The Best Quick And Easy Dinner Rolls Recipe

Dinner rolls are a delicious addition to any meal. These little bread rolls have traditionally been served alongside the main meal of the day for centuries and they continue to be served in the same way in modern times as well.

Dinner Rolls Recipe

There is nothing more delicious than a basket of soft, fluffy, and still-warm dinner rolls!

Although you can buy dinner rolls in any supermarket, nothing compares to dinner rolls made at home. However, if you’re already cooking the main meal as well, then taking the time and effort to make bread might be more troublesome than it’s worth.

That’s where this recipe comes in! These dinner rolls are more delicious than any store-bought rolls and they’re quick and easy to make. They don’t need many ingredients and preparing the dough is quick and easy.

If you want to make your own dinner rolls, try this quick and easy recipe!

Ingredients

Before we get into the details of the recipe and the measurements you will need, we will introduce some of the ingredients in detail. This will help you with substitutions and making the best dinner rolls you can.

Flour

Flour is one of the most important ingredients in dinner rolls and it is an ingredient that you cannot afford to miss! There are several different types of flour you can use and they won’t have much effect on the taste of the dinner rolls.

The main influence that the different types of flour will have is on the kneading part of the process. We recommend using bread flour for this recipe as this is the type of flour that will make kneading the quickest and easiest.

With bread flour, you should be able to get your dinner rolls perfectly kneaded in around 10 minutes. This is because bread flour has more proteins included than other types of flour. It’s specially formulated to be used in bread doughs.

If you use other types of flour such as all-purpose flour, they will still do a good job and make delicious dinner rolls. However, all-purpose flour will make the kneading process longer.

Milk

When making this recipe, we don’t recommend using milk that is straight from the fridge. The coldness will be too much of a shock to the ingredients and will prevent the dough from mixing together as well as it should.

Instead, you should use slightly warm milk. You don’t need to boil your milk or make it hot, just ensure it is either room temperature or a little warmer.

Egg

This is a very important ingredient in dough. Eggs help your dough to rise because they’re a leavening agent. The fats that are included in the egg yolks also work to make the crust of the bread more tender and will lighten the texture of the bread to make it fluffier.

This is why most types of bread use eggs. There are many reasons why people don’t want to include eggs in their food, but finding a substitute for eggs that can play these same roles is very difficult.

However, as this recipe only uses one egg, it’s easier to substitute the egg than in some other dough recipes. 

In the case of this recipe, you can switch the egg for three tablespoons of either water or additional milk. It’s really that simple! As the egg is such a small part of the ingredients list in this recipe, this simple substitution will be enough.

Yeast

The most important ingredient and factor in ensuring that your dinner rolls rise and become fluffy is yeast. It takes a little while to activate and raise dough fully and that is why we recommend leaving your dough to sit for an hour before baking.

For this recipe, you can use either instant yeast or active dried yeast. You only need to let the dough rise once instead of twice as well, making this a quicker recipe than many other bread recipes are.

Quick And Easy Dinner Rolls Recipes

Quick And Easy Dinner Rolls Recipes

Let’s now get into our recipe for our quick and easy dinner rolls. We will break down the equipment and ingredients you need before taking you through the instructions.

Equipment

  • Bowl
  • Plastic spatula
  • Stand mixer (optional)
  • Parchment paper
  • Baking tray
  • Brush

Ingredients

  • 2 and ½ cups (325 grams) of flour
  • ½ cup and two tablespoons of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 3 and ½ tablespoons (50 grams) of butter
  • 1 teaspoon of yeast
  • 2 and ½ tablespoons (30 grams) of sugar
  • 1 and ¼ teaspoons (7 grams) of salt
  • 1 egg (to wash the rolls)

Instructions

Let’s now look at our straightforward instructions for making our quick and easy bread rolls.

Make sure that you preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) before baking.

Step One

The first step is to mix all of your ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Mix in your flour, warm milk, egg, butter, yeast, sugar, and salt into the bowl and mix them all together well.

Step Two

After mixing the ingredients together, you should knead your dough. You can do this by hand or use a stand mixer with a dough attachment.

Your dough should have a smooth and even texture. You should be able to stretch the dough without it breaking or tearing apart. It should stretch thin enough that it is basically see-through.

Step Three

Once you have finished kneading your dough, you should divide it into 15 equal pieces. If you want to check that they are equal, you will find that each piece is around 1.4 ounces (40 to 41 grams)

Step Four

Roll each dough piece into small and round dough balls. Tuck the edges of the dough balls into the center.

Step Five

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, Place your dough balls onto the baking tray.

Step Six

Leave the dough for at least 60 minutes. It should be left in a warm environment so that the yeast can rise and the dough balls will double in size and puff up.

Step Seven

After an hour has passed, use a brush to wash the top of your dough balls with some egg. Brushing your dough with an egg wash will make your rolls shinier and golden brown after they’ve finished baking.

Step Eight

Place your baking tray into the oven. The dough should be baked in an oven, preheated at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, for around 18 to 20 minutes.

Final Thoughts

In this article, we introduced a quick and easy recipe for delicious dinner rolls. The rolls only require seven different ingredients and they’re all pretty standard ingredients that you might already have in your kitchen. 

The instructions for this recipe are very easy to follow as well. As long as you knead the dinner roll bread correctly, you should get dinner rolls that are soft and fluffy every time! Although using a stand mixer makes kneading easier, it isn’t essential for these rolls.

Take care not to bake your dinner rolls for too long as you want them to be lightly golden on top and not any darker. When your rolls are baked, you can serve them fresh and still warm or store them for use later. Freezing your bread rolls will keep them fresh for up to three months.

We hope that you enjoyed this recipe for quick and easy dinner rolls! Give the recipe a try and enjoy these delicious rolls.

Frequently Asked Questions

Now that we’ve introduced our recipe for quick and easy dinner rolls, let’s answer some commonly asked questions about them.

How Do I Know My Dough is Fully Kneaded?

It’s important to make sure that after your ingredients have been mixed, your dough is kneaded well and is ready to be baked. 

You can test whether it is ready or not by picking up your dough and stretching it. When you stretch the dough, you should be able to stretch it thin enough so that you can almost see through it without it either breaking or tearing. There shouldn’t be any rips or holes in the dough.

How long it will take to get your dough to this stage depends on the type of flour that you use. Bread dough is the best dough you can use and the additional proteins in the flour mean you can knead it more quickly.

It will only take around 10 minutes of kneading to get your dough ready with bread dough.

However, all-purpose flour will need more kneading to get to this stage. It’ll take longer but your dough will get there!

What Will Happen if My Dough Isn’t Fully Kneaded?

Using correctly kneaded dough will result in the best dinner rolls. You will get rolls that are fluffy and really soft.

If your dough isn’t kneaded properly, then your rolls will still come out fine! However, they won’t be quite as soft and fluffy. So if you want your bread rolls to be at their best, we recommend kneading your dough to perfection.

Should I Knead My Bread by Hand or Use A Stand Mixer?

If you have a stand mixer such as a Kitchen Aid, then we recommend using this. The dough hook attachment for stand mixers will make kneading your bread quicker and easier and will take the stress and strain out of doing it yourself.

Stand mixers are the easiest way to get perfectly kneaded bread dough.

How Do I Prevent The Top Of My Rolls From Becoming Too Brown?

Although we want our bread rolls to become brown on top, we don’t want them to become too brown. This won’t taste as good and will make them look a little burnt.

You can prevent them from over-browning in a couple of different ways. The first of these is by covering the dough balls with a piece of aluminum foil.

You can add the foil at any point in the baking process so if you notice they’re getting too brown, add the foil during the baking time.

The second option is to place your baking tray in a less intense part of the oven. Keep the baking tray away from the heating coils in your oven. If the coils are at the top, place your tray on the lower rack. If they’re at the bottom, put the tray on the highest rack.

How To Store The Dinner Rolls?

Before you store the dinner rolls, you need to ensure that they have completely cooled down. Storing them while they are still warm will cause condensation to form and your rolls to become soggy.

Once they have completely cooled, either place them in an airtight plastic bag or wrap them in aluminum foil. Make sure that no part of the dinner rolls are open to the elements and store them at room temperature.

When stored in this manner, your dinner rolls will remain fresh for around three to four days. If you live in an area that is hot and humid, however, we recommend freezing the rolls instead. Keeping them at a higher heat will make them go bad more quickly. 

How Do You Freeze Dinner Rolls?

If you live somewhere hotter or think that you won’t use the rolls within three days, then we recommend freezing your rolls instead. This will ensure that they are kept fresh.

You need to wrap the dinner rolls completely before freezing them. You can use a freezer bag, plastic freezer wrap, or aluminum foil for this. Make sure they are completely sealed. When using plastic wrap or aluminum foil, it’s best to use a couple of layers.

When the dinner rolls are wrapped, place them in your freezer. Try to avoid putting anything on top of them as the rolls will get squashed before they have a chance to freeze.

Your dinner rolls will remain fresh for up to three months.

How To Reheat Dinner Rolls

There is nothing better than eating bread that is still a little warm. Bread fresh from the oven is delicious and even reheated bread is tasty as well. If you’re looking to reheat these dinner rolls, then you can do this quickly and easily.

If you’ve taken the dinner rolls from the freezer, then make sure that they have fully defrosted before you reheat them. The center of the rolls can take some time to defrost so get them out of the freezer well in advance of when you intend to use them.

After the dinner rolls have been thawed, brush or spray them with a little water so that they don’t dry out. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius) and place your rolls on a parchment paper-lined baking tray. Bake the rolls for around five minutes.

When you remove the dinner rolls from the oven they should feel soft and fresh. They’ll also smell and taste great!

Mark Williams
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