Dinner Rolls – Homemade Dinner Rolls, straight from Grandma's recipe box. So delicious, easy to make, and a family favorite, both for dinner and as a holiday side.
Homemade dinner rolls are a staple for special occasions and holiday dinners in my family. My grandma made these rolls every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
Just baking up a batch of these beauties brings back so many memories. I learned to make this recipe from my mom, just like she learned from her mom.
I'm not going to say this is a quick recipe because it's definitely not, but I will say it's easy. While the recipe is a bit time-consuming, and you do have the added time of waiting for the dough to rise, it's still an easy recipe to make and a great recipe to use for learning purposes.
It's definitely a recipe I cherish and one I'm in the process of passing down to my own boys, so that Grandma's legacy lives on. Jacob can pretty much already make these rolls even better than I can; in fact, he actually baked this batch just because he wanted to, and they turned out so light and fluffy.
We make these rolls with all our favorite Easter recipes, Thanksgiving recipes, and Christmas recipes, and sometimes in between. We have to pace ourselves, because some of us will eat rolls with every meal when we have them around.
I JUST WANT THE RECIPE! TAKE ME TO THE RECIPE FOR GRANDMA'S HOMEMADE DINNER ROLLS!
If you’d rather skip all of my cooking tips, important cooking info for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the delicious dinner rolls recipe – just scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find a printable recipe card.
TIPS FOR HOW TO MIX UP GRANDMA'S HOMEMADE BREAD ROLLS
- Stir the yeast, sugar, and warm water in a glass measuring cup or small bowl. Set aside in a warm place to rise. It will bubble and rise up.
- While waiting for the yeast mixture to rise, cream (or mix) the sugar and unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl. Note: Grandma used shortening in her rolls; I use butter instead.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Add the yeast mixture to the butter mixture, along with an additional 1 1/2 cups warm water.
- Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
- Gradually, add the flour in, and mix well. For this step, I like to use the dough hook on my stand mixer.
- Turn the dough into a large greased bowl or stockpot, and let it rise to the top or almost to the top (it can take 2 to 3 hours). Keep the bowl or pan covered.
TIPS FOR ROLLING OUT AND FORMING YEAST ROLLS
- Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface. Coat generously with flour by turning and shaping. No kneading is necessary, though I still like to knead it a bit just for fun.
- To make rolls, roll the dough out to about a 1 to 2 inch thickness. Then cut round rolls with a cup, glass, or biscuit cutter.
- Place the rolls in greased baking pans, and let them rise (this will probably take another 2 to 3 hours).
- Once the rolls have risen well, bake them for about 20 minutes (maybe a little longer) at 350°. Halfway through baking, you may need to cover the rolls with foil, so they don't brown too much before they bake through.
When they're done baking, remove the rolls from the oven and allow to cool. Of course, I usually can't resist enjoying a hot roll with warm melty butter. They're so delicious!
Serve your delicious bread rolls with apple butter, blackberry jam, or just plain butter.
LOOKING FOR MORE BREAD RECIPES?
Buttermilk Cornbread with Milled Corn
Easy Homemade Biscuits from Scratch
Quick and Easy Hot Dog Bun Breadsticks
KITCHEN TOOLS YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE DINNER ROLLS
Glass Measuring Cup – You can use this to mix up the yeast mixture.
Large Mixing Bowl – You'll need a large bowl to mix up the bread dough. I prefer to use my stand mixer.
Sifter – You'll need to sift the flour and salt together.
Rolling Pin – to roll out the dough for cutting.
Stockpot – Works so well for putting dough in to rise.
Biscuit Cutter – Handy for cutting rolls.
Baking Pans – for baking the rolls.
Aluminum Foil – You'll likely need to cover the rolls halfway through baking so they don't brown too much.
HOMEMADE DINNER ROLLS RECIPE
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Grandma's Homemade Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon active yeast
- 1 teaspoon pure cane sugar
- 1/2 cup water warm
- 2/3 cup pure cane sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups water additional
- 6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Stir the yeast, sugar, and warm water in a glass measuring cup or small bowl. Set aside in a warm place to rise. It will bubble and rise up.
- While waiting for the yeast mixture to rise, cream (or mix) the sugar and unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl.*
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Add the yeast mixture to the butter mixture, along with an additional 1 1/2 cups warm water.
- Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
- Gradually, add the flour in, and mix well. For this step, I like to use the dough hook on my stand mixer.
- Turn the dough into a large greased bowl or stockpot, and let it rise to the top or almost to the top (it can take 2 to 3 hours). Keep the bowl or pan covered.
- Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface. Coat generously with flour by turning and shaping. No kneading is necessary, though I still like to knead it a bit just for fun.
- To make rolls, roll the dough out to about a 1 to 2 inch thickness. Then cut round rolls with a cup, glass, or biscuit cutter.
- Place the rolls in greased baking pans, and let them rise (this will probably take another 2 to 3 hours).
- Once the rolls have risen well, bake them for about 20 minutes (maybe a little longer) at 350°. Halfway through baking, you may need to cover the rolls with aluminum foil, so they don't brown too much before they bake through.
- When they're done baking, remove the rolls from the oven and allow to cool. Of course, I usually can't resist enjoying a hot roll with warm melty butter. They're so delicious!
Will the dough be sticky? It would never release from the mixing bowl so I had to add more flour, about a cup and a half more. In the end it was still super sticky but I just put it in a bowl to rise in the oven. I’ve ne ear had a roll recipe with sticky dough. Not sure if I did something wrong. Thanks!
Yes, Kelly, it is typically very slightly sticky. In this recipe, no kneading is needed so you can simply scrape it out of your mixing bowl and into a bowl to rise. You may add flour to the counter when it’s time to roll them out for the second rise.
What & where do you get pure cane sugar
Hey Jean, you can buy pure cane sugar in just about any grocery store or health food store. You can even order it from Amazon. I prefer Zulka pure cane sugar.
Hi these look great..
Is there a substitute for the eggs?
Liz, hmmm, I’ve never used a substitute; I know some people sub applesauce for eggs, but I’m not sure how well that would work with homemade dinner rolls.
Can these be frozen, and how?
Hi Sandra, yes they can be frozen. I would wrap each baked roll in foil or plastic wrap. And then place them in either a gallon bag or airtight storage container, so you can avoid freezer burn.
Can you brush them with butter before they go in the oven? They look yummy. Wonder if this dough would be good for cinnamon rolls.
Maggi, sure! You totally can. And we make cinnamon rolls with this recipe all the time. So delicious!
I appreciate you sharing your grandmother’s roll recipe. I was cleaning out my pantry and noticed I had several packages of yeast that I had purchased intending to use. A few were about to expire. I was in the mood for cinnamon rolls. When my children were small I made cinnamon rolls regularly. Years have past and have lost that recipe. After looking through the recipes online I realized I had no milk. I noticed your recipe didn’t call for milk so thought what the heck. They are amazing! Will continue to use this recipe. Nothing like the smell of cinnamon rolls in the oven. Thought I would bring back some memories and sent pics to my kids. May have company today. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Judy! I’m so glad I could help you fill your kitchen with that wonderful scent of cinnamon rolls. There really is nothing like that wonderful smell.
I have had problems with either under or over rising my dough. Your recipe says to let rise for 2-3 hours… twice. How warm is your house? That length of time won’t make the rolls fall before cooking them?
Hi Sonjia, Our house stays around 72°F. And I always let them rise in the bowl or pan for 2-3 hours, then again as rolls for a couple hours. They’ve not fallen for me. Are you high altitude maybe? I know humidity can make a difference too… My son makes bread a lot and occasionally has issues with it not rising well on days when it’s super low humidity.
I can’t wait to try these – they look delicious!!! I was wondering what size pans you use? It is 2-13×9 inch pans? It looks like from your picture that don’t fit all 20 rolls in the same pan. Thank you very much!
Hey Erin, thank you! I usually use either 2-13×9 inch pans or a 13×9 inch pan with a smaller pan. Yeah, they won’t all fit in the same pan. Sometimes we even cut them smaller, so we get way more rolls, especially if we’re feeding a crowd.
I was looking for a recipe like that. Thank yoi.
Do you think I can cut salt by half (i have restriction for salt)
Frederique, you’re most welcome. You can…They just won’t have quite the flavor they would with the salt.
i am going to make these for company next week im going to freeze them. they look so good
Judi, thank you! I hope you enjoy.