Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (2024)

Pin

Share

Tweet

Jump to Recipe

My Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe is practically fool-proof. It is the perfect dinner roll recipe for all your holiday meals.

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (1)

I call these Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe because I follow my own Grandma’s handwritten recipe card to make them. In researching the ingredients, it seems like it was a popular recipe in the 1950’s. But to me this recipe belongs to my Grandma, so I am giving credit to her.

Want to save this recipe?

Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox.Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (2)

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)

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (3)

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. Attention novice bakers! This dough can be made in a stand mixer and it is very easy to shape into rolls. As long as they rise properly, they bake perfectly. My daughter has started helping me make them. I think it’s cool to have her helping make her great Grandma’s rolls.

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (4)

Tips for Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe:

  • You can make these rolls ahead of time. 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.

Foodtastic Mom is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Any highlighted, clickable Amazon link you see is an affiliate link that I may earn advertising fees on.

Thank you so much for being a faithful reader and supporter of Foodtastic Mom. Be sure toPINand print this recipe!

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (5)

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (6)

Print Pin

5 from 21 votes

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.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 2 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 38 minutes minutes

Servings 32

Calories 60kcal

Author Foodtastic Mom

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

  • 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.

  • Melt butter and set aside to cool.

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the 6 cups of flour and salt.

  • Remove the milk from the refrigerator and whisk in the yeast and sugar. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

  • 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.

  • Remove the dough hook and bowl from the stand mixer. Cover the dough ball in the bowl loosely with a towel.

  • Place the dough bowl in a warm spot and allow to rise for about 60 minutes or until dough is doubled in size.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Bake at 375 degrees for 14 - 18 minutes. Watch closely in the last few minutes to make sure tops don't over brown.

  • Brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter when they come out of the oven. Serve warm.

Nutrition

Calories: 60kcal

More Thanksgiving Recipes:

  • Perfect Roast Turkey Breast
  • Sweet Potato Pumpkin Casserole
  • Perfect Cranberry Sauce

Pin

Share

Tweet

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brian Jones says

    Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (7)
    They look superb, the ingredients are similar to a Japanese egg-enriched dough I was playing around with a couple of weeks ago. I must make these!

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      Thank you so much Brian. And now I am intrigued by the Japanese dough you were using. Hopefully you’ll publish a recipe?!

      Reply

  2. Julia says

    Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (8)
    Jill, the rolls look amazing and the best part is that they can be made ahead and frozen! Thanks for the recipe 🙂

    Reply

  3. Emily says

    Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (9)
    I swear recipes from Grandma are always the best recipes. I have to try these rolls!

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      You do have to try them!

      Reply

  4. Cliona Keane says

    Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (10)
    These are the perfect accompaniment to any holiday dinner!

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      I agree! Thank you Cliona!

      Reply

  5. Jacqueline Debono says

    Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (11)
    These rolls look beautiful. I love the idea of serving homemade rolls at dinner or lunch. Really need to try this recipe! Going to pin for later!

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      Terrific. Thanks very much for the Pin!

      Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      I do hope you try the. Thanks Tina!

      Reply

  6. Krista says

    I just found your website while looking for a way to use some outdated milk. We enjoyed these rolls, I had them mixed up before I realized that the overwhelming majority of your 5-star reviews for this recipe are from people that have NOT actually tried the recipe yet. I found this to be true on the other recipes I looked at here. I don’t consider “oh these look yummy, I’ll have to try them” a valid review and usually won’t try a recipe weighted with reviews of this type.

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      I am so glad you enjoyed these rolls! Since you are being honest with me, I’ll return the favor and tell you how the “game” of reviews works. Competition is stiff to get on page one of Google. Google favors recipes with lots of positive ratings (it’s just one of the criteria to help me get my recipe to the top and therefore actually seen by more people). I would much rather have all reviews that are honest, like yours, by people that have actually made my recipe. But, in order to get more of those, I have to go into Facebook groups with other bloggers. I write reviews for them and in exchange, they write reviews for me. That’s how it works and why you see so many reviews from people who haven’t actually made the recipe. Like I said, I MUCH prefer and wish for REAL REVIEWS! Thanks for trying my recipe and giving me real, honest feedback.

      Reply

  7. Ryan 76 says

    Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (13)
    Older person now trying to duplicate my Grandma’s rolls and found they didn’t rise enough, kneaded by hand for 6 plus minutes and put in a little larger pan. Are those two areas I need to sharpen up on?

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      I’m not an expert baker, but how new was your yeast? That could have been the problem. I usually knead these with my mixer, so not sure if the hand kneading affected anything. I think they do tend to rise higher in a smaller pan because they push together and have something to kind of grab onto. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in the baking process. Those are just some of my guesses. Hopefully they still tasted good and next time they’ll rise well for you!

      Reply

  8. Elaine says

    I made them for Christmas when I couldn’t find my favourite old recipe, I now have a new favourite recipe that everyone loved. I’ll be making them again next week for a 50th birthday dinner. Perfect. Thank you

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      I’m so happy to hear this! Thanks for sharing Elaine. 🙂

      Reply

  9. Jeff says

    Would the dough freeze well? Wondering if I can make that ahead of time and bake day of.

    Reply

    • foodtasticmom says

      Yes. I actually have as separate recipe post for instructions on how to make these rolls ahead…
      You just make the rolls through shaping them into balls, freeze them on a baking sheet first, then place them in a freezer bag. Take them out of the freezer and allow them to rise/thaw for about 4 hours. I need to just combine the two posts.
      https://www.foodtasticmom.com/make-ahead-dinner-rolls/

      Reply

« Older Comments

Trackbacks

  1. […] Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe – Foodtastic Mom […]

    Reply

  2. […] Grandma’s Dinner Rolls Recipe – Foodtastic Mom […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Grandma's Dinner Rolls Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why are my homemade dinner rolls hard? ›

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

Why are my dinner rolls tasteless? ›

Flat flavor in bread is almost always because of not enough salt. I agree with you that you don't have enough. About 2% of the flour weight. In your recipe with 5 cups of flour (600g) that would be just over 2tsp of table salt (12g).

Why are my homemade dinner rolls dense? ›

Why are my dinner rolls not fluffy? If your dinner rolls aren't fluffy it could be because of one of two reasons. Either, you added too much flour or you possibly used all bread flour. Alternately, not giving your dinner rolls enough time to proof and get puffy before baking could yield dense rolls.

How can I make my bread fluffier instead of dense? ›

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

What helps bread to become light and fluffy? ›

Carbon dioxide is responsible for all the bubbles that make holes in bread, making it lighter and fluffier. Because gas is created as a result of yeast growth, the more the yeast grows, the more gas in the dough and the more light and airy your bread loaf will be.

What happens if you add too much flour to dinner rolls? ›

Too much flour results in a dry, crumbly dough that's unpleasant and difficult to work with. It doesn't stick to itself and tends to fall apart when kneaded.

Which is better for rolls bread flour or all-purpose flour? ›

But not all homemade bread recipes call for bread flour. When it's an ultra-tender, fluffy bread dough we're after—as in our recipes for no-knead focaccia, challah, and cinnamon rolls—we reach for all-purpose (AP) flour. AP flour can provide adequate structure to delicate bread doughs while keeping them soft and plush.

How do you make homemade rolls less dense? ›

How to Make Bread Less Dense?
  1. Proof The Dough Longer. As explained, under-proofing has been among the most popular reasons behind a dense bread texture. ...
  2. Give Your Yeast Better Environment. ...
  3. Activate The Yeast. ...
  4. Knead The Dough For Longer. ...
  5. Use Folds and Stretch For Bulk Fermentation. ...
  6. Adjust The Water Level.
May 27, 2023

What happens if I forgot to put salt in my bread dough? ›

“Because salt helps to control fermentation, it's better to catch this one sooner than later in yeast doughs,” says Laurie. Without salt, your dough will rise faster than it normally would, leading to less flavor development and a weaker structure.

Can you put too much yeast in bread? ›

This can affect the bread by adding a "yeasty" taste if you put too much into the dough. General amounts of yeast are around 1 - 2 % of the flour, by weight. Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand.

What ingredient makes bread moist? ›

Use around 5% sugar (percentage of flour), use of milk and honey in the recipe keeps the bread soft and moist after baking if kept covered and protected from dry environments. Use of oil in the recipe also keeps the bread softer.

What is the best flour for bread? ›

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

What makes rolls taste yeasty? ›

Too much sugar in the dough can make the yeast grow too fast or too high for the dough. Letting it rise too long can promote a more yeasty flavor also.

Can dinner rolls rise too long? ›

If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape.

Why is my bread heavy not fluffy? ›

The usual reason why bread becomes too dense is due to using flour with low protein content. When your loaf is spongy and heavy, you might have also put too much flour into it or made the dough in a cooler or too warm setting.

Does over kneading make bread dense? ›

If your dough feels dense and tough to handle when you stop the mixer, it is a sign that it is becoming over-kneaded. Over-kneaded dough can become very hard to work with and produce a more flat and chewy bread.

Why is my roll so dense? ›

Overworking the dough will make it tough and difficult to roll out. - Be sure to let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size. If it doesn't have enough time to rise, the rolls will be dense.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Stevie Stamm

Last Updated:

Views: 6431

Rating: 5 / 5 (80 voted)

Reviews: 87% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Stevie Stamm

Birthday: 1996-06-22

Address: Apt. 419 4200 Sipes Estate, East Delmerview, WY 05617

Phone: +342332224300

Job: Future Advertising Analyst

Hobby: Leather crafting, Puzzles, Leather crafting, scrapbook, Urban exploration, Cabaret, Skateboarding

Introduction: My name is Stevie Stamm, I am a colorful, sparkling, splendid, vast, open, hilarious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.