Today's post is actually a re-post of one of our very, very first recipes--like one of the recipes we had up on the blog before we even launched it! It is one of my most beloved recipes and an all-time favorite of my friends and family-members. I've always known that the dough was a little temperamental and that some people have had trouble with it, but it wasn't until I talked to Sara a few weeks ago and she told me that she has never successfully made these when I realized I needed to do something about it. I'm totally not sharing this to knock Sara in any way--heck, I have never been able to successfully make her famous Creamy Chicken Taquitos, so go ahead, judge me now. I'm saying this because if you've tried these rolls in the past and haven't had a lot of success, be happy to know that a) you're in good company, and b) I've tweaked the recipe, the yeast procedure in particular, in a way that I believe makes the dough more user-friendly and less moody. If only someone could find a similar cure for PMS...If you're still nervous about working with yeast, check out this information on working with our fungal friend.
World's Best Rolls
2 c. whole milk (if you're in a pinch, you can use 2%, but whole is best. Don't use 1% or skim)
½ c. + 1 Tbsp. sugar, divided
1/3 c. (5 1/3 Tbsp.) butter
2 tsp. Kosher salt
2 pkgs. active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp.), preferably bread machine yeast
2/3 c. warm (105-115-degree) water
8-9 c. all-purpose flour
3 beaten eggs
Combine milk, 1/2 c. sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. It's salty. It's sweet. Yum.
While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 Tbsp. sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes. If the yeast hasn't bubbled, you'll need to repeat this step--moving on with yeast that hasn't been activated properly will only end in heartache for you and hate mail for us.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 c. flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes.
Add beaten eggs. Why should you beat your eggs first? Same reason you should combine your dry ingredients before adding them to moist ingredients when making cookies and cakes--it ensures everything is well-mixed and can be evenly-distributed through your dough or batter. If you add the whole eggs, your dough may not be as consistent.
Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough. This dough should be very soft--it will be coming away from the sides of the bowl, but it will still stick to your finger when you touch it. Don't worry, it will firm up during the rising process. Part of what makes these rolls so good is that they're so soft and light; if you add too much flour, they will be heavy and dense. Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean towel; allow to rise 1 hour.
See that ghostly reflection in the bowl?? Oh, wait, that's me...
Punch down dough. Lightly flour your work surface and turn dough out onto surface. Divide in half.
Spray 2 9x13 glass pans with cooking spray. Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut it into 12 equal-sized pieces. I like to use a pizza cutter because it has a blade on each side, so it cuts right through dough without sticking to the blade. This dough should be very easy to work with, almost like playdough. Shape each piece into a ball and place in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan.
Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. When dough has about 15-20 minutes to go (depending on your oven), preheat oven to 375.
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown. When done, remove from oven. Rub a stick of cold butter over the tops of the rolls. You must now eat one. Now. While it's hot. Then pop the rest into a bowl and no one will ever know that you cheated.
P.S. Using this filling or these fillings, this dough makes fabulous cinnamon or orange rolls. Just bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
P.P.S. If you haven't entered the $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway, there's still time! Click HERE!
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I call this recipe "I'm going to get fat thanks to you!" I have been looking for a great roll recipe and this is truly the "worlds best roll". I wanted to make the orange rolls but I didn't have any orange juice or orange zest so I made cinnamon rolls instead. I can't stop eating both. LOVE IT!
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!! These are THE best rolls ever. I made them tonight and I seriously just gained 10 pounds from eating them. i didn't make the orange rolls, just regular rolls, and they are fantastic. I'm trying the orange rolls in a couple of weeks. So good!
Salted or unsalted butter? I'm always unsure and usually go with unsalted if it doesn't say.
Either way; I just use salted unless I happen to have unsalted for some reason.
I just made these last Thursday, because I didn't plan enough ahead to get my Grandma's roll recipe in time for dinner. I was able to compare the two recipes tonight, and they're almost the same...except that my Grandma's has 3x the butter and 2x the sugar and a little more yeast. No wonder I remember them tasting so good.
I have recently acquired a microplane! And now I don't close the pages whenever I see "orange zest", "lemon zest" and whatever zest!
What a great idea to use dental floss to cut the rolls!
Thanks for all the great tips!
I didn't exactly make THESE rolls because I have my own delish cardamom roll recipe that I wanted to use as a base for the orange idea!
It yields the same amount of dough- half of which I used for dinner rolls and the other half I used the orange stuff....my only issue was that it was a little too much butter mixture..so ended up kind of too buttery (I know is there even such a thing?) and also I took them out of the oven too soon because dinner rolls were done and I didn't realize these would take longer.
Soooooo I messed them up a bit. Still ate three in about 2 minutes though...you know, just to be sure they weren't all that bad ;)
Is there a recipe for a cheesy garilc roll. I made it the other night and can't find the recipe anywhere. (A friend wants it) Could someone help!
Here you go Jaime- sorry we're a bit behind and it hasn't made it to our recipe index yet!
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/08/cheesy-garlic-bread-swirls.html
Oh yummy! I may have to call in from work so I can stay home and make these. I can almost smell them now . . . !! :)
I will give these a try! My hubs likes sammiches every day and I think these might make a good sammich base.
oh and I have made the creamy chicken taquitos like 5 times now. I made up a massive batch of taco chicken Sunday night and grilled 5 chicken breasts for us to eat off of this week. I also am now making a weekly batch of lime cilantro dressing to go with everything from salads, sammiches, to of course the chicken taquitos.
You guys have such good recipes. I swears.
I have a very similar recipe... the only difference is that I use shortening instead of butter. I'll have to test this one out and compare.
Oh, these look divine. We call rolls that we love in our house "Yummy rolls". It's a long-standing stupid joke. We'll have to try this recipe and see if they qualify! They look like they will!
Ohhh you just had to go and out me, now didn't you?! I will have to try these again with the new and improved directions (and great pics by the way) and see if I can master them. Practice makes perfect, right? I see a lot of roll making in my future, lol.
Oh my goodness, those look heavenly! I will make those ASAP!!
me + this bread = empty bowl indeed! they look sooo good!
Those do look ridiculously delicious!!
The rolls do look scrumptious! Have you tried them with some whole wheat flour?
Has anyone tried these with flaxseed (or similar egg replacer)??
Kate- do you think the elevation makes a difference in this recipe? I couldn't find the recipe i usually use so I made these a few weeks ago and it didn't work out very well! Sara said she had had difficulty with it too so we were thinking maybe our higher elevation was causing problems?
I gave a question... do you ever use 'instant yeast' and how does it change a recipe?
katecreer@gmail.com
Thanks!
Becca, I started making these in Utah, so I think while it can make a difference, the problem was the original yeast-to-water ratio (too much yeast, not enough water, no sugar to feed the yeast). I think that led to rolls that didn't rise well and sometimes made them heavy. I doubled the water and added some sugar to the mixture and that has REALLY made things easier on my end.
Barbara, I've meant to try it with whole wheat flour, but have never gotten around to it. I'd definitely start with 1/2 and 1/2 and experiment with it because while it's not AS moody as it used to be, you may run into more trouble than normal getting a light roll.
Trimble, I don't know enough about flaxseed as an egg substitute to say if it will work, but I WILL say that due to the eggs, these rolls are really rich, kind of brioche-y, so the eggs are partially there for their baking purpose and partially there for flavor. I think you/someone in your family has egg allergies, right? Anyway, if you play around with it, let us know how they turn out!
Kate (other Kate, not me--I'm not talking to myself...yet! :) )--
Instant yeast works great. I like bread machine yeast, which is a form of instant yeast, because it gives consistent, fast results even when you're not using a bread machine. The only yeast you DON'T want to use is a no-rise yeast (like the yeast we're doing the giveaway for this week). It's AWESOME for pizza crust, but the texture of these rolls depends on the two rises and I don't think the no-rise yeast would work very well. Hope that helps! :)
Wow how beautiful are those?? Bookmarking to try, hopefully they won't give me a hard time. These would have gone beautifully with the brisket I just posted!
I made this recipe 4 times in the past couple weeks for canadian thanksgivng. The first time it didn't work out but my boyfriend had no problem eating them all, then I used bread machine yeast and VOILA. Perfect. I got so many compliments on them they were so delicious.
The orange rolls are also amazing. After making them with this recipe i had to try the no-rise version.
For anyone who lives in a high elevation/ very dry place, try using only about 6-7 cups of flour. Thats all I put in (kneading by hand) and they came out spectacular.
I live at a high elevation and I made these today without any problems. I used instant yeast (not bread machine yeast) and followed the rest of the ingredients. I actually 1/2'd the recipe and it turned out just as light and fluffy and beautiful as the pictures. Tastes amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
I made these today! I usually don't have that much luck in the roll department. I can whip up a loaf of bread like there is no tomorrow. But rolls are another story. They usually just come out so-so. These, though, were FaBuLoUs!
Incidentally that's about all my boy and girl ate for dinner. But there is milk and eggs and flour. That's three food groups!
Yum!! I can't wait to try these!
I am drooling over your pics right now Kate. These look delicious!
I've been looking for a good dinner roll recipe..thank you, thank you :)
These really are the best. I made these for Thanksgiving last year and everyone inhaled them!! I've also done the orange rolls before and let's just say we were all licking the pan after.
I'm bookmarking this. Gonna' keep this one forever!
Oh my!! These look GREAT!!! I may have to try this ;) Baking with yeast intimidates the "you know what" out of me. I need to face that fear one day though. These look wonderfully awesome!
These rolls are heavenly! I make them all the time, it's how I convince my sister to drive an hour for dinner every Sunday night!
I have been looking at this recipe and trying to figure out how long I need to knead the dough? I don't have a stand mixer to do the work for me...Thanks!
Cynthia, I can't say for sure how long you're supposed to knead it, just when it's a nice, soft dough, not super wet, and is starting to not stick to the sides of the bowl (or the kneading surface). I think while yeast is scary, THIS is the hard part of making bread--trying to guess how much flour to add, you know? The worst part is that it's different for everyone based on elevation and even how humid it is that day. Anyway, I hope that was somehow evenly REMOTELY helpful, lol! :)
Kate-these rolls looks delicious! Oooohhhh-I can't wait to try these!! I think my kids will devour and love these! Thanks.
Kate - made the rolls tonight for dinner and they turned out wonderful...so good! Your tips did help - Thanks! And by the way I have not made a bad recipe yet from your website, keep them coming.
Just made these tonight. My husband has been disappointed with every roll I've made in our five years of marriage. Tonight I did not disappoint! These were P-E-R-F-E-C-T. We actually just used them to make roll sandwiches. Yum!
I tried these a couple of nights ago and they turned out wonderfully. A couple of things I found was that 1. the rolls are really big. Next time I will split them further and make more quantity wise.
Also, I kind of feel like they are a bit dense in the flour department, in taste. Does anyone know why or how to remedy this? Am I using too much flour when rolling it out? Any suggestions would be great!
Dana, if they come out dense, there are a couple of things you can do:
--Be sure to go easy on the flour--it's easy to overdo it and it's really hard to know how much to add in this recipe because you want it softer than usual when you're done kneading.
--Let the yeast "bloom" a little longer--maybe 15 minutes or so
--Let the rolls rise a little longer, particularly in the 2nd rise
--Try using 1% or 2% milk. The whole milk adds a richness and flavor that I really love, but when I've used lower-fat milk in the past, the rolls come out a little lighter (although I also find them a little more dry with not as much flavor).
Hope that helps! :)
Thanks Kate, always nice to be remembered ;) I tried the flax seed substitute and the rolls were fantastic so apparently it works. In case anyone wants the substitute instructions, you just use 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoon water to replace each egg. Thanks for sharing an amazing recipe, yet again.
Well I made rolls for the first time using this recipe and I was pretty proud of myself! I think they were pretty darn delicious. However, my husband said they weren't as good as his mother's but I wonder if it has more to do with tradition than anything else?
Do you mix in a kitchenaid with the dough hook? Sorry if that is a dumb question I have never made any bread or rolls and really want to try!
Chris--Yep, just use your dough hook! :)
I did it!!! The rolls turned out perfectly. I have not had the best of luck with yeast recipes lately but I made these for dinner last night and they were perfect. Your directions were very easy to follow. I might volunteer to make the rolls for Thanksgiving dinner (along with your sweet potato casserole dish- that was a HUGE hit last year and I've been counting down the months to make that again).
I made these yesterday with part whole wheat flour. 4 cups whole wheat, 3 cups white, to be exact. They came out beautifully, though they were a little on the dry side the second day. I think whole wheat flour soaks up more moisture than white, and I added a little too much. Next time I'll try making the dough slightly wetter and see if that helps. They tasted so good and my kids devoured them.
Thanks for the easy directions on these rolls- I made them this past weekend and everyone raved about them! I will definitely be making these again for Thanksgiving!
Quick question...I want to make these for Thanksgiving, can I make them the night before and put them in the oven and bake them the next day? Or would it ruin them to have the dough sit in the fridge overnight?
Susie--I've never tried rising these in the fridge overnight, and if it were me, I definitely wouldn't risk it on Thanksgiving! :) If it were me, I'd either get up super early on T-day make them OR make them the night before and store them in the fridge overnight; you could even slightly underbake them and then pop the in the oven for a few more minutes the next day.
Hope that helps! :)
Yeah, Kate, these ARE the world's best dinner rolls! Now if I can just keep my family and their gubby mitts off them until tomorrow, Thanksgiving will be perfect! Great recipe!
My husband's aunt was hosting our families Thanksgiving dinner this year -- serving 50 people. I was asked to bring the rolls.
My wonderful husband bought me my very first KitchenAid 5 quart mixer, which I absolutely treasure (my birthday was 3-days ago, but it arrived a little early. Since, I normally use a breadmachine to mix my dough, I knew I was in for a challenge.
I searched online for a good dinner roll recipe, checked my KitchenAid recipe book and my bread book. I tried five other dinner roll recipes -- they were total crap, I was reduced to tears and on the verge of giving up, when my husband found your recipe!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This recipe was a God sent. Everyone complimented me on the rolls and the meal was a total success. I will treasure this recipe always.
~Annette
http://ReliableAnswers.com/Kitchen/
Too funny, our longtime family (rolled up roll) recipe is almost identical except our has 1 cup milk. I ran out of White Flour, so I used 3 cups white and 3 1/2 of Whole Wheat. They turned out great!!!
Wow... let these rise twice as long living in lovely Denver and they are incredible. I'm a huge fan!
I made these last night to compliment our Christmas dinner and we almost ate more rolls then dinner. In fact, we ate so many of these yummy buns that no one had room for dessert! Suffice it so say we LOVED them.
The best part? I made the other half of the dough into cinnamon rolls which I am about to pop into the oven for a Boxing day treat.
I made them as directed with the exception of using 1 c. half-n-half and 1 c. skim milk (because we didn't have whole).
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
This roll recipe looks amazing, thank you for sharing. I can't wait to try it. Just one question, I have been making amazingly yummy whole wheat bread for a LONG time and the only yeast I ever use is the SAF yeast, the kind you just sprinkle over the dough mixture and it doesn't require activation before hand. Do you know if this would work in your roll recipe? I am just curious since I am one of those that is afraid of yeast and hope I don't fail the recipe after all the work that has been done to make a perfect bread loaf or roll. thank you so much. so, glad I found your great site.
These are waiting to go into the oven. I made them the first time for Thanksgiving and my husband and parents lovingly refer to them as "the Thanksgiving rolls". They're basically famous! :D
Until this year I never made anything with yeast but LOVE all things bread. But your breadsticks looked so tempting and my new food processor had a dough hook so I braved up and tried them and they were delicious. So with my new found courage I decided to give these a shot and whatdaya know? Yum again. These remind me of the delicous rolls my mom used to make for Thanksgiving (and I missed terribly this year being on the other side of the country). My mom makes her rolls(well forms the dough) early and then freezes them, pulls them out to rise Thanksgiving day and bakes them. Do you think that might work for this recipe?
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