Sweet homemade dinner rolls are pillowy soft, buttery, and even beginners can make them. They can be made with or without a bread machine, use simple ingredients, and come out perfect every single time.
I can say with complete confidence that these sweet rolls are the best homemade sweet dinner rolls that will ever pass your lips. Sweet, buttery, moist dinner rolls – there’s no comparison. Some of my most vivid memories of Thanksgiving are of my granny sitting at her kitchen table, shaping balls of dough into rolls for our dinner. My cousin and sister and I would try to sneak bits of dough to eat and Granny would playfully banish us from the room. Everyone loved her soft dinner rolls. After Granny passed away, my aunt and mom took over bringing piles of rolls to our holiday gatherings, and now, even for our smaller family celebrations, someone always makes the bread rolls.
One you try your hand making these, try a batch of Dutch oven bread, pull apart garlic bread or my favorite popover recipe. The fluffy texture of these rolls may remind you of Hawaiian rolls, which means you can use them to make Sausage Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sliders or Roast Beef Sliders.
Jump to:
🥐 Ingredients:
- whole milk and lemon juice – we are essentially making buttermilk.
- large egg and butter – soften the butter at room temperature and let the egg come to room temperature.
- all-purpose flour – spoon the flour into a measuring cup then level off with a butter knife for the most accurate measurement.
- granulated sugar – makes the yeast dough sweet and actually feeds the yeast during the bread making process.
- salt
- baking soda
- Rapid Rise active dry yeast – this is instant yeast and allows us to make the bread faster.
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Optional Garnish:
This delicious recipe makes the best dinner rolls and can be served with any main course meal. Slather with butter and enjoy!
Equipment Needed:
I make my roll dough in a bread maker. Do you have one? Bread makers really make the process easy, but you don’t have to use one. My bread maker is an older version of this one: Breadman Programmable Bread Maker (aff). Not too fancy and it works just fine for my occasional bread maker needs. It takes a little more work, but you can hand mix the dough instead. I’ll provide instructions for both methods. Let’s get baking!
You can also make these dinner yeast rolls without a bread machine.
Substitutions and Variations
- Milk: You can use buttermilk instead of the sour milk mixture.
- Flour: Bread flour can be used in place of the all purpose if that’s what you have.
- Make-ahead options: once the yeast bread has risen and you have shaped the rolls, cover them tightly and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Remove from the fridge, allow them to rise on the counter 1-2 hours before baking. You can also freeze the dough balls, then let them thaw and rise for about 5 hours before cooking. This is great if you need them on the holiday table and don’t want to go through the process all at once.
- Cheesy: Add your favorite cheese (about a cup) like cheddar or shredded mozzarella.
- Fresh herbs: mix in 1-2 tablespoons or rosemary and/or thyme.
🔪 Instructions:
PREP: Bring all ingredients to room temperature.
Step 1: In a small bowl, stir the lemon juice into the milk and set aside for 5-10 minutes.
Step 2: Pour the sour milk, softened butter, and egg into the pan of a bread machine. Add the salt, baking soda, sugar, and flour so it completely covers the wet ingredients.
Step 3: Pour in the yeast.
Step 4: Sit the pan into the bread machine and set it to form dough and run through a full cycle.
Step 5: Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan with butter. Add a little butter to your fingertips. Make a golf ball size dough ball and tuck the dough under the bottom to make a smooth ball.
Step 6: Repeat using equal pieces to make 20 rolls. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and sit in warm place for the second dough rise for 1.5 hours.
Pro Tip: Using a glass dish lets you see when they have risen so you know they are ready to bake.
Step 7: Once the rolls have risen, they should not bounce back when you press lightly with your finger.
Step 8: Place rolls in the oven and bake at 375 degrees F for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown.
SERVE: Brush the top of the rolls with melted butter or serve with honey butter.
Instructions Without a Bread Machine
- Bring all of the ingredients to room temperature. Warm the milk.
- Add the ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.
- Mix at low speed, then move to medium once the ingredients have combined. Mix for 3-5 minutes, when it’s ready the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl and wrap around the hook.
- Transfer to a baking dish and follow the remaining instructions.
- If you don’t have a bread machine or stand mixer, add the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and use a handheld mixer. Most of the time, they have a dough attachment too.
- Bread dough rises twice before baking. The first rise cycle is done after the dough has been mixed (either in the bread machine or after hand mixing.) The second rise occurs after the rolls are formed. The formed rolls need to be covered by a light tea towel while rising. I typically set them in an oven or on a countertop adjacent to other cooking/baking. This kicks a little warmth in their direction. Anywhere, as long as there isn’t a cool draft, should be suitable for proofing the rolls.
- Milk with a higher fat content is preferable, but 2% or even nonfat milk will do in a pinch.
- Use a glass baking dish so that you can see the underside of the rolls to check for doneness. If you don’t have a glass pan that will hold all of the rolls, use a baking sheet.
- To make sure the rolls are close in size, you can use a kitchen scale if desired.
Fun Fact
The yeast in the sweet roll dough is what makes them smell so good! – The Kitchn
Recipe FAQs
Once they have cooled completely, place them in an airtight container and keep on the countertop for up to a week. You can also freeze them for 1 month. Thaw the homemade rolls at room temperature. Then heat in the microwave for a few seconds before serving.
Other Baked Goods Using this Roll Dough
If you tried this Sweet Dinner Roll Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
Homemade Sweet Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 egg room temperature
- 4 tbsp butter, softened
- 3 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon Rapid Rise active dry yeast
Instructions
Making the Dough in Bread Machine
- Stir lemon juice into milk and let sit for 5-10 minutes to make sour milk.
- Place sour milk, egg, and softened butter into bread machine pan.
- Add flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda into pan, completely covering wet ingredients.
- Add yeast to the top of the ingredients.
- Place in bread machine and set to form dough. Run the full dough cycle. When the dough cycle is complete, move on to forming the rolls.
Making the Dough in a Standing Mixer
- Be sure all of the ingredients are at room temperature. Warm the milk, it should not be too hot, just slightly warm.
- Place all of the ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook.
- Begin mixing on low and then increase the speed up to medium once the ingredients combine together. Mix on medium speed for 3-5 minutes; the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl and wrap around the hook.
- Transfer dough to a greased bowl and cover with a light towel or with plastic wrap. Place bowl in a warm, draft-free location and allow dough to rise for about 1 – 2 hours, until doubled in size.
- Continue with forming the rolls from the risen dough.
Forming the Rolls
- Grease 13×9 inch pan with butter. Place some butter on fingertips. Take a golf-ball size piece of dough and use your fingers to tuck the dough under the bottom, forming a smooth round top.
- Form 20 rolls with the dough. Cover with a light dishcloth and set in a draft-free, warm area to rise.
- Allow rolls to rise for about 1 ½ hours. When rolls have risen and the dough does not bounce back when you press it lightly with your finger, they are ready to bake.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. The rolls should be well browned on top.
Notes
- Milk with a higher fat content is preferable, but 2% or even nonfat milk will do in a pinch.
- Use real butter, not a butter substitute.
- Use a glass baking dish so that you can see the underside of the rolls when checking for doneness
- Undercooked is better than overcooked.
Nutrition
Make this recipe?
Share it with me on Instagram @girlinspired1 and follow on Pinterest for more!
Comments & Reviews
Lekkie says
Hi there.
I am making it now and I did 20 balls evenly! They are waiting to be baked in an hour or so. Wow! can’t wait to have the home smell heavenly 🙂 I will take some photos to show my Facebook friends.
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe.
girlinspired says
Wonderful, Lekkie! I hope they turned out perfect for you! Mmmmmmm!
Jenn says
So I’m on my second time making these and they aren’t getting done in the middle. I don’t mind a little doughy but they are hardly cooked at all by twelve minutes but the tops are very brown. I have them on the lower rack in the oven this time but can’t really tell a difference.
girlinspired says
Hi Jenn, If you need them to cook longer and the tops are getting too brown, you can put a piece of tin foil over the top while they cook a bit longer.
Sally says
Made your rolls for Thanksgiving. They are being brought back by popular demand (unanimous) for Christmas Eve dinner! Thank you for the best rolls ever. Have a wonderful Christmas!!
Cheryl says
What a great roll recipe. So happy I found it on Pinterest. We just pulled out of the oven and most didn’t even make it till dinner. Thank you for sharing!!
Gail says
hi i’m goingto do these for c’mas..but a question..i am using my bread machine..and only have bread machine yeast..will that still work??..thx for your recipe..huggzz
girlinspired says
Hi Gail, Yes, my yeast is labeled Bread Machine yeast – Rapid Rise – you should be fine! Thanks! Stef
Janice says
I made my dough in my bread machine. I put the rolls into a warm oven for more than an hour. They are now sort of flat and did not seem to rise. Could the warm oven have cooked them ahead? They were really puffy when I made the balls of dough and placed them, under a cloth, into a warm oven to rise. I am about to attempt to cook them. This has really been hard work for them to be so flat.
Debby Lovett says
Hi,
I have another question about freezing. Can the dough be frozen before you bake the rolls? Maybe before the last rise? I would love to make these for Christmas but, I’m always so busy trying to get everything else done that I don’t have time to get the rolls made. It would be nice to be able to make them in advance and freeze them, then pull them out to defrost to rise for that last riser and bake at the last minute? I would appreciate your answer on this…I hope this can be done…the recipe sounds, delishous!
Thank you…..
Debby Lovett
girlinspired says
Hi Debby! I’ve never tried it, but it’s always worth it to give it a try!! If I can test it out in the next couple weeks, I’ll let you know if it works. Good idea!
Marg Smith says
I freeze unbaked rolls all the time. Put your formed rolls on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once frozen you can put them in a ziplock bag and return to freezer. When you want fresh homemade rolls, put frozen balls in a greased pan, cover with plastic wrap and put in frig overnight. To bake, remove from frig and let rise in a warm place about an hour to an hour and a half and bake as usual.. You’ll never know they were frozen and are so much more delicious than the frozen ones available in the supermarkets.
Christine Rodriguez says
Hi,
I’m a bit confused on the hand directions, cause It says 1 tsp sugar, yeast. 1/2 cup warm water and leave for 5 min. So is that 1 tsp yeast as well? Recipe calls for 1tsb of yeast?
Also, it says: reduce milk by 1/2 cup?…add lemon and let sit? I’m understanding to do that first. It’s calling for a cup of sour milk. Can you try and clarify this for me?
Thanks
girlinspired says
Hi Christine, All of the ingredients are the same except you’ll replace 1/2 C. of the milk with 1/2 C. of water. You’ll take that 1/2 C. of water and mix it with the 1 Tbs. of yeast plus 1 tsp. sugar before doing anything else. Reduce the called for amount of milk to 1/2 C. and add lemon to make the sour milk – you’ll do this while your yeast mixture is bubbling up. When you do the mixing by hand, you have to treat the yeast differently. That’s why you mix the yeast with the water and a little sugar before you mix everything together. Once you have the water/yeast mixture and the sour milk ready to go, then you start mixing everything else together. I hope that makes more sense. I always use a breadmaker, but I did mix it up by hand so that I could give instructions for those who don’t have a breadmaker.
Ruth SAndin says
Hi Stef! I just want to make two comments on yeast roll/bread making: 1) in the “old days”, one was never sure if the yeast was viable, so one would “proof” the yeast by putting it in warm water with sugar to see if it would grow. That is not necessary anymore – unless your yeast is really old. So, you could just mix all the ingredients in a bowl (minus some of the flour) and knead by hand. 2) I only use aluminum pans, so this might not apply to glass, but my mom taught me to test baked goods doneness by the sizzle test (just like testing an iron): lick your finger and touch the bottom of the pan. When it sizzles, it is done! This applies equally to all baked goods – cakes, yeast doughs, quick breads, etc.
Melanie says
Hi,
I was just looking at the hand mix instructions and it states to mix with 1/2 cup of lukewarm water but I don’t see the water included in the list of ingredients. Do I still use the 1/2 cup of lukewarm water? Thanks!
girlinspired says
Hi Melanie, Yes, you’ll want to use the water to get the yeast going – just reduce the listed quantity of milk by the equivalent – so use 1/2 C. water with the yeast and the teaspoon of sugar in the hand-mixed recipe and only use 1/2 C. of milk when you mix the milk in. Good question!
GG Sprague says
Can these be frozen successfully?
girlinspired says
Hi GG,
We eat the whole batch before we can even think about freezing them, but….I asked around and my aunt says she freezes them all the time, no problem. Cool them completely, then put them in a plastic freezer bag, seal, and freeze! They defrost just fine! Let me know how it goes!
Kiki says
Hi…just found your website! 🙂 If you were to freeze then, how would you suggest, after defrosting, how to heat them up again?
🙂 Kiki
girlinspired says
Hi Kiki,
I would suggest defrosting them completely, then cover them with a light towel and microwave for just a short time (10 seconds for a single roll, maybe 30 seconds for a bowl full?) if you want to warm them. Personally, I lovity love them room temperature.
Katie says
Hi! I just found the link to your Homemade Sweet Rolls via Pinterest. They look and sound Heavenly!! I was wondering they can be frozen BEFORE baking and then baked after defrosting?
girlinspired says
I’ve never tried it Katie, but I think I’ll give it a go this season because several people have asked. If you try it, let me know how they turn out!
Charity says
Love the tea-light log. =) The rolls look delicious too.
Lanie says
I loved this trip down memory lane. Some of my most favorite memories were Thanksgivings at Grandmas, when we’d emerge from our “button play” for sneaking food. I’m so glad the tradition of Granny’s rolls is still going strong. I don’t remember her baking a lot, but I will never forget her in the kitchen making the Thanksgiving rolls, and her fruit roll pastries – remember those?
Mercedes says
Deben estar deliciosos !!!!!
Lea white says
These are indeed heavenly! Each holiday or family gathering Stefanie makes these and they are amazing! So light and fluffy and simply delicious!
sorahart says
I usually just make Rhodes frozen rolls, but you just may have turned me to the other side!
Marian says
These look delicious. I eat very little bread – but I think I will make an exception in this case and will try to make these over the holidays! Thank you for sharing!
Janice says
These are delicious. My question is: Are you able to leave them in the buttered glass baking bowl covered with foil and in the fridge until the next day? I would like to bake them tomorrow instead of cooking them today and heating in the microwave.
girlinspired says
The rolls do not rise quite as much and bake up much denser when I have tried to put them in the fridge and then rise and bake the following day.
Caroline says
What type of flour should I use?
girlinspired says
All-purpose, unbleached is what I use.