My Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe is practically fool-proof. It is the perfect dinner roll recipe for all your holiday meals.
I call these rolls Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe because I follow my own Grandma’s handwritten recipe card to make them. I have a feeling it was a popular recipe in that era (the 1950’s), but to me the recipe is my Grandma’s. I don’t have a way to credit the recipe to anyone else.
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This dinner roll recipe calls for the simplest of ingredients: flour, yeast, sugar, salt, milk, eggs and butter. Using butter is a change I made, as the original did call for shortening, but I am not in the habit of using shortening. I also had to look up how to scald milk and found it can be done easily in the microwave. The reason behind scalding milk in baking is that the whey protein in milk can weaken gluten, causing the dough not to rise properly. Scalding deactivates the protein. (source: The Kitchn)
With the butter, egg and sugar in the dough I guess these rolls could be considered a type of brioche dough. They are absolutely delicious and I look forward to making them each holiday season starting at Thanksgiving. This recipe is perfect for a novice baker because the dough can be made in a stand mixer and it is very forgiving to shape into rolls. As long as they are allowed enough time to rise, they bake up perfect for me each time I’ve made them. My daughter has started helping me make them, and I think it’s cool to have her helping to make her great Grandma’s rolls.
Tips for Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe:
- These rolls can be made up to one month ahead and frozen until ready to bake. I published a separate recipe explaining the process of making and freezing the rolls HERE.
- I use a digital thermometer like this one to make sure the scalded milk is the correct temperature (105 – 110 degrees F) before adding it to the yeast.
- This dough browns quickly. It’s best to bake these rolls with your oven rack set to the lower middle part of your oven.
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Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe
My Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe is practically fool-proof. It is the perfect dinner roll recipe for all your holiday meals.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 packets active dry yeast
- 2 cups milk scalded and cooled to between 105 and 110 degrees F
- 1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp salt
Instructions
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Place milk in a microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Microwave for 4 minutes. Place in refrigerator and allow to cool to between 105 - 110 degrees F.
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Melt butter and set aside to cool.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the 6 cups of flour and salt.
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Remove the milk from the refrigerator and whisk in the yeast and sugar. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.
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Beat the 2 eggs into the melted butter. Add the yeast, sugar and milk mixture to the flour and salt and knead on low speed until dough begins to come together. Stop mixer and add the eggs and melted butter. Knead the dough, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary, for 6 minutes.
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Remove the dough hook and bowl from the stand mixer. Cover the dough ball in the bowl loosely with a towel.
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Place the dough bowl in a warm spot and allow to rise for about 60 minutes or until dough is doubled in size.
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Gently push down on the dough to deflate. Place on clean counter and evenly divide dough into 8 log-shaped pieces, using a bench scraper or sharp knife.
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Cut each of the eight dough logs into four equal pieces, giving you 32 rolls. Gently cup each roll in your hand to "plump" them up a bit in the center.
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Place the rolls in well-greased baking dishes, spaced about 1/2-inch apart. Place dishes in a warm spot and cover loosely with a towel. Allow rolls to rise in baking dishes for 60 minutes more.
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Bake at 375 degrees for 14 - 18 minutes. Watch closely in the last few minutes to make sure tops don't over brown.
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Brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter when they come out of the oven. Serve warm.
Sarah Lemire says
There’s nothing better than a family recipe. They’re always the best and this one looks wonderful! Perfect for the upcoming winter months!
Dan from Platter Talk says
Nothing like homemade rolls, I don’t care who you are. They’ll make one swoon! I can smell them now.
Brian Jones says
Oh wow, they look fantastic so soft and squidgy, love it!
Jemma Andrew-Adiamah says
These look perfect! I bet these would go lovely with some soup.
Pam says
Have you tried halving the recipe?hey look fantastic but too many for my family.
Andrea says
can you make the dough and freeze it so you just have to bake the rolls the day you want to eat them?
Cathy M says
I made these in Thanksgiving Jill. They were easy and DELICIOUS. Everyone loved them. Thank you!!
Lorri says
Would this recipe work well for breadsticks as well? They look fabulous!
Tina Kreidler says
My family favorite for the holidays is my great grandma’s Buttermilk Pie!
Michelle says
My husband and I tried these rolls for our Christmas Day dinner. We were so excited because we have never made bread before and these looked so delicious and sounded simple. We followed all of the steps exactly, but they turned out very subpar. They were pale and although they rose well, they weren’t fluffy like your picture shows. We do live in Colorado in high altitude, so that may play a factor, but we are wondering where we went wrong!!! We don’t blame your recipe, just wanting some tips on how to do better!
Lisa Bynum says
I’m glad to see that these rolls can be frozen — I was going to ask! I buy frozen dough, but I’ve always wanted to try making my own rolls. This looks very similar to what I buy at the store. Thanks!
foodtasticmom says
Yes similar. But homemade (if you can find the time) is usually better 🙂
Kacie Morgan says
I bet these would be the perfect pairing for some homemade tomato soup! Now that would be tasty.
foodtasticmom says
I agree!
Stephanie says
Sounds like such an easy recipe for homemade rolls. And rolls just go with everything…especially holiday meals.
foodtasticmom says
Exactly. I feel like it’s not a holiday meal without them!
Caroline says
These look great, so soft and tender. And always good to be a relatively easy dough, too.
foodtasticmom says
Thank you Caroline. Yes, it really is a forgiving and easy dough to work with!
Cookilicious says
They look perfecto! My mouth is watering just looking at these pics. I can imagine the taste of it with some warm butter..yummm!
foodtasticmom says
Thank you 🙂 They are my favorite!
Julia says
These rolls look perfect. I can’t believe how fluffy they are and golden on the outside.
foodtasticmom says
Thanks so much Julia!
Tara | Deliciously Declassified says
Family recipes are the best! These rolls look so tender and delicious… I’m sure my kiddos would just eat these up in minutes. I definitely want to give these a try. Thanks for sharing 🙂
foodtasticmom says
My kiddos love them. Thank you 🙂
Lauren Vavala @ DeliciousLittleBites says
These look like absolutely perfect rolls! We always had rolls like this at every dinner growing up – definitely need to try them!!
foodtasticmom says
Thank you. I hope you try them!
Linda says
There’s nothing better than homemade bread and these rolls look to-die-for! I love that they have a brioche quality to them as that is one of my husband’s favorite breads. I love the fact that it’s your Grandma’s recipe. I sat with mine to get a few of her recipes written down and I wish I had done it a little more often. They are the special recipes that I cherish. I’ll be pinning this recipe to use for the upcoming holidays. Thanks.
foodtasticmom says
I’m so glad I have her handwritten recipes. They are special for sure. Thank you for the Pin!
Noel Lizotte says
Aren’t grandma’s recipes the best?! I wonder sometimes if that’s because the only recipes we loved were the best ones grandma made … time and again …
nevermind … these rolls look delicious!
This is the kind of recipe I would pull out for every family holiday!
foodtasticmom says
They are the best. Thanks so much Noel!
Shanika says
I love a good dinner roll recipe! It’s perfect for the holidays coming around the corner!
foodtasticmom says
Yes, they are!