These amazing pillow-soft dinner rolls are made using a bread machine. Yes, that’s right! By using the bread dough cycle, you can create irresistible dinner rolls that will upstage the main course. Read on to learn how to easily make homemade rolls using your bread machine.

This recipe was adapted from the Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe at Sally’s Baking Addiction. Once I saw the recipe it struck me as similar to my Lambert’s Throwed Rolls clone. I put a few little twists on the recipe and they have become my family’s favorite homemade yeast rolls.

Let’s look at how to make these bread machine rolls, shall we?

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast – this is not the same as active dry yeast which needs to be “proofed” before using
1 egg

Flour, melted butter, milk, egg, salt, and yeast.

These simple homemade dinner rolls are made with seven simple ingredients, all of which should be available at your local grocery store. (If not, head to Walmart or Target and you should be able to find them.)

When I make this recipe, I love to use single-serve milk cartons that I buy at Costco. I have seen similar cartons of milk at Target (as pictured above). You can use regular milk that is refrigerated, but you will want to bring it to room temperature first. (You can microwave cold milk on HIGH for 30 seconds to warm it.)

Directions

Place 1/4 cup butter in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at HIGH for 30 seconds or until butter has melted.

Pour room-temperature milk into the pan of your bread machine. Add the melted butter to the milk. (Yeast likes a warm temperature – somewhere between 70 – 100 degrees Fahrenheit seems to be ideal. I find that combining melted butter to room-temperature milk works great.)

Add the flour to the bread machine along with the sugar, salt, and yeast.

Yeast being added to flour, sugar, milk, and butter in a bread machine.

You need to use the bread machine DOUGH cycle. Be sure that you have the right cycle selected – it should take 1.5 hours to complete, and press the START button.

Once you hit start, add the egg to the mixture, close the lid, and let the bread machine work its magic. (I know it seems silly, but I like watching the egg get beaten into the flour mixture.)

When you have about 5 minutes left on the dough cycle, prepare your baking pan(s) by rubbing butter all over the bottom and sides. [You can use either a 9×13-inch baking pan or two round cake pans.] This will add flavor and help the rolls release easily from the pan(s).

Dough being divided into 16 portions to make rolls.

Shape the dough, place the dough balls in the prepared pan, and let them rise for 1 hour in a warm place. (I like to place them in my “cold” oven with just the light on.) This is considered the second rise, and the time frame is important. If you let them rise for less than an hour, they won’t be as nice and fluffy as they could be.

When the hour is up, remove the pan from the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake rolls for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Pan of dinner rolls fresh from the oven.

Remove pan from oven and spread 2 tablespoons of butter over the top of the hot rolls.

Butter being spread over hot dinner rolls.

Let the rolls cool for several minutes in the hot pan. Place rolls on a baking rack to finish cooling. Store cooled rolls in an airtight container.

Pan of freshly baked and buttered yeast rolls.

If you don’t have a bread maker, be sure to go to Sally’s website to get the original recipe for making these fluffy rolls without the need for a bread machine.

Recipe Tips and Notes

You can prepare these rolls in advance and freeze the dough.

Follow the directions for making them, divide the dough into individual balls, place on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet, and freeze for several hours until the dough becomes firm.
Take the dough balls off the baking sheet and place them in a zip-top freezer bag. Squeeze out as much excess air as possible and zip the bag closed.

Zip top freezer bag filled with frozen yeast dough balls.

To bake, remove the dough from the freezer and place in a buttered pan. Let the rolls thaw for 3 hours or until doubled in size. The exact time will vary depending on the temperature in your kitchen. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes just like you would a fresh batch.

Baked yeast rolls in a round cake pan on top of a stove.

This dough can also be used to make cinnamon rolls.

Roll the dough into a rectangle, slather with softened butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and roll.
Cut the dough into 16 equal parts and place in a baking pan (or 2 round cake pans) that has been buttered.
Allow the rolls to rise and bake as you would dinner rolls. (I have divided the dough in half and baked one half as regular dinner rolls and the other half as cinnamon rolls.)

9-inch round cake pans with unbaked cinnamon rolls and yeast rolls.

Baked cinnamon rolls and yeast rolls in a round cake pan.

Some people like to cover the dough during rising with plastic wrap. I have not found that to be necessary, but you can cover your rolls if you’d like.

This recipe was tested using this Sunbeam bread machine, cycle #8. The rectangular baking pan is by 360 Cookware. If you use my affiliate link at 360 Cookware you’ll save 20%! Simply enter SouthernKissed in the box where it says “Add a discount code or a gift card” when you check out.