Recipe for Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls / Homemade Buns / Homemade Cinnamon Rolls from my Mom (2024)

5 from 1 vote

• 2 cups warm water not hot, it'll kill the yeast
• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 1/2 cup sugar, or a little less is fine if you're watching your carbs.
• 1 egg
• 6-7 cups flour see recipe notes below
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons melted butter or shortening
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• More melted butter for the bottom of the pan and for brushing on top

• Combine water and yeast and let set for a few minutes. Add the other ingredients and the salt last. Start with less flour and add more if needed to clean off the sides. Knead for 2-3 minutes in the Bosch or by hand for 8 minutes or so. Roll into balls and set into a buttered pan (Mom would roll them in a little more flour, but I've found it's not necessary.) Let rise, it takes 2-3 hours or so, even less in a warm environment. Sometimes I'll put them into my oven warming drawer on low to speed this up a bit. Bake at 400* for 15-20 minutes until nicely golden brown.

• Serve with lots of butter of course!

Notes about this recipe:

• If you're using a Bosch mixer (I love mine so much!), you can get TWO batches in here at once -- it'll be quite full, just mix slowly at first.

• This makes about 3-4 dozen homemade dinner rolls, depending on how big you want them. I make them a little bigger than golf-ball size.

• Always add the sea salt last after the flour, since salt can kill the yeast, but the flour protects it.

• You can useraw honey (local is best) instead of sugar.

• For best results and best rising, useorganic all-purpose flour, but they're still really good withorganic bread flour too and part all-purpose einkorn. I also sometimes add part whole grain flours, but not all, because they just don't rise quite as much so they're not quite as light. When I add whole grain flour, I sometimes will grind my own in thisgrain mill so it's more fresh and has more nutrients. (Read more about grinding grains here.)

• If you use shortening instead of pastured butter, you could use this palm shortening.

• If you're just making a loaf of bread or some rolls to go with dinner, try adding 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning for extra flavor.

  See Also

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• I didn't set my dough in the fridge for a while as the pictured recipe card says (but that'd be great if I was making it ahead of time like Mom often did — up to a week ahead it says in her writing on the bottom of the recipe above), this time I just made them into rolls right away.

• Depending on your room temperature, sometimes they'll take longer to rise than expected so start early if possible. I love using my stove's warming drawer to speed things up when needed!

• If they get too big too fast and you're not eating for a while (or if you just want to bake some ahead of time) you could partially bake them just 'til they'restarting to get golden on top, then pull them out. Later just before serving, brush with more melted butter and put them back into the 400* oven for 5 more minutes or so until they're golden brown.

• You can use this same recipe for a loaf of bread, homemade burger or hot dog buns,andfor homemade cinnamon rolls or pecan rolls — see more on this below as far as timing, etc.

• This would also work fine in your bread machineusing the basic dough setting. I just use my kitchen mixer, it's totally hands-free! Or you can do what my Mom always did and mix everything up by hand.

• If you'd like to make a little better-for-youversion of homemade dinner rolls (or buns or whatever), or if you want to make 6 loaves at once, go to this recipe for homemade “soaked” bread that I make in my Bosch or see the variations of that recipe here for making buns, etc. But this one is just a faster version if you don't have time to make it ahead.

• Note that if you want your rolls or buns more pretty and perfectly round, just space them further apart on the pan so they're not touching as they rise.

Now you have many options for what you can do with this dough:

• Loaf of bread: shape your dough into a loaf-size and put the dough into a greased bread pan, let rise, and bake at 350* until golden brown, about 30-45 minutes depending on your oven. If you use pans like mine, you can make nice toaster-sized loaves. This recipe should make 2 - 3 loaves.

• Cinnamon rolls: when the dough beeps done, or when it's well-kneaded, roll it out onto a lightly floured countertop until it's about 18″ x 12" rectangle. Spread/sprinkle over the top: 1 stick of melted butter,maple syrup or palm/coconut sugaror organic brown sugar and plenty of cinnamonover all of the dough -- just shake it on 'til there's some all over. Start at one edge and carefully roll it up. Slice into about 3/4″ sections and place them into a buttered baking dish. Let rise 2-3 hours, more or less depending on your yeast and room temp. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden in 375* oven. If you want them to be extra dreamy you can put more melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, and crispy nutsin the bottom of the pan before you put the rolls in, let them rise and bake. When they're done, invert them onto a platter. YUM.

• For an even easier way to make cinnamon rolls (no rolling the dough out) — this is how my Mom made hers: prepare the pan as described above (butter, sugaror maple syrup, cinnamon and pecans if you want them into the bottom of a baking dish), fill a small bowl 2/3 full with cinnamon and sugar…not sure how much, I just guessed – I like it very cinnamony. Grab pieces of your dough out of the breadmaker (or the Bosch) – between a golf ball and a tennis ball size. Shape the dough into a ball, and then work it around in the cinnamon & sugar mixture, flip it, stretch it in, just get as much as you can all through the dough, then make it back into a ball shape. Place with any folded or tucked pieces down, so they stay put, into the prepared pan. Let rise and bake the same as above. Much easier, and just as yummy.

• Homemade buns: Hotdog, hamburger, whatever – just shape your dough however you want to, remembering that it will rise. This recipe makes about 20 or more big hamburger buns. I make them sort of tall because, obviously, when they rise you'll want to slice in half like a store-bought bun. When they're a good height and have risen to about the size you want them, bake at 400* until golden (about 15 minutes, but remember oven temps vary).

• "Bagel" Dogs!

  One batch of dough is enough to wrap around about 23-24 of your favorite hot dogs or brats, then let rise 30-60 minutes or so and bake 20 minutes at 400*.

Here's another recipe for make-ahead rolls if you want to check it out.