Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls

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.

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

• Can this recipe be doubled?
  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.
• Can these be made sweet?
  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. Obviously leave off of the garlic butter!
• Can I make these ahead of time?
  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.
• Can I make these without a stand mixer?
  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. If you want a recipe that can be made without a mixer, my small batch dinner rolls are perfect for this!
• Help! My dough doesn't look like it is coming together!
  It's a sticky dough, just a heads up! It needs about 15 to 20 minutes in the mixer, but it will come together!
• Can Dinner Rolls be frozen?
  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.
• Do I have to make the garlic butter?
  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.
• How long do these need to rise for?
  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.
• Do I have to use Bread Flour?
  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.
• Can I leave out the milk powder?
  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.
• What kind of pan should I use?
  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. You can see all the products I use often here.

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!

For more bun recipes, check out:

• Baked Cream buns with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream
• Chocolate and Cream Cheese buns
• Apricot Crumb Buns
• Cheese, Spring Onion, and Chive Brioche Buns

Made this recipe and love it?

If you made this recipe then I would LOVE for you to leave me a review below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram if you make it!

A note on salt and oven temperature

It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.

All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.

Using the double / triple function in the recipe card

You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!

Tools and equipment

For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.

Why is this recipe in grams?

I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!

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