Easy Yeast Rolls Recipe

5 from 5 votes

These yeast rolls are warm, buttery, fluffy, and utterly irresistible! If you ever wanted to try your hand at homemade bread, this recipe is the easiest way to get started.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1 40

Total Time2 10

Course: Appetizer, Bread, Main Course, Snack

Cuisine: American

Servings: rolls

Author: Grace Vallo

Equipment

Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
9"x13" baking pan

Ingredients

4 ½ cups all-purpose flour sub bread flour for chewier rolls, or whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups whole milk
¼ cup sugar
6 tablespoons salted butter at room temperature (or sub unsalted butter + 1 teaspoon salt)
2 tablespoons salted butter melted
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1 egg at room temperature for 20 minutes

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, add 4 ½ cups flour, sugar, and yeast, and stir on low until combined.
Add room temperature butter, egg, and warm milk. For warm milk, microwave for 75-90 seconds until a thermometer reads exactly 110-115℉. The milk needs to be in this temperature range to activate but not kill the yeast!
Use the dough attachment on your mixer to combine ingredients, starting at a low speed and then increasing to medium speed. You can do this by hand on a well-floured surface if you prefer, but I find the mixer to work better for this step! You want to aerate & knead the dough so don’t be afraid to mix the dough super well! Leave the mixer on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once with a spatula, until dough naturally pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too sticky and doesn’t pull away from the sides of the bowl, add ¼ cup to a ½ cup more flour, until the dough pulls away and forms a ball.
For first rise: Leave dough in the bowl of the mixer, and cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and then a clean kitchen towel. The goal is the tightly seal the bowl to keep in the warmth and keep the dough in a dark place to rise. This atmosphere is the best for the dough to rise properly! Let dough rise for 40 minutes. The dough should double in size.
After 40 minutes, place roughly ¼ cup flour on a large, clean surface to knead the dough. Remove plastic wrap and kitchen towel, and use your fist to punch down dough and release the air from the dough.
Gently roll the ball of dough out of the bowl. Flour your hands and knead dough for 4 minutes by folding over dough and pushing the dough away from you with the palm of your hands. If dough is too sticky on the surface or on your hands, use more flour! Watch my YouTube video below for step-by-step instructions! After kneading, form a large ball of dough with your hands.
Grease a 9×13" glass pan.
Pinch off a handful of dough, and use a ¼ measuring cup to form ¼ cup ball of dough. Roll the ¼ cup ball of dough in your hands. Watch my YouTube video from instructions on how to form super smooth balls of dough! Place each dough ball in the greased pan. The balls should be touching each other in the pan! You should have roughly 16 rolls after all dough is rolled.
For second rise: Cover pan tightly with plastic wrap and kitchen towel, and let dough rise a second time, for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, remove kitchen towel and plastic wrap. The dough balls should look puffy and large.
To bake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes until the tops of the rolls are golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter. Let rolls stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Video

Notes

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Warm rolls in oven at 350℉ for 8 minutes before serving!

Nutrition