Homemade rolls seem like a daunting task, especially on the day you need them. These rolls are the perfect make ahead rolls that taste just as good right out of the oven as they do 24 hours later. But I’m going to be honest here, these rolls do take several hours from start to finish to make – but they’re worth it! I made these rolls this morning so we can eat them with Easter dinner tomorrow, but let’s be real, we’ll probably eat a few with butter and jam when I pull them out of the oven!
My mom is the queen of finding good recipes online and this is one of them. Her secret to making them even better: place the balls of dough close together in a casserole dish, this way they poof upwards instead of outwards. You get more square like dinner rolls instead of flat round rolls.
Lets get started!
Combine the milk, water, sugar and salt into a medium saucepan. Warm up over medium-low heat, key word: WARM. The mixture needs to be just warm enough so the sugar dissolves and the yeast can waken up. If it gets too warm, just let it cool a little bit first. If it’s too warm and you add in the eggs, they could scramble and that would be pretty awful and require you to start over.
While the mixture warms up, it will take only about 2 minutes (depending on what type of stove you have), get a large bowl and add in 5 cups of all-purpose flour. Then form a well in the flour so you can add in the wet ingredients.
Once the milk mixture is warm, add in the eggs and the dry, active yeast. Mix this with a whisk until the eggs are totally combined with the mixture.
Pour this mixture into the flour, but don’t mix. Cover it either with a lid or tea towel and let set for about 20 minutes or until it’s proofed, which just means the yeast gets frothy and it’ll expand a little.
Melt 1 stick of butter and after the mixture is proofed, pour the melted butter in. Stir with a spatula until totally combined and then knead a few times just until the dough all comes together.
Form a ball with the dough and then cover it with a wet tea towel or a lid.
Lucky for me, I was doing laundry at the same time so I put the bowl with the dough in it on top of the dryer to help it rise. It just needs a warm place to rise, but not too warm or it’ll dry the dough out and it won’t rise. It helps to put a wet tea towel over it like I did to help keep the dough moist. This takes about 45 minutes.
Once it has risen, form little rolls and put them into a buttered dish. Then let them rise again. When the rolls are starting to bust over the pan and look about the right size, you know they’re ready for the oven!
Cover the pan with a little foil and let them bake for about 10 minutes and then remove the foil and let them bake another 10 minutes. My rolls turned out great, but I probably should’ve made them just a little bit smaller because it took them awhile to fully bake in the oven. And I could’ve gotten more rolls out of the batch.
When they’re finished they’re going to be golden brown on top and super soft in the middle. I love these rolls because they stay really soft and they have a great flavor! They’re perfect to eat with bread and homemade jam, or to use as the bread to make an Easter leftover sandwich! Although there are several steps required to make these rolls, they are very simple to do! Make them tonight for Easter tomorrow, or make them first thing in the morning and they’ll be ready to go for Easter dinner!
Enjoy! & Happy Easter!
Homemade Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Milk
- 3/4 cup Water
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 5 teaspoons active dry Yeast
- 5 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup butter melted & divided
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, warm up milk, water, sugar and salt. Just until warm and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and mix in eggs and yeast. Whisk until combined.
- In a large bowl, pour in the flour and then create a well. Pour the milk mixture into the flour well, don't stir. Cover the bowl with a lid or tea towel for about 20 minutes, or until wet mixture is proofed.
- Pour 1/2 cup melted butter into flour/milk mixture and stir to combine. Knead lightly until it all comes together. Form into a ball and cover bowl with wet tea towel or lid and let rise about 30-45 minutes.
- Shape the dough into rolls and place in a casserole dish, cover with a wet tea towel and let rise an additional 30-45 minutes or until rolls are the size you want them to be.
- Bake rolls in a preheated 400* degree oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.