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Fluffy Dinner Rolls Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
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Fluffy Dinner Rolls Recipe

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These fluffy dinner rolls are the best part of any dinner. They’re light, perfectly fluffy, and you can top them with honey butter or garlic parmesan–something for everyone!

How to make fluffy dinner rolls

I love this recipe because it’s a cinch to make, especially during the holidays. You can even make the rolls ahead of time, freeze them, and then bake the day of.

Tools Needed

Ingredients You’ll Need

  • Bread Flour
  • All-Purpose Flour
  • Active Dry Yeast
  • Milk
  • Sugar
  • Eggs
  • Butter
  • Salt

Tips for Making Fluffy Dinner Rolls

  • Don’t get the milk too hot. The optimal temperature for milk is around 100 degrees F. Any hotter and you run the risk of killing the yeast. If your yeast doesn’t get foamy, your milk may be too hot. It should be just warm to the touch.
  • Make sure your yeast isn’t old. The best place to store yeast is in the fridge to keep it as fresh as possible. I try and buy a new jar of yeast every 6 months or so. If your yeast has been hanging around a while and it’s not getting foamy, it may be time to buy some fresh.
  • Use a combination of all-purpose and bread flour. Using a combination of all-purpose flour and bread flour really yields the perfect fluffy dinner rolls. They’re light, yet chewy and that extra chew comes from the bread flour.
  • Mix your dough long enough. The trick to getting the perfect texture is to make sure you mix your dough long enough. It should be very smooth and elastic after it comes out of the mixer.
  • Don’t rush the rising time. For flavor and texture, these fluffy dinner rolls need an initial rise and then a second proof after they’re shaped. This ensures that your rolls are light and fluffy and not dense bricks.
  • Don’t over-bake. These rolls bake up super quickly and only need about 15 minutes in the oven. If you bake too long, they will dry out.

Fluffy Dinner Rolls FAQs

Why are my dinner rolls not fluffy?

If your dinner rolls aren’t fluffy it could be because of one of two reasons. Either, you added too much flour or you possibly used all bread flour. Alternately, not giving your dinner rolls enough time to proof and get puffy before baking could yield dense rolls.

My dough is rising slowly or not at all

If your dough is rising slowly or not at all, check the function of your yeast. The easiest way to tell if your yeast is old is if it doesn’t get foamy in the first stage of the recipe.  If your kitchen is cold, the dough will rise slowly. To speed it along, place the bowl with the dough into the oven and turn the oven light on. The minimal heat from the bulb will warm the oven up a touch. Just don’t forget to take it out before you preheat the oven!

What happens if you over-knead dough?

If your dough is tight and tough and the gluten strands break apart when you try to stretch the dough, it may have been overworked. Unfortunately, there is no fix for this and it’s best to just start over.

My dough is really sticky after mixing, what should I do?

If you find that your dough is really, really sticky after mixing, mix in a bit more flour. The dough should feel tacky, but smooth and shouldn’t really stick to your hands.

fluffy dinner rolls

Other Bread Recipes to Try

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fluffy dinner rolls
Baking

Fluffy Dinner Rolls Two Ways

Everyone needs a great fluffy dinner roll recipe for their Thanksgiving (or any dinner!) table and I love this recipe because you can make them brushed with honey butter or garlic herb butter. All your guests will be happy!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Makes: 24 rolls

Ingredients

Dinner Roll Dough

  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 1 stick 4 oz unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Honey Butter Topping

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • flaky sea salt for sprinkling

Garlic Parmesan Topping

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 5 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Instructions

  • To make the dough: In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter to 100 degrees F. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the sugar and yeast. Pour the milk/butter mixture over the yeast and sugar and let it rest for 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy. If your yeast does not get foamy, it may be too old to use. Add the eggs and flour to the bowl and mix on low. As the dough comes together, sprinkle in the salt. Mix on low for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm location until doubled in size.
  • Grease a large rimmed baking sheet (13X18) or two smaller baking sheets(8x12), if making both flavors. Punch the dough down and portion the dough into 24 pieces. The easiest way to do this is to weigh the dough, take the total weight and divide it by 24. This ensures even-sized pieces that bake at the same rate. Roll each piece into a ball and place it on the greased baking sheet one inch apart. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size and the rolls are touching.
  • To make the honey butter: melt butter and combine with honey until well mixed. Cool slightly until the mixture has thickened.
  • To make the garlic butter: melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and add the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Add the salt and parsley and stir to combine.
  • To assemble: Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the plastic wrap from the dough and gently, but liberally, brush with either butter. If using honey butter, sprinkle the rolls with flaky sea salt after brushing with butter. If using garlic parmesan, sprinkle with parmesan after brushing with garlic butter. Bake for 15 minutes until the rolls are golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let the rolls cool before serving. Sprinkle garlic parmesan rolls with extra parmesan if desired after they cool slightly.

Notes

This recipe can be cut in half if desired. The butter recipes are for 12 rolls. If you want to make 24 rolls of a particular flavor, double the butter recipe.
The rolls can be made ahead and frozen. After you portion the dough into balls, place them on a parchment-lined tray and freeze. Defrost rolls in the fridge and then allow the dough to rise before baking.

Nutrition

Serving: 1rollCalories: 130kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 3gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 240mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2g

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  1. 5 stars
    Thanks for the quick replies. Your comment about weighing the dough made me laugh. That’s exactly what I always do, but I thought I was the only one so OCD to do that! 😉

    The brown-and-serve took a bit of experimenting. I normally bake “sturdier” rolls at 275 for 15 min or so, “until firm”and not browned, but because your dough is SO light (and the rolls a bit larger) when I took them out to cool, the tops shriveled; the interiors weren’t done enough to support the crust, I guess. So, the solution seems to be to bake at 275° for 20-25 minutes, until the internal temp is 185-190°; they’re still not browned but the crust stayed smooth. For dinner tonight, I baked a couple at 375° for 7-8 minutes to brown.

    Your recipe is delicious, and I’m not sure the brown-and-serve is worth the trouble, but I want to take them to a friend’s house and not make a mess in her kitchen! Sometime I’ll try the freezer method. Thanks for the help and the recipe!

    • Pat,

      No problem, always happy to help troubleshoot. Because these rolls are so light and fluffy, I don’t think they’re a good candidate for the brown and serve method. If you plan to take rolls to a friend’s house, my recommendation would be to shape the rolls, place them on a greased baking sheet, brush very liberally with the butter, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you plan to travel. Then, when you arrive all you have to do is pop them in the oven.

      Thanks for all your experimentation and feedback!

  2. I’m making these now, and as one poster said my dough is very sticky. I measured the ingredients carefully, but there is no way I could knead this now; but you never mention kneading it. I’m afraid to add too much flour and making the rolls dry.

    I’ll let you know about the brown and serve aspect. Two changes I made to your method is that I ALWAYS proof my yeast separately, so I decreased the milk by 1/4 cup and proofed the yeast in 1/4 c water. I melted the butter in a pan, and added the 1 1/4 c milk to the melted butter; if the milk drops the temp too much, it’s easy to warm it slightly. (To get the butter to melt, seemed like I’d have to get the milk too hot.)

    Pat

    • Pat,

      As the recipe mentions, all the kneading is done in the stand mixer. That’s why it mixes for 10 minutes. The dough starts out sticky and as the machine does the kneading, it becomes smooth. If you need to, add a bit more flour if you’re kneading by hand. If you are kneading by hand, it’s quite a workout and the dough should be kneaded for 10 minutes. I recommend a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.

      I don’t see any other comments about the dough being sticky, so not sure what’s going on for you but I would add flour in 2-3 tablespoon increments until workable.

  3. Have you tried making these as brown-and-serve? I’ve made other rolls and baked at a low temp (275°) for about 15-20 mins, then bake hot and briefly for serving. Will that work with these, and if so, I presume I’d put the butter on before the 2nd bake? Thanks.

    • Hi Pat,

      I have personally never tried that method so I can’t speak to its efficacy. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, but I can’t guarantee it. If you give it a try, I would love to hear about your experience! I would add the butter before the second bake.

  4. AMAZING!!!! I came across your blog and I decided to try these. They are so perfect and my parents loved them!!!! I’m going to be making these a lot now….Thank you so much!!! I’m gonna go try out some of your other recipes. (I did sub some of the ap flour with bread flour to give a chewier texture)