Soft and Buttery Parker House Rolls

Hi hi! I am just popping in to share this super easy Parker House Roll recipe with you! I love making homemade bread recipes, and I truly think that bread rolls are one of my most favourite things to make. The process is so fun, and the final product is so satisfying.

These Parker House Rolls are a recipe that I am super proud of and so excited to share with you. They use my base white bread dough recipe, and are soft, fluffy, and just so buttery.

There are a few ways to make them - I explain both in the post. You can either make 12 regular round rolls, or divide the dough into 18 to shape them into more of the signature Parker House Roll shape, which is super fun to make and very easy!

This Parker House Roll recipe is a great option if you are just learning how to bake bread, or if you're a seasoned baker. To me, this is the perfect bread roll, and the options to finish them however you like are endless! I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

What are Parker House Rolls?

Parker House Rolls are a kind of dinner roll - they typically have a folded over shape, although they can be made as a regular roll too. The name apparantely came from the Parker House hotel in Boston in the 1870s where a frustrated baker threw a half finished batch of rolls into the oven (Honestly, I get it).

Parker house rolls are a kind of dinner roll, but not all dinner rolls are Parker House Rolls, if that makes sense! I wanted to play around with the traditional shape, which is super easy to do and also gives an amazing textured roll - slightly crusty on the outside, perfectly golden brown, then super buttery on the inside from brushing the dough with butter before you fold up the roll.

My version are soft, fluffy, and super buttery. They get baked until perfectly golden brown, then get a good old bath in butter when they come out of the oven. Just the best, truly. I'll be making them year round.

One Dough, Two Formats

I made this Parker House Roll recipe two ways - as 12 round rolls, or as 18 folded Parker House Rolls.

Both formats work great, I just love having options and I know that you do too! The white bread dough recipe is definitely going to be a staple in my house - I just love how easy these rolls are to make.

The dough recipe can also be used to make white bread loaf - so if you like you can split up the dough recipe to make half into rolls and the other half into a loaf of bread, or I often double it and make both bread rolls and loaves so I can pop some into the freezer.

For all the tips and tricks on how to make perfect white bread dough, along with ingredient questions and information on the first rise, please check out my White Bread Dough recipe! This recipe requires you to make the dough first following the instructions on the post.

Tips and Tricks for making Parker House Rolls

I have probably made bread hundreds of times now in my career as a baking blogger (I mean I have made these about 20 times in the last few months, I think Adventure dad is about 80% bread roll at this point), and here are the tips and tricks I have picked up along the way to make sure that things go as well as they can.

Remember that it does take a little practice to get the hang of working with dough, but this one is nice and soft but not too sticky so it is fairly easy to work with.

Make sure your dough is properly proofed.

This is a super crucial step - make sure that the dough is risen before you shape your Parker House Rolls. I cover this in huge detail in my white bread dough recipe - you can either do the first rise overnight in the fridge, or at room temperature. I find room temperature dough slightly easier to work with when it comes to shaping the dough into round rolls and getting a nice smooth surface, but it also will work just fine if you want to do that first rise overnight. For the folded over Parker House Rolls, chilled dough is nice and easy to roll out. Just make sure that you leave the dough at room temperature for 30 minutes or so before shaping, and remember that it will take longer to do the second rise as you are starting with slightly cooler dough. Either works great, just do what suits your schedule.

Use enough flour but not too much.

When you are shaping rolls, you want a little flour on your counter top but not too much, especially if you are shaping into round rolls. Just use enough to help the dough not stick - dust a little down before rolling out the folded version of the rolls.

Use a scale to weigh things out.

If you have been here for any amount of time you know I am FIERCELY team scale - it is so so helpful for making Parker House Rolls and other bread recipes. You have to divide the dough into either 12 or 18 pieces here, and there is just no way that you can eyeball that accurately. Things are going to get super wonky. Use a scale. This is actually one of my favourite parts of making bread - trying to get the perfect weight of each piece of dough each time is so much fun (maybe it's just me but it's the best when you nail the size of the dough ball first time).

Give yourself enough time.

I always tend to underestimate how long bread will take me (I never remember to account for the time that they are actually in the oven!) - by the time you get all the bits and pieces together, it can take a while and you can't really rush the rising of bread too much, so make sure you do account for enough time. Here is how long the process usually takes me:

• Make the dough - 15 to 20 minutes, by the time I get it all done and in the bowl to rise.
• Bulk Rising - anywhere from 60 minutes to 1 ½ hours depending on the temperature of the dough. If I want this to take longer I often start with cold milk (which is fine if you are using instant yeast as it does not have to be activated), and this will buy me a little more time. Alternatively the first rise can be done overnight - see my white bread dough post for information on this.
• Shaping - 20 minutes. I like to divide the dough up and shape it into balls then give it 10 minutes to rest on the counter to relax slightly before rolling out and shaping into folded rolls or re rolling for round rolls.
• Second Rise. This usually takes an hour for this recipe if the first rise was at room temperature, but again, this will depend on how warm your kitchen is and how warm your dough was to begin with.
• Baking. Allow 30 minutes for this. The rolls usually bake in about 25 minutes. I love to serve them super warm from the oven, but you do you here - they are also perfect baked earlier in the day (or even the night before) and then re warmed.

Remember that if you are worried the rolls will overproof before they get to the oven (if there are other things baking and the rolls have to wait their turn etc), that you can always pop them into the fridge to slow down the rising process. Don't do the whole rising process in the fridge (they overproof big time and it is so sad, see further down the post), but if you need to buy yourself 10-15 minutes and don't want them to overproof, the fridge is your friend.

Don't worry if they come out a bit wonky.

Making bread is practice. Sometimes I find it really hard to get a nice smooth surface on the rolls, or you end up with a few bubbles or one busts out in the oven. They will still taste good regardless! Homemade bread always does.

How to shape Parker House Rolls two ways

I have included two ways to shape these Parker House Rolls - we will call them the 'round rolls' and the 'folded over' rolls. There are detailed pictures below on how to shape each type.

I love both formats - the round rolls are great for making sliders or sandwiches, but there is just something so special about the folded over version. The inside gets this amazing texture, and there is a little pocket of butter in the middle of each one which makes that part of the dough super soft. You also get the maximum amount of area where the rolls touch which is my very favourite part of bread.

As the traditional folded over shape:

Step 1: DIVIDE. We are dividing the dough into 18 here - the rolls will sit in three rows of six. Plop your dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and divide into 18 pieces - each should weigh about 45g each but weigh your overall dough first to double check this.

Shape each into a ball, and then leave to rest for 10 minutes or so to let them relax a little (if you are in a hurry you can skip this step).

Step 3: ROLL. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a long oval shape. Aim for approximately 16 cm / 6 inches long.

Step 4: BUTTER. Brush the oval of dough with butter.

As a round 'regular' roll:

Step 1: DIVIDE. I shape this format of dough into 12, so turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 pieces, they should each weigh about 70g.

Step 2: SHAPE. Shape each one into a tight ball. Working with one piece at a time, flatten the dough and tuck the edges of the roll together to form a ball, then put the dough ball tucked side down and roll into a tight ball by cupping your hand into a 'claw' shape and using it to roll the dough ball. Use the tension from the counter to help with this - don't use too much flour here or you won't be able to get a good grip.

Step 3: REST. Cover the dough balls with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and leave to rest for 10 minutes or so to relax a little.

Step 4: RE-ROLL. This step really helps give nicely shaped rolls. Once the rolls have rested, give them a quick re-roll (don't re-shape them, just repeat the claw hand shaping). This just makes sure that they are extra tightly rolled and will give nice fluffy bouncy rolls.

How to tell when Parker House Rolls are risen

The second rise (if the first rise has been done at room temperature) for these Parker House Rolls usually takes about an hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. If it is warmer it will go quicker, cooler then it will go slower. If you started with doing the bulk fermentation overnight, then it will take about 2-3 hours for the shaped dough to warm up and rise again.

It is important to go by how the dough looks, not a specific time. The best way to tell if bread is risen is by giving it the finger poke test - lightly flour a finger and then gently poke the surface of a roll. If it is not fully risen then the dough will spring back. If it is ready, it will leave an indentation that slowly springs back.

How to bake Parker House Rolls: Egg wash and then butter

I like to give my Parker House Rolls a coating of Egg wash before baking, then finish with butter after they come out of the oven.

Egg wash helps with browning - giving the dough a lovely golden brown and slightly shiny finish. If you do not have an extra egg on hand, I cover lots of alternatives in my egg wash post!

Once the rolls are baked, I like to give them a good coating of melted butter just to finish them off. I usually just use regular salted butter for this (or Unsalted with salt added), but you can do a garlic butter, a herb butter, a honey butter, whatever takes your fancy here.

If you are making the round rolls rather than the folded rolls, you can also give the rolls a butter bath half way through the baking process. About 15 minutes after they have started baking, remove from the oven, and brush all over with melted butter. Return them to the oven to finish baking, then add butter again.

How to tell when bread rolls are done baking

You can tell the rolls are done baking when they are pulling away from the sides of the pan and are evenly golden brown. This usually takes about 25 minutes in my oven.

If you want to double check this, you can use a digital thermometer - a lightly enriched dough like this one will temp at 190°f / 88°c when fully baked.

How do you store Parker House Rolls?

Parker House Rolls are best eaten fresh on the day that they are made but store super well in an airtight container at room temperature. Refresh in the oven or microwave, or lightly toast if you are eating them after the day that they are made. They should keep for 3-4 days.

Can Parker House Rolls be made ahead of time?

Yes - there are a few options here.

Make ahead and reheat.

The rolls can be fully finished ahead of time and then reheated to serve. If you do this, I like to leave off the final butter coating until just before I serve them. I often add a sprinkle of flaky sea salt to the tops of the rolls too, and make sure to only do this just before serving as the salt can make them go a bit weird and soggy.

To reheat the Parker house rolls, cover the pan with foil and place into a 350°f / 180°c oven for 10-15 minutes to re-warm, then remove the foil and warm for a further 2 minutes or so with the foil off to make sure there isn't any moisture hiding on the rolls, then finish with the melted butter.

Make ahead and freeze.

The great thing about this bread recipe is that it freezes super well. I haven't tested freezing the unbaked dough ahead of time, but I freeze baked bread all the time.

To freeze baked rolls, bake as directed but do not brush with the melted butter. Leave to cool then place into a ziploc or wrap well with plastic wrap. Store for up to 3 months. To serve, defrost at room temperature then re warm following the instructions above.

Can I do one or both rises in the fridge?

I wasn't initially planning on this, but I ended up going on a deep dive to test this. I made a double batch of my white bread dough, and ran a few tests just so I could show you what works best and what doesn't.

I often get asked if people can do the second rise in the fridge, and my answer is no. It leads to overproofing the rolls as they spend too long in the fridge, and the dough totally deflates when you go to bake it.

Overproofing is when the yeast in the recipe runs out of energy, and has no more to give in the oven, leading to dense, flat rolls rather than the nice soft fluffy rolls that we want. Overproofed rolls are still edible, they just won't be as nice and fluffy.

Here is what I tested and the results:

Room temperature first rise and fridge second rise.

I rose the dough as directed at room temperature, then shaped into 6 rolls and a loaf, and did the second rise in the fridge. They had 15 hours in the fridge for the second rise, and already looked overproofed when I took them out. I left them at room temperature for 2 hours so they could warm up slightly before baking, and then baked them off.

Result: Overproofed rolls. I do not recommend this method.

Fridge first rise and room temperature second rise.

If you are going to do a component of these rolls ahead of time, doing the first rise in the fridge is the way to go. I made the dough and shaped it, then gave it overnight in the fridge (from experience you can do up to 24 hours) then shaped the rolls as directed and rose and baked. They turned out basically the same as the rolls which had had both their first and second rise at room temperature, and baked up nice and fluffy as the yeast still had energy to give in the oven.

Result: Properly proofed rolls. I recommend this method - just make sure that you allow time for the dough to warm up slightly before shaping and allow for more time for them to rise before baking.

The results.

The images below show the results - you can see that the top rolls, which had a fridge first rise and a room temperature second rise, were much nicer - they baked up super fluffy and round as they should.

The bottom pan of rolls which had their second rise in the fridge overnight were already looking quite sad when I took them out of the fridge to warm up. There was just no way that they were going to perk up.

If your dough overproofs on the first rise it is possible to save it by just punching it down and shaping and proceeding, however if it happens on the second rise, the rolls will bake up much flatter.

To me, it is just not worth doing the second rise overnight. You do not save any more time, and the risk of overproofing the dough is too high.