This post contains affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
The Best Easy Buttery Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe – light and fluffy yeast rolls folded with melted butter like the famous Parker House Rolls!
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
Easy Buttery Soft Dinner Rolls
If you love light, fluffy rolls, folded with warm melted butter in the middle – like the famous Parker House Rolls – you’ll love our take on the classic recipe!
These rolls are gorgeous and look complicated – but they are remarkably easy, and good for a beginner baker.
If you love soft and buttery Parker House Rolls, you’re going to LOVE our take!
They are fabulous alongside Turkey or Prime Rib for a holiday dinner – but are easy enough to make for a weeknight Pork Tenderloin or Pot Roast dinner, too!
We have readers of all backgrounds and comfort in the kitchen on Sweet C’s – and many of our loyal readers ask for more information with recipes.
As a service to our loyal readers, we add a lot to these posts to help you get great results, every time.
If you’d like to skip straight to it, you can click “skip to recipe” in the top left corner of the post, or click to the section you’d like to get to in the table of contents below. You can also scroll to the bottom of the page.
To Make These Rolls, You’ll Need:
These rolls are crazy easy – and don’t require a ton of equipment – but there are a few tools that are essential to this recipe!
- Rolling pin
- Basting brush
- Aluminum Foil
- Baking Sheet
- Stand Mixer or wooden spoon
- Plastic wrap
You can also find my kitchen essentials guide here.
How to Mix and Rise Rolls
While these rolls do take a bit of work – it is all pretty easy, even for beginner cooks.
We’re sharing our top tips to get perfect pillowy soft buttery rolls below.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, 9 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar and cook over medium-low heat until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves, and the mixture reaches a temperature between 125 and 130 degrees F.
- With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add milk mixture to bowl followed by the eggs and mix until no dry flour remains, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is smooth, elastic, and mostly pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- The dough will still stick to the bottom of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 30 seconds.
- Form dough into a tight ball and transfer to a large, greased bowl.
- Spray the top of the bread lightly with nonstick spray, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let proof in a warm place until doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes.
How To Shape Parker House Roll Dough
Part of the appeal of Parker House Rolls is the double layer with butter in the middle – which can trip up a lot of beginner cooks.
Easy Parker House Roll Shape Method
Don’t worry too much about the process to shape these rolls – if it becomes difficult, I’m outlining a few ways you can make it easier. While we prefer the method outlined in the recipe below, this method will work if you’re having problems shaping the dough.
- Make 36 roughly equally shaped dough balls
- Flatten each on in the center with a rolling pin (so the ball looks like a long oval)
- Brush the middle with melted butter, and fold dough over on itself (so butter is in the middle.)
- Continue on with baking as directed.
How To Bake Rolls
These rolls do have some important steps in the baking process to ensure perfect light, soft, airy rolls – that don’t stick to your pan.
We’re breaking down the process a bit more so you can better understand the process and make it easier.
Prep the Pan
Since the rolls need to rise in the pan, it is important to prep the pan before you shape rolls.
Not prepping the pan will make rolls stick to your pan – be sure to add foil or parchment paper, and thoroughly spray foil or parchment with nonstick cooking spray.
We reccomend a spray that includes flour. Find our favorite here.
Add Rolls to Pan
Arrange rolls seam side down in the prepared pan in three rows of four.
Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.
Let Dough Rise
Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the rolls proof in a warm place until they are about double in size, about 60 minutes.
If you skip this additional rise, rolls will be more dense and tough, so let the rolls rise well again before baking!
Bake
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake the rolls until browned and centers register 200 degrees, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
It’s really important to preheat your oven properly to get the best rise for your rolls – don’t skip preheating!
How to Make Rolls Ahead of Time
If you’d like to get the prep for this recipe out of the way ahead of dinner, or make a big batch and freeze for later, follow the tips below to keep your rolls perfect.
To postpone baking these rolls – meaning you prep and shape rolls, but don’t bake them – there are a few steps to take to ensure rolls come out perfectly when you’re ready to bake.
How to Postpone Baking Parker House Rolls
There are a few ways to prep these rolls for refrigeration – be sure to read each carefully to find the method that will work the best for you, depending on how quickly you’d like to bake rolls after prepping, and how much work you’d like to do the day you’re serving.
How To Refrigerate Parbaked Rolls
You can partly bake these rolls and then freeze them, ready to pop into the oven for a quick bake for perfect easy-to-serve soft buttery rolls for a holiday dinner or dinner party.
These rolls will still be soft and fluffy – not dry – like rolls that are baked long ahead of dinner and reheated.
While the dough is in its final rise, preheat the oven to 275?F. Bake the rolls at 275?F for 25 – 35 minutes – dough will be risen and have a “crust” layer, but will NOT be browned at all and will not look “done”.
How To Refrigerate Prepped Parker House Roll Dough
All dough can be refrigerated after preparing, before baking – but the yeast does not stop working, though chilling it does slow the yeast.
If prepping the dough a day or two before serving, you need to wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap, and punch down dough a few times in the first few hours of refrigeration.
Dough must be punched down every 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Dough is best if used within 48 hours of prepping.
Recipe FAQs
Dough can be made ahead of time and refrigerated to be shaped and baked just before dinner. Rolls can also be parbaked and frozen, so they can bake to perfection before serving.
Please follow our thorough tips above to prep rolls before serving.
If you’re having problems shaping your soft roll dough, and it snaps back too much when you try to shape it, please use our easy Parker house rolls method to roll out dough balls into long oval shapes, then brush with butter and fold in on itself to make buttery side in the middle.
Continue on with baking directions as listed in recipe.
These rolls will be tall, with a golden brown and slightly crunchy crust (it will give a bit of snap if flicking the top with your finger – but will feel light and almost hollow, not dense and thick, inside) when fully baked.
This recipe can use dry active yeast as well.
You would need to use 3.5 teaspoons of dry active yeast and add it to ? cup of the milk heated to 110 degrees F with a teaspoon of sugar.
Let it activate for 10 to 20 minutes until foamy.
The milk and sugar amounts will be reduced from the amounts in the ingredients, so you will still use the full amounts called for but they will be divided.
The milk and butter mixture doesn’t need to be between 125 and 130 degrees in this case since you’re activating the yeast separately.
It simply just needs to be melted and warm but not hot.
Using dry active yeast will require up to an additional 30 minutes of proofing each time and will add about 1½ hours to the total prep time.
Other Sides You’ll Love
These Parker House Rolls style rolls are a great side dish for a holiday dinner – to see more of our favorite side dishes like garlic butter potatoes, or brown butter bacon Brussels sprouts, check out some of our favorite easy side dishes below:
If you love this easy recipe please click the stars below to give it a five star rating and leave a comment! Pease also help me share on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
Follow on Instagram
Only have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table? Sign up for my 30 minute dinner plans direct to your inbox!
Find and shop my favorite products in my Amazon storefront here!
The Best Buttery Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2¾ teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1¼ cups whole milk
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, 9 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar and cook over medium-low heat until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves, and the mixture reaches a temperature between 115 and 120 degrees F.
- With the flour will mixer running on low speed, slowly add milk mixture to bowl followed by the eggs and mix until no dry flour remains, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Increase speed to medium and let the mixer knead until dough is smooth, elastic, and mostly pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- The dough will still stick to the bottom of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 30 seconds.
- Form dough into a tight ball and transfer to a large, greased bowl.
- Spray the top of the bread lightly with nonstick spray, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let proof in a warm place until doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes.
- Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with two pieces of tin foil, overlapping foil and letting the ends hang over the long edges of the pan. Spray the foil with nonstick spray; set aside.
- Turn the ball of dough out onto a clean lightly floured counter and divide in half. Stretch each half into a 24-inch-long roll and use a rolling pin to flatten it so it’s about 5 inches wide. Then brush the surface of the dough with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.
- Starting at the top long edge, fold a third of the dough down toward you. Then fold the bottom third of the dough over to meet the edge.
- Roll dough a couple of times to seal and reshape as necessary to form an even log.
- Using a sharp knife, trim 1 inch of dough off each end and discard, then cut dough into 12 equal pieces. Arrange rolls seam side down in the prepared pan in three rows of four. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.
- Spray plastic wrap thoroughly with nonstick spray, cover the rolls with it and let the rolls proof in a warm place until they are about double in size, about 60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake the rolls until browned and centers register 200 degrees, about 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
- Transfer the rolls to a wire rack using the foil for handles. Brush with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter.
Video
Notes
- Rolls are best served within 24 hours of baking.
- To freeze rolls, wrap in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, unwrap and let thaw at room temperature. To thaw quickly, preheat the oven to 200, unwrap the rolls and place on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes.
- It’s VERY important that your milk mixture is between 115 and 120 degrees F because it needs to be hot enough to activate the yeast in the bowl.
- If you want, you can use an eggwash on top of the rolls for a deeper golden brown.
- What makes these parker house rolls is the enriched dough and the folding method. You can use this dough to make classic dinner rolls by just making even portions of dough and shaping them into balls.
- Parchment paper may be used instead of foil.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
1
Do I have to use whole milk?
Hi Connie, you can use a different type of milk but whole milk is higher in fat which will make for lighter and richer dinner rolls.
I am now old, and through my many years of cooking, I have made many great and delicious rolls. THESE ARE THE BEST IN THE DAMNED WORLD!!!!! Thank you.
I can’t find the list of ingredients.
Sorry there was a glitch when the recipe posted and it didn’t show – its all fixed now.