal amount of prep to have these rolls ready and on the table in no time.
If you are looking for even more dinner roll recipes for holiday menu planning, slider buns, or serving for family dinner, you can also try these Homemade Crescent Rolls, Wheat Rolls, or these Potato Rolls.
Quick Dinner Rolls
It’s the little things that make life so enjoyable, and these quick and easy dinner rolls are definitely a prime example. Any meal that includes homemade bread is automatically special, but, it isn’t always feasible. Including the roughly 1 hour rise time, these rolls can be done and on the table in just about 90 minutes flat!
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Lightly sweet, super soft, and fluffy, these rolls make the perfect addition to any holiday or weeknight dinner. Or, use them as buns for sliders, mini sandwiches, or breakfast sandwiches. No matter what you want to use them for, I’m confident that this recipe will show you just how simple it can be to have homemade rolls.
Quick Dinner Rolls Video Tutorial
What to Serve with Quick and Easy Dinner Rolls
I could eat these one right after the next with a slab of butter or jam. Most of the time, though, you are probably going to want to serve these as part of a larger meal. Here are a few of our recommendations:
- Soups (including Cauliflower Soup, Acorn Soup, Chili, and Skinny Soup)
- Main Dishes (including Pot Roast, Parmesan Grilled Chicken, Goulash,and Chicken Drumsticks)
- Pastas (including Meatball Pasta Bake, Chicken Stuffed Shells and Tortellini Pasta Bake)
You’ll also love this Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo Sauce, Alfredo, and Garlic Butter Spread Recipe. We even have some wheat dinner rolls you’re going to want to try.
Key Ingredients
- Water – you want your water to be warm (about 110 degrees F) in order to help “wake up” your yeast.
- Active Dry Yeast – If you choose to use instant yeast, the mixing, rising and baking times will need to be adjusted (you can read more on that in the tips below).
- Sugar – use granulated sugar, or substitute honey if you would like.
- Oil – you can use any kind of low-flavor cooking oil, including avocado oil, canola oil or vegetable oil.
- Egg – any type of large egg will work. The egg helps enrich the dough, adding flavor but also chewiness.
- Flour – I use all-purpose flour for these rolls. You can substitute bread flour, but you will need to adjust the amount of flour that you will need to add so keep an eye and make sure your dough is looking nice and shiny.
- Butter – this is brushed on just after baking to give that extra shiny top and yummy buttery flavor.
How to Make Quick Dinner Rolls
- Proof the yeast. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the warm water, yeast and sugar and mix to combine. Let sit for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast mixture starts to get bubbly.
- Mix the dough. Add the oil, egg, and salt to the yeast mixture and mix, then add 2 cups of flour and begin to mix using the dough hook attachment. Continue to add up to 2/3 cup flour to the dough, until the dough starts to pull away from the edges of the bowl as you mix. Once you have added all of the flour, mix on low speed for about 2 minutes to knead.
- Let the dough rise. Turn the mixer off, cover the bowl loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise until light and puffy, or about 20-30 minutes.
- Divide and shape. Transfer the dough from the bowl onto a flat surface and divide into 15 equal pieces. Roll into balls and place into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ baking dish, spacing them out evenly.
- Rise again. Cover loosely again and let the dough sit in a warm place for 15-30 minutes, or until the rolls are about double the original size.
- Bake. Remove the towel and brush the rolls lightly with milk. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top and the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F.
- Serve. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes, then brush the tops with melted butter. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
To reheat your quick rolls, either microwave for about 30 seconds or place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes, or until they are warm.
Yes! Once you have shaped your rolls into balls and placed them into your baking dish, wrap well with plastic wrap. If possible, transfer the entire dish into a large freezer bag. The unbaked dough can be stored for up to 1 month in the freezer.
To bake, remove from the freezer and thaw in the fridge overnight. The next morning, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and pull the baking dish out of the fridge to allow to come to room temperature. You’ll want to give it at least 30 minutes to take the chill off of the dough and baking dish.
From there, you can bake as usual and enjoy!
You can substitute instant yeast, but you will only need ¾ tablespoon. You can also eliminate the first step of “waking up” the yeast. Be sure to keep an eye on the rise time of the dough as well, as it might be different.
Recipe Tips
- If you have a stand mixer, use it! It makes the job faster, cleaner and easier.
- In order to ensure that each dinner roll is the same size, weigh your dough on a kitchen scale just before you divide it into 15 rolls. Divide the total weight into 15, and you’ll have 15 perfectly evenly sized rolls!
- If you aren’t sure whether the rolls have finished baking, use an instant-read thermometer to check. Once the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F, they are done.
- Do not store homemade bread in the fridge. It will get stale much more quickly. Instead, store in a bag at room temperature or freeze.
Storing and Freezing Instructions
- Room temperature in a plastic bag. You can store your Quick Dinner Rolls in an airtight plastic bag at room temperature for up to 3 days. The plastic bag will keep your rolls much softer than if you use a paper bag.
- In the freezer. If you bake more than you’ll be able to use in a couple of days, your best bet is to freeze the rest. Wrap the rolls in plastic, or put in freezer bags, and store for up to 3 months. Just pull out and thaw at room temperature as soon as you are ready to use.
Quick Dinner Roll Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup water, warm (about 110 degrees F)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the warm water, yeast, and sugar and mix to combine. Let sit for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast mixture starts to get bubbly.
- Add the oil, egg, and salt to the yeast mixture and mix, then add 2 cups of flour and begin to mix using the dough hook attachment. At this point, the dough will be very sticky.
- Continue to add up to 2/3 cup flour to the dough, until the dough starts to pull away from the edges of the bowl as you mix. Once you have added all of the flour, mix on low speed for about 2 minutes to knead. Turn the mixer off, cover the bowl loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise until light and puffy, or about 20-30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9" x 13" baking dish with butter or non-stick cooking oil.
- Transfer the dough from the bowl onto a flat surface and divide into 15 equal pieces. Roll into balls and place into the prepared baking dish, spacing them out evenly.
- Cover loosely again and let the dough sit in a warm place for 15-30 minutes minutes, or until the rolls are about double the original size. Once risen, remove the towel and brush the rolls lightly with milk.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top and the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes, then brush the tops with melted butter. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Storing Instructions: store rolls in an airtight plastic bag at room temperature for up to 3 days. (The plastic bag will keep your rolls much softer than if you use a paper bag)
- Storing in the freezer. To store the rolls for longer, store them in freezer bags in the freezer for up to 3 months. Pull out and thaw at room temperature as soon as you are ready to use.
Nutrition
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These Quick Dinner Rolls are lightly sweet, super soft, and fluffy and make the perfect addition to any holiday or weeknight dinner. All you need are a few simple ingredients and about 90 minutes.
The best dinner rolls ever!
Very easy and delicious!
These are the best rolls I have ever made. Light and fluffy and so delicious! I actually made the dough in my bread machine and it was very sticky and challenging to work with but with well floured hands I was able to shape the rolls just fine. Wonderful texture and flavor!
I love this recipe! I did use a little more flour as the dough was like thick batter.
These rolls were fabulous! Soft and pillowy and yummy! And so easy to make. My go to recipe from now on.
Looks delicious
This recipe is definitely a keeper!! It was quick, easy and creates delicious hot rolls in no time. I was worried because I have made “quick” rolls before and they turned out heavy and tasteless. Thank you for sharing. I will be making these again soon for Thanksgiving!
The recipe says 2 1/3 to 2 2/3 cups of flour, your video says add another cup +, that’s different and doesn’t mention the extra flour in the recipe. Also you say to put the yeast, warm water and sugar together until it bubbles, then add egg, oil and salt, on the video you add it all at the same time. I did the recipe way because I didn’t watch the video until my rolls flopped. They actually tasted really good, just flat ….. I will try them again the video way , but like I said they tasted good ! Sorry about the post, just want to know which way is correct. This was my first attempt at rolls.
I am planning to make these for our Thanksgiving dinner. Is there a way to make these ahead of time and then bake off or reheat later? If not, I was going to try to do the day ahead.
You can definitly make them ahead of time and then place the unbaked, prepared rolls in the baking dish in the fridge. They will take longer to rise because the dough will be cold. Plan for about 1 hour of rising time before baking. It will depend on how warm your house is. Let the rolls rise and then bake them when they are about double the size.
These look wonderful. I use evaporated milk instead of regular milk. It just works better on bread, pies etc. I learned that from my grandmother.
great idea! Evaporated milk does work great for this recipe. I usually try to stick with the most basic ingredients someone might have in their pantry. My Grandma baked with evaporated milk a lot too. What a fun memory!
Quick, east, best tasting dinner rolls I’ve ever made
These were so easy to make! Nice and fluffy, absolutely perfect.
These are delicious and fairly simple. My kind of homemade dinner rolls!