These dinner rolls are one of the easiest and most delicious bread recipes I have. I first learned how to make dinner rolls from one of our previous employer’s wife, on the Fulton Quien Sabe Ranch. She was a great cook and made many things from scratch but boy could she make a bread recipe now! She always had to make double because each cowboy would eat 4 or 5 rolls each. Yes, they were that good.
I haven’t made dinner rolls with her recipe for a long time and since I had to cook for the ranch today, I thought it’d be a good time. Two important things about this recipe. Try to follow directions exactly to have the softest rolls ever. So when it says little flour, use VERY little flour if any. And when it says to butter them, be generous! Enjoy y’all!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 envelope Active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup very warm water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup scalding hot milk
- 1 egg –lightly beaten
- 4 1/2 cups of sifted all purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons of melted butter for brushing rolls
DIRECTIONS
Sprinkle the yeast over very warm water in a large bowl. (warm water should feel comfortably warm when dropped on wrist) Stir until yeast dissolves.
Add sugar, the 1/4cup butter and salt to hot milk and stir until the sugar dissolves and butter is melted. Cool mixture to 105 to 115 degrees.
Add milk mixture to yeast, then beat in egg. Beat in 4 cups of flour, one cup at a time to form soft dough. Use some the remaining 1/2 cup flour to dust a pastry cloth. Knead the dough lightly for 5 minutes, working in the remaining flour (use if for flouring your cloth and hands).
Place dough in a warm buttered bowl; turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hrs.
Punch dough down and knead 4 to 5 minutes on a lightly floured pastry cloth. Dough will be sticky, but use as little flour as possible for flouring your hands and the pastry cloth, otherwise the rolls will not be as feathery light as they should be.
Pinch off small chunks of dough and shape into round rolls. Place in neat rows, not quite touching, in a well-buttered 13x9x2 pan. Cover rolls and let rise in warm place until doubled, 30-45min.
Brush tops of rolls generously with melted butter, then bake in a 375′ oven for 18-20minutes or until nicely browned.
Serve warm with plenty of butter. I pour melted butter on top of the rolls right when the come out of the oven.
Recipe makes about 2 dozen!
I served up my rolls in my brand new, very pretty Tuscan Everyday Baker. I love that color!
Let me know if you make them!
About A Cowboy's Wife
I love them. So easy I doubled the recipe. Perfect for anything!
4 cups of flour? My dough was too stiff, didn’t rise, and baked an extremely dense roll. =( I’ve made breads in the past that turned out great. I wonder what happened to this one?
Gosh, I’m sorry:( I don’t know what to tell you. You might go through all the comments and see if anyone else had any tips to offer. I know that most everyone has been successful so maybe it’s your altitude or something?
I had the same issue as Mrs. Wells… =,-(
I had the same problem not only with this recipe but with other ones as well. I found that using less flower helps. Start out with the 3 cups, and then add a few shakes at a time of that 4th cup until you get the consistancy you want. Its taken some trial and error and lots of wasted flour but I finally learned thats the trick! I live in Alaska and it is extremely dry here in both Summer and Winter, and we are less than 400ft elevation.
I’m thinking about using this recipe for an upcoming thanksgiving lunch at my workplace. My only question is, how much yeast is in the envelope you use? Can anyone help me out? Thanks!
1 envelope of yeast= 2 1/4 tsp.
I have been looking for a recipe that will produce rolls like my grandma used to make. This looks very close to what I remember of her recipe, so I can’t wait to try it. One thing though-I want to make these for Thanksgiving at my parents’ house. Are they still good if you make them in advance (i.e., the day before)? If not, can I make them up to a certain point, refrigerate and then bake them off at my mom’s house? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
I just wanted to post a follow-up comment. I made the rolls up to the point of shaping them into balls and putting them into the buttered dish. Then I covered them with plastic wrap and stuck them in the refrigerator overnight. I took them out about an hour before I planned to bake them and let them sit at room temperature. They turned out great! Thanks for the great recipe!
To the folks that are having problems… are you sifting the flour? dont pack it into the cup, level it off with a knife. Is pos. that u might not need all of that last 1/2 cup.
Hey I’m making these tonight for a potluck dinner. In the instructions what do you mean by turned greased side up When putting the dough in the buttered bowl?
Shelby, I hope this isn’t too late in the afternoon to help you out! I think what the ‘greased side up’ part is getting to is that you grease the bowl put your dough in and then rotate the dough so the bottom of the dough ball is facing the air. I would at this point cover with a clean dish towel (to keep out dust/flies) and resume rising.
I’m making these to go with my pork short ribs and roasted veggis tonight. Very excited.
After making some minor changes to meet allergies in the house these rolls came out delish! Everyone ate 2 or 3 and best of all there are some left over to eat with jam at breakfast tomorrow!!!
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful and simple recipe.
I made this recipe with bread flour. The rolls came out very dense and flat. I’m learning to make bread and rolls. I am going to re-try this with regular flour now. Just wanted to share this in case there was a newby like me.
Yummy! Thank you for the recipe. I plan on using this for Thanksgiving and Christmas!
I’ve been baking rolls like this for over 30 years. To those having problems, there are many things that can go wrong with bread making. Is your yeast fresh? Using old yeast or too hot water will result in a bread that doesn’t rise well and yields a heavy result. Try sprinkling a little sugar in with the yeast and water to feed the yeast and let it sit and foam a bit before adding other ingredients.
Flour should be sifted and measured carefully to maintain the air and fluffiness, — if it is packed in the measuring cup it will be too much and the result will again be a heavy, dense bread.
Not allowing sufficient rising time and not doing it twice, as well as over-kneading, will also result in a tough, dense bread.
Another problem is not using the right fat. Butter is preferable; many margarines are whipped with water and air to reduce calories but this will affect the crumb of the bread and often results in dense, heavy bread as well. If you want low fat and don’t use real butter then be prepared to sacrifice lightness and airiness.
Thanks for this recipe — it’s very similar to one my mother used for many decades and I’m going to follow it for my Thanksgiving this year. Happy Holidays!
I have tried without success to repeat my first batch, which were great. It was one thing after another, especially not getting the dough to rise, time after time. Yes, I checked the dates, even got live yeast from a chef, nothing worked. When you say scalding milk, that’s hot stuff. Can’t that kill the yeast, to hot liquid? I read everyone’s success with this and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Well, today after work I tried again and I had some success. I read someone suggested shifting the flour, I did that, I made sure the milk mix was warm not hot. I even turned the oven on so the dough had some heat to help it rise. No one’s home during the day so the house was cool. Anyway, I got the dough to rise some, kneaded it some and had it rise again. My rolls are the size of apples. They did come out good. With my lack of success up to this point, my wife told me I should stop baking. Anyway, I’m looking to make my own pizza dough, instead of buying dough from my local pizza place. Is this recipe good for pizza dough or is there another I can use?
Oh gosh, I hope that you don’t stop baking just because of my rolls!!!
While many have been successful with them, there are several who weren’t and I don’t think it’s anything you’re doing wrong….it’s probably the atmosphere. The climate in the house/altitude can make such a difference.
Anyhow, I have this one I took straight off the package and we really really like it. http://mywoodenspoon.com/family-time-and-30-minute-pizzas-psst-giveaway-too/
But if you want one that is no rise, this is what I use..
4 c. flour
6 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. milk
2/3 c. vegetable oil
Pour oil and milk mixture over flour mixture. Mix with fork. Shape into ball, knead until smooth. Roll out on greased cookie sheet. Top with favorite sauce and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.
Thanks for trying the rolls…
Dense flour makes stiffer rolls. Did you sift?! I always sift 3 times before making anything. Sifted flour is less dense.
Now, if I only knew how much yeast was contained in “one envelope”, I could make these rolls. Since I buy bulk yeast ( as do most serious cooks ) I haven’t seen an “envelope” of yeast in many years.
I figure most serious cooks would probably be able to estimate how much yeast it would take and well, probably wouldn’t even need to use a recipe.
Well this recipe is great! Thank you so much , I only use 4 cups of flour it went perfect and soft and yummy….
These are the best rolls. Very similiar to what i made years ago. I would like to say that my yeast was 3 years old and they rose great. light and fluffy. We had them for christmas dinner.
I have made them 3 times so far and now i am trying whole wheat and see how they turn out.
I have been looking for quite some time for a recipe like this. My mom used to make sweet dinner rolls and I have tried to no avail until I by chance stumbled upon your recipe. Thanks for posting it, the rolls are fantastic!