World’s Best Dinner Rolls
Meet the World’s Best Dinner Rolls. They are golden, soft, and delicious. The perfect side dish for Sunday dinners and holiday gatherings.
I know the title of these World’s Best Dinner Rolls is pretty bold but it could not be any more true. These are the softest, most delicious rolls I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.
There are so many reasons why I love these rolls, and it is not just because they taste so good. They are SUPER EASY to make. No kneading required! If you’re a beginner or looking for an easy dinner roll recipe, this is the one for you!
Try these other highly-rated delicious dinner roll recipes: Amazing Dinner Rolls, The Best Dinner Rolls, Rosemary Rolls, Soft and Fluffy Dinner Rolls, and French Bread Rolls.
WORLD’S BEST DINNER ROLLS
These World’s Best Dinner Rolls are easy to make in the sense that you don’t have to ‘shape’ them before they bake. You only need to roll them into balls and then place them in a 9×13 glass pan. As these bake, they puff up into these beautiful, uniform mounds of deliciousness. They have become my ‘go-to’ dinner rolls, and I am pretty confident they will be yours too!
Find my expert tips on how to make the world’s best dinner rolls below! Don’t forget to tag me in all of your creations @lifeinthelofthouse on Instagram or Facebook. Let’s stay connected. ❤️
Why You’ll Love These World’s Best Dinner Rolls:
- Rich & Buttery: With whole milk, butter, and eggs in the dough, these rolls are soft, tender, and full of flavor.
- Perfectly Sweetened: A touch of sugar balances the savory notes, making them irresistible alongside any meal.
- Light & Fluffy: The yeast proofing and double-rise process create rolls that are airy, pillowy, and melt-in-your-mouth soft.
- Golden & Gorgeous: Baking to a perfect golden brown and finishing with a cold butter rub gives each roll a shiny, bakery-quality finish.
- Versatile Size Options: Make 24 large rolls for dinner or halve the size to create 48 smaller rolls. Perfect for parties, holidays, or everyday meals!
- Impressive But Easy: Despite looking like a bakery masterpiece, the method is simple and approachable, giving you homemade rolls that wow every time.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk (2% milk also works, but whole is best)
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar divided
- 1/3 cup salted butter
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
- 8 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 large eggs beaten
Instructions
Combine milk, 1/2 cup sugar, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and allow to cool until lukewarm. (This step is important because if the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast).
While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar in the warm water. Let it stand about 10 minutes. (After 10 minutes, the yeast should be very bubbly and foamy).
In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes. Add in beaten eggs. Then stir in remaining 5 cups of flour to make a soft dough.
Note: The dough will be very soft and coming away from the sides of the bowl, but it will still be sticky. Don’t worry about this. It will firm up a little during the rising process.
Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
Punch down dough, and turn dough onto a lightly floured clean surface. Divide in half. Spray two 9×13 glass pans with cooking spray.
Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut into 12 equal-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then place in prepared pans. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan. Cover pans with clean kitchen towels, and let rise 30-45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown.
When done baking, remove rolls from the oven and then rub a stick of cold butter all over the tops!
Servings
Yields: 24 dinner rolls. Feel free to reduce the roll size in half to create 48 small rolls.
Storage and Reheating
Store completely cooled rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 5 days. For longer storage, wrap rolls tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, warm in a 350°F oven for 10–15 minutes, or microwave a roll wrapped in a damp paper towel for 15–20 seconds. Brushing with additional melted butter after reheating restores that fresh-from-the-oven flavor and shine.
Holly’s Tips for The World’s Best Dinner Rolls:
- Cool Milk Mixture: Make sure the milk and butter mixture is lukewarm before adding to the yeast. Too hot and it can kill the yeast, preventing proper rising.
- Proof Yeast Properly: Dissolve the yeast in warm water with sugar and let it foam for about 10 minutes. This ensures an airy, light texture.
- Expect Sticky Dough: The dough will be soft and sticky. This is normal. Avoid adding too much flour, as it can make rolls dense.
- Double Rise For Fluffiness: Allow the dough to rise once before shaping and again after shaping to achieve soft, tender rolls.
- Uniform Roll Size: Cut the dough into equal pieces for consistent baking and beautiful presentation.
- Golden, Buttery Finish: Rub cold butter over the tops immediately after baking for a shiny, flavorful finish.
- Optional Flavor Boosts: Add a sprinkle of sea salt, herbs, or garlic butter for extra flavor if desired.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and let it stand for about 10 minutes. It should become very bubbly and foamy, ensuring a proper rise.
Yes, 2% milk works fine, but whole milk gives the rolls a richer, softer texture.
A slightly sticky dough is normal and will firm up during rising. Add flour sparingly, no more than 1/4 cup, to avoid dense rolls.
The first rise develops flavor and structure, while the second rise after shaping ensures soft, fluffy, and tender rolls.
Rub cold butter over the tops of the rolls immediately after baking for a golden color, soft crust, and extra flavor.
Both! This recipe yields 24 large rolls. You can halve the size to make 48 smaller rolls for parties or bite-sized servings.
To make The World’s Best Dinner Rolls gluten-free, substitute the all-purpose flour with a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan or guar gum (or add 1 teaspoon per cup if it doesn’t). You may need slightly more milk to achieve a soft, slightly sticky dough. Handle gently, avoid over-kneading, and allow extra rising time, as gluten-free dough may take longer to double in size. Shape carefully and bake as directed, brushing with melted butter afterward for a soft, golden finish.
Similar Recipes
Looking for something similar? Try my The Best Dinner Rolls and French Bread Rolls next.
Wanting something different? My Rosemary Rolls are fluffy and buttery with a hint of rosemary flavor. The best part about them is that they’re a cinch to make! Perfect for all holiday meals.
Craving something sweet? My Perfect Cinnamon Rolls are the best cinnamon roll recipe ever, look no further! These are the most delicious, soft and fluffy cinnamon rolls you’ll ever eat!
Searching for something extra savory? My Cheesy Garlic Pull Apart Rolls feature buttermilk biscuits covered in melted cheese, herbs, and garlic butter. These can be a delicious side dish or snack!
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World’s Best Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk (2% milk also works, but whole is best)
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar divided
- 1/3 cup salted butter
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
- 8 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 large eggs beaten
Instructions
- Combine milk, 1/2 cup sugar, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and allow to cool until lukewarm. (This step is important because if the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.)
- While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar in the warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes. (after the 10 minutes, the yeast should be very bubbly and foamy)
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes. Add in beaten eggs. Then stir in remaining 5 cups of flour to make a soft dough.
- *NOTE- The dough will be very soft and coming away from the sides of the bowl, but it will still be sticky. Don’t worry about this. It will firm up a little during the rising process*
- Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
- Punch down dough, and turn dough onto a lightly floured clean surface. Divide in half. Spray two 9×13 glass pans with cooking spray.
- Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut into 12 equal-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then place in prepared pans. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan. Cover pans with clean kitchen towels, and let rise 30-45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown.
- When done baking, remove rolls from oven and then rub a stick of cold butter all over the tops!
Notes
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Do you think that I can half this recipe so that I only make 1 9×13 pan of rolls? Would it all still come out the same. I am wanting to make these tonight.
The Daily Smash,
So sorry I just saw your comment. Yes I have halved this recipe before and they still turn out great 🙂
Yikes! I am making these right now and just realized, I am going to have to let the dough rise longer than an hour! 🙁 FOrgot I had to take my daughter somewhere after school. Do you think it would be ok? Or did I just set myself up for failire? THanks
Lori, you should be fine letting them rise more than an hour. The rising of the rolls really depends on how warm your kitchen is… But it’s no big deal if they go longer. Hope you enjoy these rolls! They are my favorite! 🙂
These are amazing! I made them tonight to bring to a Friendsgiving party tomorrow and I’ve already eaten 2 of them! They are bigger than I thought they would be, but they are soft and delicious! Thanks!
Sarah- Yay! Glad you loved them. They are my favorite dinner roll. I agree, they are big! But that’s a good thing 🙂
Holly, can these be made the day before, and still be light and fluffy? We are celebrating Thanksgiving on Sun, Dec. 1st and I wanted to make them Saturday. I don’t want them to be dry, or tough when we eat them.
Patti, yes you can make these the day before. Just make recipe as instructed up until you roll the dough in balls and place in pan. Don’t rise the second time. Cover tightly and place in refrigerator over-night. 4 hours before you bake rolls, place them on counter-top to rise and then bake as directed 🙂
These rolls look just perfect!! I best they were so soft and delicious!
YUM!!! Bread is one of my favorite parts of holiday meals so you have me sold by saying these are the world’s best!
I made these for Thanksgiving. I used 2 percent milk. They turned out great. I just made them again for a party and they were a hit. Super easy and light and fluffy! This recipe is a keeper! What a great idea to use this dough for cinnamon rolls. You can bake them in 1 large pan, doesn’t need to be glass. Cooking times are very accurate. I’m glad I found this recipe and have shared it with friends.
Would it be okay if I done the recipe in half?
Yes, Bailee. Just use half of the called amounts of ingredients and use 2 eggs instead of three. 🙂
Great thanks! Made these last week and my husband and kids loved them! Didn’t think I would come out with 24 rolls though
I’ve never had a good bread hand my bread always turned out very dense and heavy UNTIL I tried these. Thank you for sharing the recipe if I can make them beautifully anybody can. They were light and soft and tasted delicious.
HOLLY , I THINK THAT YOU HAVE THE FINEST RECIPES ON THE INTERNET !!! I AM JUST CRAZY ABOUT THIS WARM ROLLS RECIPE HERE !!! I JUST LOVE ALL OF THE OTHER RECIPES, AND ESPECIALLY THE FRENCH ROLLS !! WOW !!! YOU ARE SUCH A GREAT COOK !!!! I WILL DEFINITELY BE LEARNING FROM YOUR STUFF !!! I WANT TO LEARN TO COOK . THIS IS A PERFECT START !!! YOURE DESSERTS ARE SUPERB !!! YOU’RE THE BEST !!!!
Lauren, You are too sweet 😀 Thank you for the nicest comment I’ve ever received! ♥
I just tried this recipe yesterday got perfect results! I actually halved the recipe and used some of the dough to make rolls, and on whim I assembled the rest of the dough into a braid. The end result looked like challah bread! It was not my intention, but nonetheless, the rolls and “challah” bread came out to be nothing but heavenly, fluffy goodness. I can’t wait to make more again soon. Thanks for sharing, Holly!
Holly-I’ve been following your site for about 3.5 years now. There is NOT one recipe that I have made that wasn’t gobbled up! I’ve followed all your post. You are such a fabulous cook, mother and wife. I am so glad you decided to stay at home now and focus on your site. Truly, your love for this comes out in your writings and in your prep work for the recipes. I just simply love, love and love all your recipes. Happy Easter, Holly!
Georgia girl- wow! Such an amazing and sweet comment. I am truly touched. Thank you so much!!! 🙂 Hope you have a great Easter, too!
Can you use iodized salt? Don’t have kosher don’t want to run to town
Your recipe looks fantastic and easy! I am not experienced in bread baking at all, and wanted to ask if rolling the dough into a rectangle before forming balls is necessary? Or can I make this even easier by skipping the rolling and just forming 12 same-size balls for each pan? AND, can you freeze half the dough for later? What steps would you take for freezing and thawing? Thanks sooo much!!
I am kind of a stickler for each roll being the same size, i weigh the dough first, divide by 24, I the take off a piece of the dough and weigh it (usually each roll weighs 77 or 78 grams), and then I shape it into a ball. The way I shape it is with the piece of dough in one hand with the other hand I pull the sides of the dough to the bottom and pinch it a little to seal it, forms a beautiful ball with a smooth top. They turn out beautiful.
I made these tonight. I halved the recipe and used 1% milk since that’s all I had. They were delicious! I brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with course sea salt…yum! I think I will make these for thanksgiving since they are a little easier than my other homemade dinner rolls.
Thanks for the recipe!
I’d love to make these for my Thanksgiving dinner. Any way that I could make the dough & freeze it to make the rolls the day of?
These rolls are really the worlds best. I have made them a few times and get compliments everytime. My mom actually asked me to make rolls for thanksgiving again this year since she said I make good rolls.Thank you for the amazing recipe from our best bites. This has become my go to roll recipe.
made these today for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I halved the recipe and found that my dough was very sticky and it needed more than 4 cups…however, the final product is very good. My kids devoured one with butter and honey smashed together! Hope everyone likes them tomorrow!
Can these be made ahead and frozen before you let them rise in baking pan?
Yes! I do it all the time. Just let them thaw & rise to room temp. Before baking!
These rolls really are the world’s best dinner rolls. I’ve made them twice, once on Thanksgiving and again this morning. The recipe is really forgiving. I’m allergic to dairy, so I used lite coconut milk in place of regular milk, and olive oil in place of the butter. You can’t taste the coconut at all.
They are light and fluffy, with a nice crust on the outside. And they make my whole house smell amazing! We have an antique wood cookstove that we cook them in, and placing them on top of the stove helps the rising process.
Please, for your own sake, MAKE THESE ROLLS!
Kirstan! I am so happy you could change them to fit your dietary needs and they were still so wonderful! 🙂 Thanks for your amazing comment. 🙂
These truly ARE the World’s Best Dinner Rolls!!
My confession: I was mixing the dough in my KitchenAid, and was pretty much done, but thinking that it was bogging down the machine a bit…it was sort of stodgy, but I carried on. I took the bowl off and went to cover it for the first rise, and to my horror I spot a bowl of 3 beaten eggs on the counter…I had totally forgotten to add them!!
Well, somewhere between stomping around the kitchen saying not-so-nice words, and deciding to throw the whole mess in the garbage, something told me to give it a shot to see what happened. I did it. I added the eggs to the dough bowl and started kneading like mad until they were pretty much mixed in. What a mess.
I set the dough to rise, and to my surprise it really did. So far, so good. Then I rolled them into balls and set them into the pan to rise. Again, they did. Baked them. They looked great. Tried one, and I was completely floored.
They turned out FANTASTIC. They’re so good that I’m serving them to company for lunch today as slider sandwiches with soup (which is why I was making them in the first place). I have extras in the freezer too!
If my rolls survived (and thrived in spite of) a major faux pas like that one (I still can’t believe I did that), then I figure you pretty much can’t mess these up. TRY THEM. They’re totally worth the effort.
Thanks for the recipe, Holly. It’s a keeper!
Thanks so much, Faye! 🙂
Planning to try these tonight. When I use the kitchenaid should I use the whisk or dough hook?
Kristen, I always use the dough hook when making rolls/ bread 🙂
I just made these rolls (1/2 a recipe) for Easter dinner for my family. I was a little worried after they rose the first time because they were so sticky I could not roll them into balls. I had to add about another cup or cup and a half of flour and work it in. My fear was that they would turn out really dry from being overworked. Not so! I let them rise after putting them in my 9 x 13 pan and baked them for approximately 18 minutes. I brushed melted butter over the tops and they looked so delicious. I decided I had better try one to make sure they weren’t dry as dust. I cut one in half, added a little butter and gave my husband the other half. Oh my goodness, they are delicious! They came out light, fluffy and yummy despite my adding extra flour to them. My husband loved them too. Can’t wait to serve them to my family for our Easter dinner celebration. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
This is an amazing easy recipe! Thanks for the easy to follow steps!