French Bread Rolls are soft, delicious and one of the easiest roll recipes to make. These are my go-to for dinners, holidays and special occasions!

These French Bread Rolls are my go-to roll recipe. I’m in love with these things! They are so soft, totally delicious, and one of the easiest roll recipes. 😀
Bread and roll making can be tricky sometimes. I totally get that. When I first started using yeast I was so intimidated. But with a little practice and confidence, I promise you anyone can be a star in the roll making department!
I now make these delicious rolls for everything from our beloved Ham and Cheese Sliders to Cheeseburger Sliders and just for a great dinner roll a long side any meal.

MORE ROLL RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:
The Best Dinner Rolls
World’s Best Dinner Rolls
Rosemary Rolls
Amazing Dinner Rolls
French Bread Rolls
French Bread Rolls are soft, delicious, and one of the easiest roll recipes to make!
Servings 12
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- 3/4 Tablespoon instant yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast)
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large mixing bowl by hand), combine the warm water, yeast, sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups of the flour.
- *Note (if you are using active dry yeast, instead of instant yeast, let the yeast sit in the warm water and sugar for 3 to 5 minutes, until it's foamy before adding the oil, salt and flour).
- Begin mixing then continue to add the rest of the flour gradually until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (You may not need to use all of the flour the recipe calls for.) The dough should be soft and smooth but still slightly tacky to the touch.
- Knead dough in the stand mixer, or by hand until it is very smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer, or 8-10 minutes by hand.
- Lightly spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it has doubled (about 45 minutes to an hour).
- Punch down dough and turn it out onto a lightly greased countertop. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each dough piece into a ball. Place the balls on a lightly greased baking sheet or in a 9×13-inch glass baking pan. Cover rolls with a kitchen towel or lightly greased plastic wrap. Let rolls rise until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 400° F. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until golden-brown on top and cooked through. Remove from oven and immediately rub the tops of rolls with butter. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
**These rolls can be made into the most amazing sub rolls for sandwiches! Just combine two roll dough pieces together and shape into a log. Then bake according to directions above. Yields 6 sub rolls.
TO FREEZE: Once they are baked and cooled, place rolls in a zipper-lock freezer bag and place in freezer. When ready to eat, take them out to thaw for 5 or so hours or microwave them for about 2 minutes on 70% power.
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soon as i saw this recipe for these french rolls i couldnt wait to try them & they are great, thanks for sharing
Thank you, Ben!! Glad they were a success for you as well 🙂
can french bread rolls recipe be doubled
Yes, definitely!
how about adapting to the bread maker for all the mixing?
Four cups of flour fits into the bread maker. Just add ingredients as listed, using dough cycle. Remember to keep salt and yeast separated (so add ingredients as listed, except add salt after the flour. Form rolls after cycle is complete and let rise until doubled.
Could these be made using half wheat flour?
These rolls are really good, I’ve been making them for several years. They’re perfect for burgers, meatball subs, and Italian beef sandwiches. Super easy too.
Can I make the dough the day before and bake them the next day?
Question not comment – do you send out daily emails with your recipes? For some reason I’ve just discovered your great site with all these wonderful recipes! If you have a mailing list please add me asap. I looked for a sign up spot on the site but can’t seem to locate one. Thank you!
these will be on our next recipe cycle as the sandwich. may try the rolls sooner.
Made the rolls they were good. But the tops remained soft not crusty. What did I do wrong
These are simple and amazing. Thanks for sharing!
These are so amazing I am making them again. I use.my bread machine for the first knead and rise and then rise again after I make the dough balls. Turns out perfect. Had some frozen homemade spaghetti sauce so I thawed it out and it’s simmering and will combine with penne pasta and bake in the oven. Can’t wait to crunch onto these delicious rolls! BTW made your corn dogs for lunch for the umpteenth time yesterday. Perfect as always!
I love these rolls!! They’re my go to roll recipe!! I make them with about 1/3 part wheat flour! They are so light and yummy!!
Love this recipe. I am on my second day making this. Hope ya have much more bread recipes as it is my passion. Thank you for posting it!
Hi Karen! So happy you love these rolls! We do too! I made them again yesterday for Sunday dinner. They were delicious, as always! 🙂 I do have more roll recipes on my site. Take a look at the recipe index and you can find them there.
Holly, Thank you so much for this recipe, and for adapting it to let a bread machine do all the work! I have to make several batches to accommodate our Thanksgiving dinner needs; how many days ahead of time can these be made and still be delicious? Also, have you tried adding herbs to the recipe? My family is begging for Rosemary French Bread Dinner Rolls.
These are the best rolls i’ve ever made thanks so much 🙂
Delicious. I sweetened the dough with honey instead of suGar, let them rise twice, then baked them on a tray sprinkled with cornmeal.
I would love to make theSe, but dont have a standmixer. Do you have directions on How to make these by had kneeding the dough.?
Yes you can definitely make these by hand. And you’ll need to Knead the dough for are about 5 minutes 🙂
DELICIOUS and now my go to reCipe. Used my bread maker.
Oh man this are so good i didnt change a thing ,thank you so much i tried posting a picture it wouldn’t let me