Ultimate Dinner Rolls

Sprinkle of Science

How to Make the Ultimate Dinner Rolls

• Avoid adding too much extra flour to the dough. This dough is enriched with milk, butter, and sugar. These ingredients slow down gluten development and can make the dough a little sticky. Your instinct might be to add extra flour – but any extra flour will create a denser, tougher roll instead of the light, fluffy, soft dinner roll we want. If you find the dough tricky to handle, dampen your hands lightly with water instead of adding extra flour.
• Measure your flour correctly. I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale for accuracy, but if you don’t have one, be sure to use the spoon and level method to ensure you’re not accidentally compacting too much flour in your measuring cups.
• Don’t skip the sugar. There’s just a touch in these dinner rolls, to help make the rolls tender and golden brown. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here (spoiler alert: it does SO much more than simply sweetening!)

• This dinner roll recipe utilizes a shortcut ingredient: instant yeast, also called rapid-rise or quick-rise yeast.
• One of the three should be available at most grocery stores or you can buy my all-time favorite yeast on Amazon.
• These types of yeast are specifically formulated to allow you to skip proofing (aka the step where you combine the yeast with warm liquid for 5 minutes). You can add instant yeast directly in with all of the ingredients.
• If you don’t have or can’t find instant yeast, you can easily use active dry yeast instead. Add it right in with the dry ingredients like instant yeast – just know the dough will take about 20% more time to rise.
• Or, to speed up that rise time slightly, simply combine it with the warm water and milk called for in the recipe and allow it to proof for 5 minutes before adding to the bowl with the other ingredients.

1. After kneading, shape the dough into a ball.
2. Place the dough in a lightly oiled mixing bowl, turning the dough to oil the top so it doesn’t dry out.
3. I like to snap a picture of the dough before rising so I can compare it later.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel.
5. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free location. Ideal rise temperatures are between 80°F and 90°F. Lower temperatures will require more rising time; warmer temperatures will mean a shorter rising time.
6. The dough is done rising when it’s about doubled in size and passes the “ripe” test: gently stick two fingers in the risen dough up to the second knuckle and take them out. If the finger marks remain, the dough is ready for shaping into balls. If not, cover and let the dough rise longer until it passes this test.
7. The same finger test can be done again when the rolls are shaped before baking. Here’s what my dough looked like before and after rising:

How to Shape Bread Rolls

You can also get creative with shaping this dinner roll recipe! Check out my article for 5 Ways to Shape Bread Rolls here.

How to Make Dinner Rolls Ahead of Time

Most yeasted doughs can be made ahead of time and baked off later by simply chilling the dough. Refrigerating basically stunts the rise time and can actually allow more flavor to develop!

For this dinner roll recipe, here’s my recommended method:

1. Make the dough, allow it to rise once, and shape into rolls.
2. Once the rolls are shaped, cover the pan well with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
3. When ready to bake, bring to room temperature as the oven preheats before baking as the recipe directs.
4. If the rolls haven’t doubled in size yet, allow to sit at room temperature until they do.
5. The rolls are best served the day they’re baked. However, you can easily reheat the rolls briefly in the oven or toaster oven at 300°F until warmed through to refresh before serving.

If you need to prep these rolls further in advance, see the freezing instructions just below.

How to Freeze Dinner Rolls

1. Freeze the dough after it has risen for the first time and been shaped into rolls.
2. Place the rolls in a baking dish, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and store flat in the freezer for up to 2 months.
3. When ready to bake, loosen the plastic wrap and thaw to room temperature.
4. Let rise until an indentation made with your finger into the dough remains.
5. Proceed with the recipe as written.

To freeze the baked dinner rolls, place them inside an airtight container and freeze for up to one month. Thaw to room temperature before reheating and serving.