I’ve tried dozens of recipes and these soft honey dinner rolls are the best ones I’ve ever made! We sweeten them with honey and top with honey butter & salt for the perfect finish.
Have you blown through your Thanksgiving leftovers yet? We had a perfect Friendsgiving this year after Murphy broke out every trick in his book to derail our family event. Seriously every thing that could have gone wrong went wrong so we finally just cancelled it and decided we would try again in a few weeks. But our friends invited us over and we had a fantastic time. The only thing is….we ate through our leftovers in 1 really quite gluttonous day.
No worries though I have two turkeys in my back pocket second fridge at the studio! Ha! At least one of them will be getting cooked today and turned into even more fabulous turkey leftovers. And most importantly? That turkey will be stuffed inside of one of these rolls for the best sandwich ever.
I’ve tried a lot of roll recipes over the years but these soft honey dinner rolls are perfection. I took the base recipe from an old bread book from my grandma, swapped out the sugar and added some extra eggs and topped it with honey butter and salt for a truly splurge worthy roll.
We start off with warm milk, yeast, and just 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to help give the yeast a jump start.
A few notes on the milk…you want your milk to be right around 110 degrees, if you have one use a thermometer, but you don’t have one here is my trick: the milk should feel warm with just an inkling of being hot. Body temperature is 98 degrees so we are going for just a hair over that. Stir first to spread the heat evenly and then test it.
Once you are happy with temperature, add the yeast and sugar. Let it sit for 5 minutes until it’s nice and bubbly. If it doesn’t get nice and bubbly your yeast is bad or your milk was too hot and killed the yeast.
I’ve had bad yeast over the years and now I only use Red Star Yeast and I keep my containers in the freezer in ziplock bags to help them stay fresh even longer.
While your yeast buddies are getting happy we melt the butter and honey together…
Be sure to allow them cool down to the touch too, I heat until the butter is about half way melted and then stir and stir to finish melting it. If you overdo it just pop it in the freezer for a few minutes and stir until you are under that 110 degrees again.
That mixture goes into a stand mixer along with eggs, salt and flour until we get this beautiful dough. Knead it on a board for just 2-3 minutes and then pop it in a warm place covered with oiled plastic wrap or a towel.
It will do it’s yeasty gig for an hour getting big and fluffy and then we just cut them into 24 equal sized hunks, tuck them in their baking pan and let them rise again. Bake for 18 minutes and then brush with honey butter and sprinkle with salt for the last five minutes of baking to get that glorious sweet crunchy salty top.
And you’ll end up with this….
Cue the hallelujah chorus. And yes I burn my fingers every time digging into these as quick as we can get them out of the pan.
Can’t you just smell them?
Oh and my secret….no one can judge for stealing one if you if you just pull them all out of the pan and bring them in a basket with a pretty towel.
There aren’t many things in the world better than this…
How was your Thanksgiving? Did you eat yourself silly like I did? Did Murphy show up as insane as he did for us? Tell me all the details!
Also we are starting to plan some Christmas season family traditions now that the kids are a bit bigger and I’d love to hear what your favorite ones are!
I just read an awesome one about everyone getting books and chocolate for christmas eve and then holing up with a mug of cocoa for the rest of the night. I love it!
Soft Dinner Rolls (Honey Sweetened)
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm milk 110 degrees
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast not instant, I recommend Red Star Yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 eggs whisked
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour plus extra
- Optional: honey butter and salt
Instructions
- Mix warm milk, yeast and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl. Let sit 5 minutes until bubbly.
- Melt butter and honey together, ensure temperature is not above 110 degrees. Should just be warm not hot.
- Add honey butter mixture, eggs, salt and 3 cups of flour to stand mixture. Start on low and allow mixture to come together in mixer. Add remaining flour in 1/2 cup increments until dough is pulling away from edges and cohesive. It should not be horribly sticky but feel soft and pliable.
- Pour out onto a clean floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes.
- Place in a lightly oiled, large mixing bowl. Turn the dough over in the oil so that the top is lightly coated so that it doesn’t dry out. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a clean towel. Place in a warm location usually turn on my oven to 200 degrees for 3-4 minutes and then turn off and put bowl inside. Above a water heater or near a furnace can be good spots, just be sure it's not too hot (around 80-90 degrees is ideal, don't try going hotter to speed things up!).
- Let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Cut into 24 pieces and roll into balls. Place in oiled pan and cover with plastic wrap that has either been lightly oiled or sprayed with non stick spray.
- Allow to rise for 1 hour or until desired size.
- Bake at 350 for 18 minutes then remove from oven and top with honey butter and a sprinkle of salt. Return to oven for 3-5 minutes until tops are browned.
- Serve with additional honey butter if desired.
This is not a sponsored post. I love sharing brands with my readers that work well for me whether I am compensated or not. Happy baking!
Sarah Walker Caron (Sarah's Cucina Bella) says
Such great tips on using yeast, especially about making sure the liquid isn’t too hot. And these rolls look marvelous. So fluffy! I want to eat the whole pan.
Colleen (Souffle Bombay) says
Oh! These are perfect! I want to play Chubby Bunny with these just so I can eat them all!!
Dani Meyer says
Best. comment. ever! Haha I love it.
xoxo
Dani
Rose | The Clean Dish says
Yeast can be so tricky! I usually use a thermometer – it’s just too easy to mess it up! Keeping it in the freezer sounds like a solid plan though. I might try that! These Sweet and Salty Honey Dinner Rolls look absolutely delicious!
Dani Meyer says
Yes the thermometer is totally best! And the freezer trick works SUPER well!
Ginny McMeans says
How gorgeous and light and fluffy. People would eat every one of these right up. Maybe make two pans. 🙂
Kim Beaulieu says
I need these in my life right NOW! This is one seriously freaking fantastic recipe. I want to dive head first right into the middle of the pan and eat my way out.
Dani Meyer says
Bahaha. I love you. We can eat our way out together.
Angie | Big Bear's Wife says
We are down to the very last of our leftovers. They didn’t last very long this year. I haven’t made my own homemade rolls yet but I can’t wait to! I wish I had some left over ham and turkey to have with these!
Dani Meyer says
It’s a sad day when the leftovers run out. I roasted another turkey and ham this week just so it wouldn’t stop. They are cheap right now too so I like to stock up!
<3 Dani
Aly ~ Cooking In Stilettos says
Yeast and I rarely get along – bread recipes always go horribly bad in my kitchen. These rolls look scrumptious and might inspire me to face my irrational bread baking fear!
Dani Meyer says
They are truly SO easy! Definitely grab fresh yeast and give it a run. If your yeast is old because you don’t use it often I’d just toss it, not worth wasting ingredients over something so cheap. Let me know how they go and if you have any questions!
<3 Dani
Nutmeg Nanny says
Hello delicious! I LOVE rolls and bread in just any form. I would probably have a hard time not eating the whole tray…haha.
Dani Meyer says
I had to leave a bunch at our friends house and I still ate my weight in the ones we had left. Off to the gym for me haha!
Heather | All Roads Lead to the Kitchen says
These would go over very well in my house – we love soft white rolls! I think these will have to go on the menu very soon.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Ooooh, these are absolute perfection! The texture looks scrumptious and I just smell the aroma of them baking!
Renee - Kudos Kitchen says
Burnt fingers are well worth digging out one of these fresh, hot rolls straight from the oven. They sound (and look) spectacular!
Dani Meyer says
So true! Now I need rolls again and it’s only 6 am haha.
Lora @savoringitaly says
What lovely rolls and I am so into sweet and salty! They are wonderful to make for a holiday dinner!
Kellie @ The Suburban Soapbox says
The salt and honey clinched it for me….these will be on my table very soon. They look so soft and fluffy and amazing.
lauren Kelly Nutrition says
I have always been intimidated by using yeast but these rolls look amazing!! My family would go crazy for these, Dani! Great job!
Stephanie says
These sound heavenly! The honey with the salt? Mmmmmm
Dani Meyer says
So good. I may have had to send the pans away to control myself 😉
The Food Hunter says
They sound perfect. I am filing them away from xmas.
Dani Meyer says
They would be perfect for Christmas!
Lorena Wheaton says
I was wondering how hard these sweet and salty rolls would be to make in a bread machine, do you think it could be done? Thanks
Dani Meyer says
Hi Lorena,
I don’t have a bread machine currently but if you are just using it to mix the dough and the initial rise I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work well. Just give it the five minutes to proof the yeast before you add the other ingredients. Then pull them out after the first rise and divide up into the rolls, let them proof a second time and bake.
If you are meaning this dough as a loaf of bread I have no idea haha. Definitely let me know if you try it I’m sure others would love to hear your results!
<3 Dani
Lorena Wheaton says
Thank you so much for the information, I will try it and let you know how they turn out, I use my bread machinge alot and it makes it a lot easier so I will try them and let you know the results, God Bless