The softest, squishiest garlic butter dinner rolls are the perfect accompaniment to any meal. These are easy and fun to make, and the recipe can easily be scaled. They are baked until golden brown then finished with a garlic butter when they are hot from the oven.
Table of contents
- The best Dinner Roll Recipe
- Steps for making the best Dinner Rolls
- Ingredients in Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
- How to scale this recipe for other uses.
- How to store Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
- FAQ for Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
- A few wee tips for Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
- For more bun recipes, check out:
- Made this recipe and love it?
The best Dinner Roll Recipe
Hi hi! I am so excited to share the recipe for these Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls with you! I've tested this a whole bunch of times to get it just right for you, and am so stoked to finally share! This recipe is such a winner - super super soft dinner rolls, finished with a salty garlic butter glaze. I made them a whole lot of different ways when testing, so I've also listed some optional sizing and baking pan variations for you too!
This recipe is also perfect for burger buns - I will write a separate post up for them later, but for now, enjoy these! I am so excited for them!
Steps for making the best Dinner Rolls
These are pretty hands off - you dump all the ingredients in then leave it to mix. However there are a few steps along the way that I discovered which make the process super easy, and you get the best rolls!
- Activate your yeast - I use active dry yeast in the recipe, and it needs to be bloomed in lukewarm liquid. To get my liquid 'lukewarm' I mix boiling water with the milk and it works great, or you can mix them both together and then warm up either in a pan or the microwave. The milk and water, yeast, and sugar hang out until the yeast is foamy.
- Add the remaining ingredients - Unlike my brioche recipes where I mix up everything except for the butter first, with this recipe you just dump everything in and then leave it to knead in the mixer!
- Mix the dough - This takes a wee bit. Because the rolls are so nice and soft and fluffy, the mixture is pretty wet, and it takes a bit for the gluten to develop and come together. Don't worry though. We are baking by weight, so you know you've added the right amount of each ingredient. Scales for the win, as per usual.
- Shape and do the first rise - Once the dough has finished mixing, you pull it out of the mixer and shape into a ball. You may need a tiny bit of flour here if it's sticking a wee bit. Shape it into a ball, resist the urge to play with it because it's SO SOFT, and then cover with plastic and leave to do its first rise, which takes about two hours!
- Pre-shape - I did a TON of reading when I was developing these, along with watching a bunch of videos and one technique that is new to me for rolls in particular is giving them a pre-shape. You divide the dough into the number of rolls you're going to make (in this case it is 12), then shape each into a ball and leave to hang out under some plastic wrap for 10 minutes or so, then shape them again into a ball. This helps develop even more tension in the dough and gives you beautiful perky round rolls!
- Second shape and second rise - The dough balls get another wee roll and then are arranged in the pan, covered lightly and left to do their second rise. This takes about an hour, and you can preheat the oven while this is happening. The rolls should puff up and double in size, and when poked gently with your fingertip, will spring back and leave a tiny dent.
- Bake the rolls - The rolls get brushed with egg wash and then are baked until golden brown. This takes 15-18 minutes, but you can check the internal temperature too if you need! For enriched dough you want to shoot for 190°f / 90°c. Internal temperature is a great way to check doneness if you're new to baking with yeast!
- Finish with garlic butter - If you're serving these right away, prepare the garlic butter while the rolls are baking. Butter and minced garlic get combined and simmered for just a wee bit on the stove to take the edge off the garlic and infuse the butter, then the warm garlic butter gets brushed over the rolls when they are hot out of the oven.
Ingredients in Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
The ingredient list for these dinner rolls is a bit more lengthy than some other roll recipes, but I think that everything has its place and they all contribute to the most amazing roll recipe!
- Flour - We have All-Purpose and Bread Flour in these. The Bread Flour gives the dough strength which it needs to make a super round, soft and fluffy dinner roll.
- Yeast - I use active dry yeast, but you should be able to use Instant just fine if that's all you have - I need to test it but I don't see it being an issue. You can skip the activation step.
- Milk and Water - Milk helps with softness and browning.
- Milk Powder - Milk Powder gives a super soft, smooth, tender dough. I used whole milk powder, non-fat should work fine too.
- Butter - Provides softness and richness in the dough.
- Egg - Helps with dough strength and richness. This recipe only has one egg, just to help keep it together! There is another egg used as an egg wash too, to help the buns bake up to be beautifully golden brown.
- Salt - Essential for flavour in all bread recipes!
How to scale this recipe for other uses.
I tested this recipe both as a double and a single, but ultimately wanted to make a recipe that was super solid and can easily be doubled. For some reason in baking it is always easier to double a recipe than halve it and be certain that it worked, so I wanted to make sure that I had a super solid single batch recipe that you could double, and it works great. Use the scale button in the recipe card to double the ingredients.
I also tested out a bunch of different sized rolls. The recipe makes about 600g dough. You can divide this however you like depending on the roll size that you want. This recipe also makes really good burger buns, which I will cover in a new post very soon. You can use it to make 12 good sized dinner rolls as I have here in this post, but you could also:
- Divide the dough into 9 and arrange in a 9" square pan for 9 larger dinner rolls
- Divide into 6 and shape into buns to make 6 large burger buns. Or, divide into 8 to make 8 slightly smaller ones. You can either use rings for these or arrange them stand alone on your pan. I'll break my whole process down in a post soon!
- Double the recipe and use it to make 24 dinner rolls. If you do this, I would suggest arranging them on a half sheet pan. You could also divide the dough into 18 and make 18 slightly larger rolls. I would also use a half sheet pan for this. This would be great if you were feeding a few more people. The rolls are VERY easy to eat, particularly straight out of the oven, and make great leftovers, so if you've got a larger family to feed then I would suggest doubling
How to store Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
The rolls store super well in an airtight container at room temperature and will stay soft for a few days. You can re-warm briefly in the microwave before eating them. If you're planning on having leftovers, don't add salt or the garlic butter to the tops until just before serving. It will go soggy while storing them.
Even if you are making these a little ahead of time (for example you make them in the morning for the evening meal), hold off on adding the garlic butter until just before serving. You can refresh them in the oven for 5 minutes or so just to warm them up. This will make sure they are nice and fresh when you brush the butter over them. Alternatively you could make a compound butter to serve them with. Something with garlic and herbs would be so good, and can be prepared ahead of time.
These would freeze well. Don't add the garlic butter, and once the rolls are cooled, pop them into a ziploc bag and freeze. Bring to room temperature and refresh in the oven or microwave before serving.
FAQ for Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
Yes, super easily. Just double everything (there is a button to do this in my recipe card). The rise time will be the same. See the notes above for scaling the recipe for possible roll configurations.
They can - just increase the sugar to 2 Tbsp. Rich eats these with Nutella or Peanut Butter all the time - you could also glaze them hot cross bun style when they come out of the oven to give them a shiny sweet finish.
Yes! The dough takes a fair amount of time to do the first rise even at room temperature due to the higher quantity of liquid and butter and egg, so you could easily do the first rise overnight in the fridge and then assemble the next day. You can make the dough up to 24 hours ahead of when you need it. Any longer and I find that the yeast generally won't be as active. The rolls themselves store well but are best on the day they are made, so if you are planning ahead, I would aim to bake them on the day that you serve them.
Not these ones I don't think. The dough needs a LONG time in the mixer in order to develop enough strength, and it is really sticky. You could probably make these by hand if you really, really had to, but you're going to be there for a very long time kneading.
It's a sticky dough, just a heads up! It needs about 15 to 20 minutes in the mixer, but it will come together!
I haven't tried it but I think that it would be fine to freeze the baked rolls in an airtight container. I would thaw on the counter and then refresh in the oven briefly to help soften them up.
Absolutely not - you do you here! You could sprinkle them with flaky sea salt after you brush with the egg wash, or you could sprinkle with some everything bagel seasoning, or sesame seeds.
The first rise has been taking about 2 hours for me, and then the second takes about an hour. Because it is cold at the moment I am using a little countertop oven on the proof setting to rise my bread in. You can also generate this environment by microwaving a bowl of water for about 30 seconds, then removing and using the warm microwave to rise your bread, or you can do it in the oven with the light on. The most important thing is to watch your dough, not the timing. Rise time may vary a lot depending on what temperature your kitchen is.
Yep, it's super important. Bread Flour (or High Grade Flour if you are in NZ, or Strong flour if you're in the UK), is higher in protein than all-purpose flour, so is super important for developing a strong dough, especially when it's a soft one like these rolls. I tested a bunch of different ratios of bread to all-purpose flour when I was making these, and the bread flour makes a huge difference. Dough made with only AP doesn't come together as well and isn't as elastic.
The role of the milk powder in these rolls is to help keep the dough super soft. I haven't tried it without it, so I am not sure about this sorry! I would get some if you can as it gives bread the most amazing soft texture.
I prefer something metal - 12 rolls fit perfectly into a 9"x13" (23x33cm) pan. You can either use something with sides, or a quarter sheet pan works great too. I tested both and either are perfect.
A few wee tips for Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
- The dough will take a while to come together. Mine takes about 15 to 20 minutes in the mixer. If you're worried, set a timer and walk away. When it is ready it will be somewhat balling around the hook and pulling away from the sides, and the dough will be super smooth and elastic. You can do the windowpane test on it, where you stretch out the dough. It should stretch out enough that you can see light through it.
- Don't add more flour when you're mixing. The dough is sticky. And it takes a while to come together in the mixer, and even when it's done, it won't ball up around the hook as much as some other recipes do. It will be a bit tacky, and super smooth and elastic when it is ready to rise. This is the benefit of baking in grams - I know exactly how much flour you are adding in, so can be confident in telling you that your mix will come together just fine!
- You can add a tiny dusting of flour onto your work surface when shaping the dough into a ball to rise, and then a bit more when shaping. Use only just enough to help it not stick, not too much more. The dough is super nice to work with!
- To get your milk and water mixture lukewarm, just mix the milk with the 40g boiling water and it should give you a lukewarm situation! If it feels like it needs a little more warmth to get it lukewarm, just zap a little of the liquid in the microwave to warm it up a touch and add it back in.You want it to feel about body temperature when you stick your finger in. Too hot and it will kill the yeast so just be careful!
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Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 rolls 1x
- Category: Dinner Rolls
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
The softest, squishiest garlic butter dinner rolls are the perfect accompaniment to any meal. These are easy and fun to make, and the recipe can easily be scaled. They are baked until golden brown then finished with a garlic butter when they are hot from the oven.
Ingredients
Bread Dough
- 150g whole milk, lukewarm
- 40g water, lukewarm
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 245g bread flour
- 50g all-purpose flour
- 20g milk powder
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 45g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Egg wash - 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp cold water
Garlic Butter (Optional - see FAQ for other finishing options)
- 50g unsalted butter, cold from the fridge is fine
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated on a microplane
- Big pinch of flaky sea salt such as maldon
- Flaky Sea Salt such as Maldon to finish
Instructions
BREAD DOUGH
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the milk, water, sugar, and yeast, and leave to stand for 5 minutes until foamy.
- Add the egg, bread flour, all-purpose flour, milk powder, salt, and butter, and mix with the dough hook attachment on low speed until combined, 2-3 minutes, scraping down if the hook is having a hard time reaching any dry flour.
- Increase the speed of the mixer to medium-high and mix the dough for 15 to 20 minutes, until it is smooth, supple, and is pulling away from the sides. It will go through stages where it looks like it will never come together - this is fine, just leave it to keep mixing and it will develop strength. It may not pull fully away from the sides but you will see that the gluten is developing and the dough generally moves as one mass. It will be very smooth and stretchy and will pass the windowpane test.
- Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface, and shape into a tight ball. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to proof in a warm place until doubled in size, which will take anywhere between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 12 pieces of equal weight. The dough should weigh about 600g so you want to shoot for 50 g per piece. Weigh your dough first just to check and divide that number by 12 to work out your weight per ball.
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten out the piece of dough, then tuck up into a ball, then turn the ball seam side down and roll into a tight ball by cupping your hand to create a 'claw' shape, using the tension from the counter to roll the dough tightly. Place to the side and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, grouping the balls together on your counter with a little space between them so they don't touch.
- Grease or line a 9"x13" (23x33cm) pan.
- Leave the dough balls to rest under the plastic for 10 minutes, then give them a quick re-roll to tighten the ball back up, and arrange in the prepared pan. There will be a little space between your dough balls.
- Cover the pan with plastic and leave to rise in a warm spot for about an hour, until the dough balls are puffy and when poked gently, an indentation that slowly springs back is left. See images in post for immediately after rolling, and just before the oven.
- When there is about 20 minutes to go on the second rising period of the rolls, preheat the oven to 375°f / 190°c.
- Brush the rolls with egg wash, and place in the oven. Bake uncovered for 15 to 18 minutes, until the rolls are evenly golden brown and register 190°f / 90°c internal temperature on a thermometer (checking the internal temperature isn't super important, just bake until nice and golden brown).
- When the rolls are done, remove from the oven. If serving immediately, brush with the garlic butter and sprinkle with extra flaky sea salt (see notes).
GARLIC BUTTER
- Place the butter and garlic into a small saucepan and place over medium low heat. Cook until the butter is melted, then cook for a further 1-2 minutes, stirring often, to infuse the butter and take the edge off the garlic.
- Add a big pinch of salt, then stir to combine and use.
- This can be made ahead and then just re-melted prior to use.
Notes
If you are serving these right away, add the garlic butter. If you are making ahead, leave the garlic butter off until just before serving as it can make them soggy. Warm the rolls in the oven then brush with the garlic butter and serve.
Keywords: Dinner Rolls, Garlic butter, soft rolls, soft and fluffy rolls, garlic butter dinner rolls
so excited to make these! they look like the perfect bun 🙂
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So delightfully soft and squishy! I halved the size of each bun, so made 24 mini buns and baked them in a ring around a wheel of brie (with honey, garlic, rosemary + walnuts).
I had to cut the second proof short as I was running out of time and they were still wonderful.
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Ohhhh my this sounds AMAZING!!! I am so glad you loved!
Sounds delish!
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They are so good! 🙂
Hi
Thank you for all the nice recipes.
May I request if possible all the measurements be in cups ?
Thank you
Hi, I don't post my recipes in cups sorry as they are not accurate. It is extremely important that this recipe be made accurately or the dough may not be the right consistency, so I highly recommend making it by weight. You are welcome to google the conversions if you like but please know that it has not been tested in cups and so I cannot guarantee that it works. Sorry about that.
You can pick up a kitchen scale relatively inexpensively. Best $12 I’ve spent to improve baking results!
Yesss just the best!
These rolls look fantasic, I’d just like to ask what is the protein content of bread And all-purpose flour that you use? Thanks!
AP is generally around 9-11%, Bread flour is usually about 11-13% depending on the brand!
Have you experimented with gf flour for these? I love your recipes and have translated a few to gf but not sure about these in particular? I’m droooooling but my 10 yo has celiacs and i don’t think making these for me and getting him frozen gf rolls in this case will pass as the same 😆
Hi! I havent, but I unfortunately don't think that it will work. The dough relies HEAVILY on the gluten for both shape and texture - I use bread flour which is high in protein in order to make lots of gluten. The strength of the dough is how I can get away with packing lots of moisture into it so it is soft and also strong, and GF flour won't do that. I tried these with AP and they didn't work well so I am almost certain that gluten free flour won't work. Sorry about that! I would look up a GF dinner roll recipe if you're after something gluten free. I don't have much experience with gluten free baking but my friend Sarah over at Snixy Kitchen has an incredible GF blog, and so does my friend Alanna who is The Bojon Gourmet. I hope this helps!
Currently stuffing my face with these hot out of the oven. These are without a doubt, the softest, most delicious and easiest rolls I have ever made. Hardest part is not eating them all at once. I "accidentally" covered almost all of them with garlic butter straight away, so i guess i will just have to eat them so they don't go soggy 😉
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ahhh yayyy yesss so good right! So glad you love them!
I made these without the garlic butter since I wasn’t sure if we would eat them all right away and didn’t want them to be soggy. This ended up being a ridiculous decision because we scarfed them all up immediately. They were so fluffy and delicious!! Cannot recommend enough. I did forget to line/grease the pan as the recipe suggests, and regret doing so since I lost some precious pieces to the bottom of the pan. I will absolutely be making these again, and will not skip the greasing and garlic butter.
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Yayyyy aren't they just SO GOOD!?! The garlic butter is so yum on them too. I am working on a sweet version using the same dough, and it's going to be so good I think - watch this space! 🙂
What size bowl do you use on your stand mixer? Mine is rather large and I often find it hard to knead smaller batches of dough in it. I want to make sure a 1x batch will knead properly in my mixer.
I have the kitchenaid pro 600 so the bowl is 6 quarts / 6 litres!
Thanks for replying so quickly! That’s the same mixer I have! Excited to know I won’t need to double this just to fit it!
Another quick Q - is it possible to do the second rise in the fridge instead of the first if making these in advance?
Hi! Yep! you can! you'll need to pull them to come back to room temp and finish rising after they have been in the fridge. Make sure they are super puffy before you put them in the oven! Alternatively they stay super squishy so I have been just making the rolls early in the day then quickly re-heating closer to meal time x
Thank you again for answering my questions. These are literally the beat rolls ever and the dough is incredibly gorgeous. I was a chef for 13 years (some of that time spent in a bakery, too) and this is the most beautiful dough I have ever handled. I want to rate this more than five stars.
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Hi Erin, I’m in the process of making these and I had them kneading for 20mins but as soon as I stop the mixer it’s like ectoplasm! Super stretchy like melted mozzarella but also really sticky! I checked measurements carefully. Is it because I'm in the U.K.? Humidity and altitude play a role right? I’m used to high hydration sourdough so I handled it with damp hands and plopped it in the bowl for rising. Hopefully they still come out okay! 🙂
Hi! Hmmmm yeah it's pretty wet but shouldn't be super super sticky? Just dust with a little flour if you're worried. There are highlights in my IG stories if you want to see how it looks! Were you able to shape it into a ball ok? Are you at altitude?
With water on my hands i got it into a ball. But yeah nothing like in your videos on Instagram. Mine was not handleable with bare fingers 🙁 not at altitude and used 13.5% protein bread flour and actually my egg was more like medium than large. I never have much luck with these super soft enriched doughs 🙁
I sometimes have to use a little flour to get it into a ball to pop into the bowl - let me know how you go with the rise! I find I need a bit of bench flour for the shaping. Sometimes it's just a wee bit sticky, it should be ok!
We are all good! Just shaped them into their balls and was fine 🙂 I am beyond excited for these!!
Thank you for your help and for the recipe!
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Made these for Christmas dinner today....forgot to take a pic, but they were PERFECT. Thank you for the recipe and all of the tips and tricks. Delicious!
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Ahhh so happy they worked so well for you!
Made these at 7,000 feet altitude today, increased bread flour to 290 grams and all other measurements kept as written. They are perfect!! Thank you so much 😊
Ah yayyy thank you thank you for the tips! So, so helpful x
Made these last night for NYE...wow! Super soft and tender and lovely flavor. I did use non-fat milk powder and worked just fine. My husband thinks they could use more salt but I did omit the butter/garlic at the end to accommodate an 8yo palate. You are right, the dough is so nice to work with! And, love the weight measurements as it makes it so easy to be precise and to just keep adding ingredients without dirtying cups. So so happy with these, thank you Erin!
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Hiiii! Ah yayyyy so glad you loved them! Good point about the salt, I will add a note in the recipe that if you aren't adding garlic butter to increase the salt a little. Thank you so much for such a lovely review, I appreciate it so much x
This is my first time ever making a dough! I studied it for months😆 Well, today I decided to go for it and they came out great! I also guided myself with your IG stories. They’re super helpful!
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Yayyy so glad you loved!
THE BEST. So squishy and so easy.
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Fantastic rolls! I followed the recipe including running away as the dough mixed - it just never seemed like it would come together. Thank you for all of your explanation this recipe (though easy) needs some guidance.
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Hi! Ahhh yayyy! So glad that wee tip helped - I didn't want people to be worried because it's so weird and sticky for so long!
Have made 3x now! Twice as buns. So good. One batch I made without milk powder and just used all milk (no water) and they were still soft and yummy.
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Oh yayyyyyy I love to hear this! they are my fave x
Loved this recipe! I made them for Christmas dinner and they were a huge hit! So much so, that I've had 4 requests for me to make more since then! They are so versatile and easy to make. Follow the directions (yes the measuring too!!) and you will have made the best rolls that are perfect with so many meals! Thanks Erin for such a great, easy to follow recipe!
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Ah yayyyy! They are my fave 🙂
Simply amazing! Our #1 dinner roll recipe!
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Yayyyy it's ours too!
Took me quite a while to make these but it was worth every second! I didn’t even have time to make the garlic butter because I was too excited to eat one right out of the oven! I used them as a side, but also as a roll for mini breakfast sandwiches and mini chicken parm sandwiches! LOVE these!
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Yummmmm that all sounds so good! I've doubled the recipe before and done it in a half sheet for 24 rolls too hahah and it's so satisfying
These are amazing!!!
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So glad you love!
Tried these and did them as 6 to work as burger buns - A M A Z I N G. 100% will make them again as dinner rolls as per recipe and as the burger buns; might even try to shape them as hotdog / meatball sub buns. The tips were all super helpful as were the photos. I’m especially grateful for recipes that provide weighted ingredients. Thank you Erin! Can’t wait to make them again. And again. And again.
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Ah yayyyy! I have made them a few times as burger buns too and just love them so much
These rolls are AMAZING! Light and fluffy. I’m a bit intimidated bread recipes, but this one kept calling my name do I decided to give it a try. They did not disappoint.!
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Eeee so happy you loved them! Thank you so much for the review x
My favourite recipe!!!! These were amazing!
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Yay so glad you loved them!
Reading through the recipe and am dying to make these. Do you suggest using non-fat milk powder? That is all I seem to find at my local grocery store.
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Hi! Mine was whole milk but a lot of people have done it with non-fat and it's been ok! 🙂
You’re so nice to comment back. Should have just read through all the recipe notes, which I have now done! Can’t wait to see how they turn out tonight.
Thanks again for another great recipe! I made these and added cheese & bacon to the tops of it to make cheese & bacon rolls. They turned out amazing!!
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Ooooohhh this sounds like an a+ move and one I have to try immediately! Did you do it just before the oven?
Yes I did! Came out beautifully 🙂 Thanks again!!
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