Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means we better start planning for the big meal. And while most of our attention should be focused on the main event, THE TURKEY, It’s also important that we don’t forget about the side dishes. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the mashed potatoes or the cranberry sauce, they all deserve our recognition. And today I want to focus on one side dish that is often overlooked, dinner rolls.
You see to most people dinner rolls are an afterthought, but to me, they are the unsung hero of Thanksgiving. Their light and fluffy texture are perfect by themselves and are even better when used to sop up that delicious homemade gravy. And while you might be tempted to use premade frozen rolls trust me when I say that making them from scratch is fairly easy. Plus they taste so much better!
Tips, Tricks & Suggestions
- Want to save yourself some time on dinner night? Then feel free to make the dough, let it do its first rise, and form the dough into rolls the night before. Simply place the shaped rolls into your greased baking pan and let them sit in your refrigerator overnight. Then the next day all you have to do is take them out of the fridge and let them finish doing the last rise before baking them.
- Today we will be using a stand mixer in order to make our dough. However, don’t feel like you need a stand mixer to make these rolls, it just makes the job easier. Instead, just add the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and use a wooden spoon to incorporate the ingredients together. Then simply kneed the dough by hand for about 4 minutes.
- Every oven is different which means sometimes the tops of your dinner rolls might become too browned before they finish baking through. If this is happening to you then loosely cover the rolls with some aluminum foil while they finish baking.
- Looking for some other great bread recipes to serve with dinner? Then check out our recipe for no kneed bread, focaccia, and cheddar chive biscuits.
Dinner Rolls Recipe
Prep time: 3 hours (mostly for letting the dough rise)
Cook time: 20 minutes
Servings: 15 rolls
Ingredients
1 Cup of milk, preferably whole but you can also use skim or low fat
1 Packet of active dry yeast, should be 2¼ teaspoons
½ Cup of granulated sugar
¼ Cup of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon of salt
3 Cups of flour
1 Teaspoon of either vegetable or canola oil
Optional:
Melted butter for brushing the tops of the finished rolls
Instructions
- Test your yeast: Get out a microwave-safe bowl and pour the cup of milk into it. Then microwave it for a minute or two so that the temperature of the milk is between 110 and 115 Fahrenheit. Next pour in the yeast and mix it into the milk. Let this sit for 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast has started to form bubbles on the top of the milk.
- Make the dough: Pour this milk/yeast mixture into a stand mixer with the dough attachment. Then add in the sugar, butter, egg, salt, and half of the flour to the stand mixer. Set your stand mixer to low speed and let it beat together the ingredients for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then add the remaining flour and continue to beat on medium speed for another 3 to 4 minutes and a dough has formed.
- Let the dough rise: Get out a large bowl and pour the teaspoon of oil into it. Then transfer the dough to that bowl and roll the dough so that it forms a ball and is coated in the oil.
Cover the bowl with either some plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let it rise on your counter for 1 to 2 hours.
- Shape the rolls and let them rise a second time: Remove the cover from the bowl and punch the risen dough so that it releases some of its air. Transfer the dough to a clean surface and use either a knife or a bench scraper to divide it into 15 equal-sized pieces. Then roll each piece of dough into a small ball and transfer them to a greased 9x 13 baking pan.
Cover the pan with either some plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise a second time for 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 Celsius).
- Bake the rolls: Place the risen rolls onto your lowest oven rack and let them bake for 10 minutes. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and let the rolls to continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tops of the rolls are nicely browned.
- Remove the rolls from your oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Then you can either brush the tops of the rolls with some melted butter or dig right in!
Dinner Rolls Recipe
Servings: 15 rolls
Ingredients
- 1 Cup of milk preferably whole but you can also use skim or low fat
- 1 Packet of active dry yeast should be 2¼ teaspoons
- ½ Cup of granulated sugar
- ¼ Cup of unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 Egg
- 1 Teaspoon of salt
- 3 Cups of flour
- 1 Teaspoon of either vegetable or canola oil
Optional:
- Melted butter for brushing the tops of the finished rolls
Instructions
- Test your yeast: Get out a microwave-safe bowl and pour the cup of milk into it. Then microwave it for a minute or two so that the temperature of the milk is between 110 and 115 Fahrenheit. Next pour in the yeast and mix it into the milk. Let this sit for 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast has started to form bubbles on the top of the milk.
- Make the dough: Pour this milk/yeast mixture into a stand mixer with the dough attachment. Then add in the sugar, butter, egg, salt, and half of the flour to the stand mixer. Set your stand mixer to low speed and let it beat together the ingredients for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then add the remaining flour and continue to beat on medium speed for another 3 to 4 minutes and a dough has formed.
- Let the dough rise: Get out a large bowl and pour the teaspoon of oil into it. Then transfer the dough to that bowl and roll the dough so that it forms a ball and is coated in the oil. Cover the bowl with either some plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let it rise on your counter for 1 to 2 hours.
- Shape the rolls and let them rise a second time: Remove the cover from the bowl and punch the risen dough so that it releases some of its air. Transfer the dough to a clean surface and use either a knife or a bench scraper to divide it into 15 equal-sized pieces. Then roll each piece of dough into a small ball and transfer them to a greased 9x 13 baking pan. Cover the pan with either some plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise a second time for 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 Celsius).
- Bake the rolls: Place the risen rolls onto your lowest oven rack and let them bake for 10 minutes. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and let the rolls to continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tops of the rolls are nicely browned.
- Remove the rolls from your oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Then you can either brush the tops of the rolls with some melted butter or dig right in!
