Yeast Bread Dinner Rolls

Do you want to make people come running to your dinner table? Bake these. You’ll have neighbors lining up at the door begging to come in. 

To make these rolls you need all-purpose flour, yeast, milk, sugar, butter Crisco, salt, and eggs. There aren’t any fancy ingredients here. This is good home cooking. Nothing crazy. I save that for the weekend.

In a large mixing bowl, mix your yeast and flour. Yeast looks so cool. I love yeast. Stacy loves yeast!

In a saucepan combine milk, sugar, butter Crisco, and salt. Heat it just a little bit until the Crisco almost melts but not quite. You don’t want it to boil. We don’t want to shock the heck out of the yeast. We want to excite it, not give it a heart attack. The recipe says about 120° to 130°. You can test it if you want, but I usually just wing it. I’m a risk taker!

Add the milk mixture to your yeast mixture and stir. Also add your beaten eggs. If the milk was too hot, it would cook the eggs too. Big no-no. You’ll beat this mixture with a mixer on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Or you can be like me and just mix it really fast with your hand and see if you can go as fast as a mixer. You can’t. After the initial mixing, you want to mix quickly for about 3 minutes. This might be easier with a mixer, but I don’t always do the easy route.

With a wooden spoon (I love homemade wooden spoons!) add as much flour as you need to make a really stiff dough. It needs to leave the side of the bowl when you stir, almost making a ball.

Turn your dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes. This is a great workout for your arms! One! Two! Three! Repeat. You’ll sweat if it’s hot in the kitchen. Your baby won’t really tolerate this part well. Six minutes is too long to not focus on her. She’ll try to climb up your leg. Ignore the baby and keep kneading. Knead until it’s smooth and elastic. You’ll want it to spring back out when you push it with your finger. That part is cool. Try to refrain from poking it over and over.

Grease a large bowl with oil. Plop your dough in there and turn it over so it’s coated on all sides. Cover it and let it rise until doubled. This can take an hour, or this can take all day. Who knows? I never know. Bread is fickle, just like a woman. I guess that’s why I love it! I find that it rises quickly if you stick it in the oven with only the light on. Nice tip, huh?

When it’s doubled in size, punch it down. Great stress relief! Punch it baby!

Put it back on your floured surface and divide it in half. Let it rest for 10 minutes, covered. It’s tired. It’s worked hard. Nap time! Grease your cookie sheets while it naps.

For this batch I just wanted normal rolls, so I knew it would be 24. That makes 12 small balls from each half. I’m good at math. To get my rolls nice and smooth on top I pull them tight and bunch them up at the bottom. Pinch. Fun stuff.

Place them in your greased pan with a little space. Remember they have to double in size again. Cover and let them rise until doubled.

When they’re doubled in size, you’re ready to bake! Some people like to brush with butter before baking, but I like to do it afterwards. I’m a rebel.  If you didn’t want to use cookie sheets, you could use buttered muffin cups instead. You could also divide each roll into three pieces and roll them into mini balls. Place into a greased muffin cup and you have cloverleaf rolls! Genius!

You will bake them until brown, about 14 minutes depending on your oven. They will make your house smell like a bakery! I love making rolls. Rolls give me rolls. Ha, ha! That was funny, admit it. Immediately remove rolls from pan and let cool on wire racks. Try to save some for dinner. They’re delicious straight from the oven with melted butter. Thank you Jesus for rolls!

Print Recipe

Dinner Rolls

Servings: 24 rolls

Ingredients

• 4 ¼ – 4 ¾ cups all purpose flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter Crisco
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 beaten eggs

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, stir together 2 cups flour and yeast.
• In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter Crisco, and salt just until warm and butter Crisco almost melts (about 120°-130°).
• Add milk mixture to flour mixture with beaten eggs. Beat with mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can until you have a stiff dough.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface. Knead in remaining flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes total.
• Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Turn once to coat dough with oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.
• Punch dough down. Turn out onto lightly-floured surface and divide in half. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, grease baking sheets or muffin cups.
• Shape the dough into desired rolls and place on prepped pans. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pans and cool on wire racks.