These One Hour Rolls are soft & buttery, and a fail-proof easy yeast recipe for dinner rolls that anyone can make! Perfect for a Holiday dinner like Thanksgiving and easy enough for family dinner too!
We love to make these rolls for thanksgiving alongside this crockpot cranberry turkey breast and when we have soup night. This hamburger soup and minestrone soup are family favorites.
One Hour Dinner Rolls Recipe
This one hour roll recipe is the best one to try if you're nervous with yeast recipes! It's a fail-proof dinner roll recipe that produces the softest, fluffiest, most buttery rolls ever.
I'll be honest and admit that even I struggle with yeast bread recipes but not this one. This is an easy beginner recipe that anyone can make.
You can either make this roll recipe in a stand mixer or use a mixing and your hand. I would highly recommend a stand mixer so that way your arm doesn't have to do all the work ?
What You'll Need
You just need a few basic ingredients to make homemade rolls in one hour.
- Active Dry Yeast - Don't confuse this with quick yeast. You will activate the yeast with sugar and hot water so get regular active dry yeast for this recipe.
- Granulated Sugar - This is needed to activate the yeast.
- Hot Water - No need to boil water. Simply turn your kitchen faucet all the way to hot and then measure out the water needed. If your yeast does not bubble and become frothy after 5 minutes, that more than likely means the water was too cold or too hot.
- Butter - You will need butter for the bread dough and also for the top of the rolls.
- Table Salt - This is regular iodized salt.
- All-Purpose Flour
How To Make Easy Dinner Rolls
The easiest way to make these rolls is with a stand mixer. You can use a mixing bowl, a spoon, and your hands to mix and knead the dough but it's much easier with some sort of stand mixer.
Yeast + Sugar : Mix together the yeast and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl.
Add Water : Add the hot water and stir to combine.
Activate Yeast : Let the water and yeast mixture sit for 5 minutes. At the end of 5 minutes it should be frothy and bubbly. If it is not, you need to start over because that means the yeast did not activate properly. Either the water was too hot or too cold.
Remaining Ingredients : Add the softened butter, table salt, and 3 cups of the flour. Beat on medium speed to combine. Add more flour, in ¼ cup increments as needed, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the stand mixer bowl.
Rise Time : Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise for 20 minutes. Punch down dough at the end of the rise time.
Rolls : Roll the dough into 20 rolls. Place inside the baking dish and slather some butter over top the rolls. Let rise in the pan, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Oven : Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the rolls for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Tips For Success
I have a few tips I'll share with you that will help you make this roll recipe in your own home.
- Yeast - Do not use quick rise yeast. Quick yeast has a different preparation method and this recipe won't turn out the same with it.
- Activate Yeast - If your water and sugar/yeast mixture is not frothy and bubble at the end of the 5 minutes then you need to start over. That means the water was either too hot or too cold.
- Hot Water - Tip for the hot water, as this can be the most difficult part of yeast recipes, is to turn your kitchen faucet all the way to hot. Measure out 1.5 cups of hot water and then pour it immediately into the bowl with the yeast + sugar.
- Roll Shape - To get smooth looking rolls be sure and roll the dough into smooth and round balls. How the dough balls look in the pan before baking is how they'll look once they're baked. So if you want those smooth topped rolls then be sure and take your time and roll the dough balls into smooth balls.
How To Store Leftover Rolls
Leftover rolls will store at room temperature for 4-5 days. You can also keep leftovers in the fridge to help them keep longer.
We love to warm up a roll in the microwave for a few seconds. It makes it tastes freshly baked.
I store leftover rolls inside a Ziplock bag or you can use an air-tight container like Tupperware to store them at room temperature or in the fridge.
Can I Freeze Dinner Rolls?
Yes! These one hour dinner rolls freeze perfectly. I like to wrap the rolls up in tin foil and then store them in a freeze safe Ziploc bag for up to 3 months.
Simply let thaw at room temperature or you can thaw them in the microwave.
Serving Suggestions For One Hour Dinner Rolls
I love to serve these rolls with any Holiday dinner like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. I usually serve it alongside this slow cooker honey glazed ham along with this no mushroom green bean casserole.
You can also make them and serve it with this slow cooker shredded root beer chicken. Make shredded chicken sandwiches with them.
I love to make these rolls as a side for soup night. These buttery soft rolls are the perfect way to sop up leftover soup in the bowl. One of my family's favorite soup recipes is this cream cheese chicken soup. So creamy and warm and the perfect dipping soup for bread.
You'll Love These Other Easy Bread Recipes
Parmesan Garlic Bread Knots - So quick and easy to make thanks to the refrigerated biscuit dough!
Easy Breadsticks - These require yeast but they are basically fail-proof just like these one hour rolls are. They are buttery, twisty, soft, and just perfect.
Cornbread Drop Biscuits - Just like cornbread but in an easy drop biscuit.
One Hour Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1½ cups hot water see notes below
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 3-4 cups all-purpose flour
Topping
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- sea salt or kosher salt optional
Instructions
- Prepare a 9 x13 baking dish by spraying with cooking spray or lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add the yeast and sugar. Stir together to combine.
- Pour the hot water over it and stir. Let this sit for 5 minutes. At the end of the time the mixture should be frothy and bubbly looking.
- Add softened butter, salt, and 3 cups of flour. Mix on medium-low speed, using the dough hook, until combined. Add additional flour, ¼ cup at a time, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should still be slightly sticky and soft. Be sure to not add too much flour!
- Knead for 5 minutes with the dough hook on low-medium speed. It should look smooth. Cover with a towel and let rise for 20 minutes.
- Gently punch down the dough and divide into 20 pieces (each piece will be a bit larger than a golf ball). Roll each piece into a ball and place into the prepared baking dish.
- Brush rolls with the melted butter (I save some of this to brush on the rolls after they cook) and sprinkle with some sea salt if wanted. Let rise, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
- While rolls are rising heat oven to 400°.
- Cook rolls for 15-18 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Serve warm!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Old picture from before the post was updated in October 2021 with new pictures. Recipe is the same.
All your recipes look great!!
Thank you so much Shelly ☺️!
Thanks. Good recipe.keep up
Do you use self rising or plain flour?
I use all-purpose. I will clarify that in the recipe!
I didn't have active dry yeast only quick yeast but made them anyway. Very easy to make with my Stand Mixer. They taste awesome. Next time I will make them bigger and have more like a dinner bun. Thanks so much for the fast and easy recipe.
Awesome! So good to hear ? I'm happy they turn out with the quick yeast. I've always used regular active yeast but now I'll have to test them out with quick. Thanks for letting me know!
Please let me know what kind of flour you used in these rolls. Thanks
I use unbleached all-purpose flour. You don't have to use unbleached but I prefer it.
Just made them and they were very easy for those of us who are "dough impaired." They will be on my Thanksgiving table. Thanks so much for sharing.
Yay! I'm not that great with yeast dough recipes but this is one that always turns out for me. So glad it worked for you.
Your site is so full of yummy recipes!
Can I double or triple the batch of Soft and Fluffy One Hour Rolls?
Thank you so much Jodi! That is so sweet of you 🙂 Doubling or tripling would be just fine but I am not sure they make a mixer enough for all that bread dough if you double/triple it. Unless you do it by hand of course.... maybe just make separate batches??
If I don’t have a dough hook what do you recommend using?
You can use a wooden stir spoon and a bowl. That should work just fine and you will get a bit of an arm workout in 🙂
I love your recipe as it is but I am looking to be a little more healthier would it work if I used whole wheat flour instead of white?
That would work just fine. I tend to prefer white whole wheat flour as it does not make breads dense like the whole wheat flour does. So yes, you can use whole wheat flour but just know that they probably won't come out as fluffy as they would with the white flour or even the white whole wheat flour. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
Can you freeze these for a period of time? Or are they bake and serve?
I don’t freeze things so I don’t really know. I have always just baked and served these rolls.
Can you make these rolls GF by using GF flour?
Probably. I don’t have experience with gluten free flour, but I would assume that as long as it’s an equal substitution then it should work just fine.
Hello,
When having a dinner party and preparing all the other dishes, would it be harmful to the rolls if they did the second rise longer than 15 minutes?
It’s one thing if just making the rolls, however, a different story if preparing a dinner and oven is in use for say a prime rib. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks JK
I always cook rolls before all the other stuff needs the oven. It’s not the best thing for rolls to rise too much so I would make them first thing, and let them cook before the prime rib or whatever else needs the oven. You could easily warm up the rolls right before serving, or just eat them as is which is delicious too.
Thank you for answering me and your suggestion.
Does the towel have to be damp when it is being used to cover during the first ride?
No it does not. I just use a regular kitchen towel (dry).
I made these today using half white and half whole wheat flour. They turned out very nice. I'm going to try the recipe with all whole wheat flour. Thank you for your guidance. We enjoyed them!
I made your 1 hour dinner rolls but I left them in the oven too long in hopes of getting a golden color so the bottoms were too hard. Next time i would try an egg wash instead of brushing them with butter before baking. Are they good light in color?
Mine are always very pale in color. I guess it just depends on what you want the rolls to look like. These are not the buttery, brown type rolls more the soft and extra fluffy rolls, which will result in that really pale color.
I just made the rolls this evening in my kitchenaid. They're easy to make and absolutely delicious! Thank you so much!
These were fantastic. All the roll lovers in my family thumbed up this recipe. So glad I found this one...it's going in my recipe book.
Thanks so much for a great recipe These rolls are easy to make , soft and yummy. My Dad was an amazing professional baker and he would be proud of me making these. My grandkids loved them ! Thanks again.
Was curious if this recipe could be doubled...
Yes of course. Double every ingredient and you would just need two of the 9x13 pans or use a cookie sheet for double the amount of rolls.
This is an awesome recipe! Quick and easy to make! Nice and fluffy! Will be making again!
If making ahead, would you suggest freezing them after they have risen and before you bake them, or have you ever tried to freeze the dough before cooking them? Just wondering the best way, when I freeze them after cooking them I don't think they taste as good
I’ve never tried freezing these rolls. But my thought is that it would be best to freeze after they have risen and then allow them to thaw before baking them. Let me know how it turns out!