How to Make Dinner Rolls
If you love the smell and taste of homemade bread, I want to show you how to make dinner rolls! I’ll share simple steps to prepare the perfect bread dough that you can then use to make delicious and fluffy dinner rolls. The best thing about homemade bread is that it won’t be full of artificial ingredients. That means you can feel good about feeding this healthy bread to your family!
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no cost to you if you place a qualifying purchase through any of the links. Click here for my full disclosure. Thanks for your support!
There’s nothing like homemade bread straight from the oven! The enthusiasm that comes from both kids and adults alike is enough encouragement to make any parent feel like a hero for going to the extra effort to bake bread.
A lot of store bought breads have artificial ingredients and chemicals in them to prolong its shelf life. The artisan bread recipe I am sharing has just four basic ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. That’s it!
A Word About Flour
You can use all purpose flour or home-milled whole wheat flour or any ancient grain flours for this recipe.
If you mill your own flour like I do, try to put it on the finest setting so that the flour is as fine as you can get it. Also, add in the flour just a half-cup at a time to your mixer because home-milled flours and ancient grains soak up liquid differently than all purpose flour.
I wrote a whole post about whole wheat flour, how to mill it, how to store it, and more! Check it out here: What is whole wheat milled flour?
A Word About Water
When it comes to the temperature of the water, use a thermometer to make sure it doesn’t go higher than 120° F (49° C). Water that’s hotter than this will kill the yeast and your bread dough won’t rise. I like my water to be between 110-115° F (43-46° C).
Also, try to use filtered water if it’s available. Alternatively, you can make a pitcher of water the night before you want to bake bread and let it sit overnight. The chlorine that’s common in tap water will mostly evaporate. You could also boil your tap water for 15 minutes and then let it cool down. It’s possible that the chlorine in tap water may react with the yeast and prevent it from “blooming” which means your bread dough won’t rise. So do what you can to give yourself success from the very beginning.
A Word About Yeast
You can use regular active dry yeast or instant dry yeast for this recipe. I prefer using instant dry yeast because the rise time is cut in half to just one hour. If you only have regular active dry yeast you’ll need to increase the rise time to two hours.
A Word About Salt
Since I’m talking about the other ingredients, I may as well say to use the best salt that you have and not plain table salt. If you’re going to the trouble of baking your own bread, use good sea salt. I like Redmond Real Salt because it has so many minerals and a good flavor but use what you have on hand.
Instructions for How to Make Dinner Rolls
The following recipe will give you 12 dinner rolls.
Make Your Dough
Tools:
You’ll need an electric mixer, bowl, and dough hook attachment. You’ll also need measuring cups and spoons, a tea towel, and a bowl scraper.
Ingredients:
In your mixing bowl, mix:
~1 ½ teaspoons active, instant dry yeast
~1 teaspoon fine sea salt
~1 ½ cups warm water (100-110°F or 37-43°C)
Using the dough hook, mix in 3 to 3 ½ cups of flour slowly until the dough starts to clean the sides of your bowl as it stirs.
Knead the dough on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Then take the bowl out and cover it with a tea towel. Set it in a warm spot for 1 hour until it doubles in size.
After 1 hour, punch your dough down. (If you used regular active dry yeast and not instant dry yeast, wait 2 hours before you punch your dough down.)
Lightly flour a surface such as your kitchen counter or a large cutting board. Then scrape out your dough.
Make Dinner Rolls
Tools:
You’ll need a bowl scraper, a 9×13 baking pan, and parchment paper.
To make dinner rolls, cut your dough in half the best you can using your bench scraper. Then cut it in half again so that you have roughly 4 equal amounts of dough. Cut each fourth into 3 equal portions. It does not have to be perfect.
Shape each roll by grabbing the edges of the dough and pulling it downward to the underside of the roll. Pinch the dough at the bottom.
Try to get the top of the roll as smooth as you can.
Put the rolls on your baking pan lined with parchment paper. Then brush the tops with an egg wash (one egg beaten with one tablespoon of water).
Let your dough rise for 15 minutes while you preheat your oven to 450°F (232°C).
Bake your rolls for 17 minutes or until golden brown.
Your rolls will be soft and fluffy with a great flavor and texture.
And that’s it!!
FREE EBOOK!
If you enjoyed this recipe, please check out my free ebook: Bread 5 Ways (From One Master Recipe).
Shop This Post
Fleischmann’s Instant Dry Yeast, 2 pk./1 lb.
Redmond Real Kosher Salt, 16 Ounce Pouch (3 pack)
2 Pieces Dough Scraper Bowl Scraper
Other Posts You May Enjoy
How to Cook Beef Stew on the Stove
How to Check Your Home for Radon
Delicious Sausage and Liver Rice Recipe
Pin It For Later!
Thanks! I’ve been searching for new dinner rolls to try. Do you think you could substitute milk for water?
Awesome! I think milk would work but definitely not buttermilk (I’ve tried that).