The Best Dinner Rolls Recipe

This is the BEST homemade dinner rolls recipe! Made with only 7 ingredients, they’re so soft, slightly sweet, and light and fluffy like a cloud.

Do you remember these light and fluffy Einkorn Bread Rolls I made way back when? They were one of my first experiments with einkorn. They are MIND-BLOWINGLY delicious, and they are worth every single one of the many ingredients and steps.

But sometimes you still with a light and fluffy dinner rolls recipe without all the hoopla, right?

That’s where these cloud dinner rolls come into play.

A neighbor introduced me to them years ago when she brought them over for a holiday feast. I slathered them in melted butter and with my mouth full, asked her for the recipe. (Not one of my finer moments.)

If I remember correctly, she graciously stepped away, said her goodbyes, and left. I never got the recipe from her. It wasn’t until two years later when I told her we were moving across the country (literally) and asked her again for her cloud dinner roll recipe that she FINALLY gave it to me.

Unfortunately, it was written for a bread machine, and it was missing a few steps. It took some deciphering and my own conversion for making bread machine recipes by hand, along with several recipe tests, but the result is the best easy recipe for dinner rolls with yeast!

HOMEMADE DINNER ROLLS RECIPE

This homemade dinner rolls recipe makes some of the lightest, fluffiest rolls you’ll ever eat in your life, ever. They’re also:

• Made with just a few basic ingredients that you’d use in any other easy bread recipe, like 90-Minute Man Bread or No-Knead Overnight Artisan Bread, or even Easy White Sandwich Bread.
• Adaptable to einkorn flour or all purpose flour, depending on what you have in your kitchen.
• They’re soft, slightly sweet, and super fluffy, just like the best rolls you might find at a fancy restaurant.
• Frugal. No fancy ingredients here – just staple baking ingredients you’d expect from a soft dinner rolls yeast recipe, like flour, yeast, and butter.

THIS IS NOT A KETO CLOUD BREAD RECIPE

Now before I go any further, I need to make a PSA (public service announcement):

• These are NOT keto.
• These are NOT a version of cloud bread or oopsie bread or any other non-bread keto bread that could be out there.
• And for the record, egg whites + cream cheese or yogurt does NOT equal “bread.”

They’re simply called cloud rolls because they’re incredibly light and fluffy.

DINNER ROLLS YEAST RECIPE INGREDIENTS

You only need 7 ingredients for this buttery dinner rolls yeast recipe, and one of them is water!

• Active dry yeast. If you have quick-rise yeast, use twice as much as active dry yeast.
• Granulated sugar. Use any type you have. I used Turbinado. You could also substitute honey instead.
• All-purpose flour. You can use einkorn or conventional all-purpose flour.
• Warm water. The amount will change slightly depending on whether you use einkorn flour or conventional all-purpose flour. You want warm water, not hot. Aim for between 105F and 110F.
• Butter. I haven’t tested any other fat in this recipe. You could likely use coconut oil, but the dinner rolls may not rise as nicely, or they may turn out denser in the end.
• Egg, room temperature. The egg helps with the rise here, which means a flax egg substitute won’t work.
• Salt. Not all salts are made the same! I love Ava Jane’s Kitchen because it doesn’t have microplastics (gross, right?) and it’s SO GOOD! Plus, you can get a free 8oz. bag of sea salt (just pay shipping and handling!).

INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO MAKE BREAD DINNER ROLLS RECIPE

Step 1. Combine yeast, sugar, and water in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl), and using a whisk, stir the yeast mixture together. Let it sit until the liquid is foamy.

Step 2. Add 3 cups of flour and mix on low using the dough hook (or by hand) for about one minute. Add 2 Tablespoons of soft butter, egg, and salt and continue to mix on low speed until the ingredients are well combined.

Step 3. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and add flour 2 Tablespoons at a time, waiting 60 seconds before adding more, until the dough is smooth and elastic and pulls easily away from the sides of the bowl. The dough is ready when you push your finger into it, it leaves a mark, and you can pull your finger out without the dough sticking to you.

Step 4. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place for the first rise until double in size, 1-2 hours.

Step 5. Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 16 equal dough balls and place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat mat.

Step 6. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and lightly brush the tops of the rolls. Cover gently with a towel for the second rise until doubled in size, 30 to 40 minutes.

Step 7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F.

Step 8. When the rolls have finished rising, bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown on the outside (note that einkorn flour will darken more quickly than conventional all-purpose flour).

This bread dinner rolls recipe is best served immediately when warm. Keep leftover rolls in an airtight container with a lid at room temperature for 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 5-7 days.

You can freeze these rolls as well. Store in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. They may lose some of their tender texture, but they will still taste great! Thaw in the fridge.

RECIPE YEAST DINNER ROLLS VARIATIONS

You can take this dinner rolls recipe to another level by adding some additional flavor.

• Garlic dinner rolls recipe. Add up to 1 teaspoon of garlic powder to the dough when you add the flour. Alternatively, you could mince a few garlic cloves and add them to the melted butter for brushing on the tops of the rolls.
• Herby bread dinner rolls recipe. Add 1-2 Tablespoons of finely chopped fresh herbs to the dough itself or add them to the melted butter to brush on top of the rolls. Parsley, rosemary, or basil would be yummy!
• Cheesy recipe of dinner rolls. Sprinkle the tops of the rolls with grated Parmesan during the final 5 minutes of baking.
• Or simply top with honey butter when serving for a sweeter side!

WHAT IS EINKORN FLOUR?

Not too long ago we thought my husband had some food sensitivity issues, so we embarked on the Whole30.

Psst! Here’s a free Whole30 meal plan if you need it, here’s how we did it on a budget, and here’s what our grocery bill was at the end of the 30 days.

We realized that he and my daughter are sensitive to gluten during the reintroduction phase, so we stopped eating bread for 9 months. (Yes, even gluten-free bread, because HELLO – EXPENSIVE!)

Then I remembered about einkorn… Einkorn is an ancient grain, not hybridized like modern wheat is, and many people who are sensitive to gluten (not allergic or Celiac) can tolerate it well. Read all about einkorn here.

We gave it a shot and HOORAY!!! They tolerate einkorn just fine. BRING ON THE BREAD!

BAKING WITH EINKORN IS A BIT OF A CHALLENGE

Einkorn flour doesn’t absorb liquid as quickly as conventional all-purpose flour and the gluten structure takes a while to develop. Overnight recipes and sourdough einkorn recipes are really better suited for einkorn, but that didn’t help me when…

At the same time, many real foodies (including you?) may not have switched over to einkorn yet. It’s not a baby step at all, like keeping your grocery receipts or eating seasonally, or even making your own homemade spices.

Switching to einkorn is definitely an advanced step and it’s one you may not ever make. And that’s okay!

That’s why I wrote this recipe of dinner rolls to include both einkorn OR all-purpose flour – that way regardless of where you are in your real food journey, you can have a fantastic recipe yeast dinner rolls in your arsenal!

RECIPE OF DINNER ROLL FAQS

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