These homemade dinner rolls were destined to be shared. Light, fluffy, with the perfect combination of spelt and all-purpose flour, then slathered with butter hot from the oven, what’s not to love? These will certainly be your go-to dinner rolls for all your holiday meals.
When grandma wasn’t able to do all the holiday baking anymore, the responsibility of making her incredible dinner rolls got passed down to me. (No pressure, right?)
Truthfully, I didn’t mind one bit because grandma’s recipe is the best there is! Over the years I’ve even tested and adapted it to where they’re the perfect combination of fluffy and nutty (from the fresh ground spelt flour), and then made irresistible with the freshly melted butter slathered all over the top as they come hot from the oven.
This is one recipe you’ll definitely want on your holiday tables this year, but you will certainly want to give them a try before then!
If you have my book, The Made From Scratch Life, then you’re already familiar with this recipe. But if this is your first time making homemade rolls, or maybe your first time using fresh-milled flour, then be sure to read through this post for all my best tips and tricks.
Why I Love This Recipe
When you think of homemade dinner rolls you think of steaming hot soft bread that’s slathered with butter, am I right? But far too often people think whole wheat can’t be light and fluffy like white flour. And though I do use white flour in my kitchen (albeit organic and unbleached), I like to use it in combination with fresh-milled flour so we’re still getting the great health benefits of the whole grains.
This recipe has been adapted throughout the years, and now my family literally gets mad at me if I don’t bring them to our holiday meals! In fact, one year I opted to make homemade croissants (as in, takes three days to make them!) and my family let me know the rolls needed to be included for all future holidays.
Lesson learned, I will now come with rolls, even if I decide to bring something extra!
Ingredients Needed
This recipe may look very similar to other homemade dinner rolls, but there are a few key ingredients that are major players.
- Yeast – This recipe calls for yeast, of course I do love me a good sourdough bread (especially this best beginner sourdough sandwich bread), but sometimes there’s no stand in for yeasted breads, so you’ll always find a bag of yeast in my pantry (PRO TIP: If you won’t use up all your yeast before it goes bad, store it in the freezer to prolong the shelf-life!).
- Cultured buttermilk – the buttermilk does something magical in bread products. In fact, that’s why I love it for buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk muffins (and even buttermilk fried chicken!). If you don’t have buttermilk, store-bought plain or homemade yogurt is a decent stand in and will work for this recipe. If you don’t have either, you can take 1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and add it to two cups milk, let it sit for 5-10 minutes and use that instead, though this is never a replacement for true homemade cultured buttermilk!
- Softened butter – you don’t have to let the butter melt completely as I did in the video above, however if you get distracted, melted butter works just fine, too! You could sub canned coconut milk for a dairy-free option.
- Honey – I prefer using honey in my baked bread goods over granulated sugar. The honey helps turn these rolls a nice golden-brown and add just the perfect amount of sweetness (not too much, but just right!).
- Fresh ground spelt flour – If you’ve never baked with freshly milled flour before, let me be your biggest encourager! It adds so many health benefits and an incredible flavor profile that can’t be beat by any rolls from the grocery store! (Read more on the health benefits of home-milled flour here.) You can also check out this post for more info on griding your own grains at home, and check out this post if you’re thinking of buying your own grain mill.
- All-purpose flour – If you don’t have access to fresh-milled flour, you can use just all-purpose flour, or a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat flour. Normally I like to bake without all-purpose flour, but I’ve also noticed that spelt flour tends to make flatter loaves of bread or rolls, so doing a combination here gives us the best of both worlds. Read more here for picking the Best Flour for Baking- Home Baker’s Flour Guide 101 and Where to Buy Grains in Bulk – My Favorite Sources based on what you’re baking.
How to Make Homemade Dinner Rolls
1. Mix warm water and dry yeast together in a bowl and stir to combine with a whisk.
2. Set aside and allow the yeast to bloom for a couple of minutes.
3. Add buttermilk, egg, softened butter, and honey into the bowl and stir to combine.
4. Add flours and salt and mix by hand using a dough whisk until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (can use a stand mixer for this step if desired).
You’re looking for a wet and tacky dough to start. When using fresh ground flour, it will continue to absorb moisture for 10-15 minutes (unlike store-bought flour that absorbs very quickly).
To know if your dough is tacky enough, grab a ball of dough and press it between your fingers. It should want to stick to your fingers, but if you move them quickly enough, it will pull away and stay in a ball.
5. Using the kneading attachment to your stand mixer, mix your dough on low for about four minutes, then turn the mixer off to give your dough a rest.
6. The dough should now form a nice ball. Test the dough by pinching off smaller than a golf-ball size piece of dough, then stretch it out between your fingers into a “windowpane”. If you can stretch it enough to see light through the dough without it tearing, then your dough has been kneaded enough.
If the dough tears before you can get it thin enough to see light through it, then let it rest for about four minutes, then knead it on low for another two minutes and do the windowpane test again.
7. Remove the dough from the bowl, add some oil to your bowl to keep the dough from sticking, then place the dough back into the bowl, giving it a quick turn so all sides are coated in oil.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and place in a warm, draft-free area of your kitchen to rise for one hour (or until doubled in size).
This may take more or less time depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
8. Remove dough from the bowl and place it on the countertop. Divide the dough into 15-16 equal portions. You can get precise and weigh out your dough to ensure equal-sized rolls, but I just eyeball it!
9. With each ball of dough, you want to create surface tension by pulling the dough in and around itself (much easier to watch the video at minute 15:50).
10. Place each ball of dough, seam side down into a greased pan (or well-seasoned cast iron skillet) leaving adequate space between each roll to allow the rolls to double in size.
11. Cover rolls with a slightly damp tea towel and allow them to rise until doubled in size.
Keep in mind when the rolls hit the hot oven they will rise a little bit more!
12. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bake rolls for 12-15 minutes.
Rolls should be just starting to turn golden brown on top when they’re done.
13. When they’re fresh out of the oven, take a stick of butter and rub it over the tops of the rolls generously.
If you can, it’s best to let the rolls cool for 30 minutes before eating, otherwise, the centers may turn a bit gummy!
Tips & Tricks
- If you’ve never worked with fresh-milled flour before, just know it is slightly different than working with all-purpose or even store-bought whole wheat flours. Read more of my tips on baking with fresh-milled flour here.
- When using fresh ground flour, it will continue to absorb moisture for 10-15 minutes (unlike store-bought flour that absorbs very quickly). To know if your dough is tacky enough, grab a ball of dough and press it between your fingers. It should want to stick to your fingers, but if you move them quickly enough, it will pull away and stay in a ball.
- Don’t keep adding more liquid to try and get your dough wet enough, just be patient! When in doubt, give your dough five extra minutes to sit before deciding if you need to add more flour or more liquid.
More Recipes You May Enjoy
- Green Bean Casserole
- EASIEST Homemade Bao Bun Recipe
- Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread (in 5 Minutes)
- Best Beginner Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
- Traditional Hot Cross Buns – Easy Recipe from 1950
- Best Flour for Baking- Home Baker’s Flour Guide 101
- Grinding Your Own Flour + 6 Fresh Flour Baking Tips
- Tips for Better Bread Making (No More Dense or Crumbly Loaves)
- How to Store Homemade Bread (Stays Fresh Longer!)
- DIY No-Knead Bread Mix in a Jar (Great Christmas Gift!)
Did you make this recipe? If so, I’d love for you to leave me a star rating in the recipe card below, then tag me on social media so I can see! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Grandma’s Best Homemade Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast equivalent to one packet
- 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup salted butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 1/2 cups Spelt flour freshly ground (if using other flour types see notes section for adjustments)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour I use organic, unbleached
- 3/4 teaspoon salt can add up to 1 teaspoon if using unsalted butter
Instructions
- Mix warm water and dry yeast together in a bowl and stir to combine with a whisk. Set aside and allow the yeast to bloom.
- Add buttermilk, egg, softened butter, and honey into the bowl and stir to combine.
- Add flours and salt and mix by hand using a dough whisk until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (can use a stand mixer for this step if desired).
- Using the kneading attachment to your stand mixer, mix your dough on low for about four minutes, then turn the mixer off to give your dough a rest.
- Test the dough by doing the "windowpane" test (see post above for directions).
- If the dough tears before you can get it thin enough to see light through it, then let it rest for about four minutes, then knead it on low for another two minutes and do the windowpane test again.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, add some oil to your bowl to keep the dough from sticking, then place the dough back into the bowl, giving it a quick turn so all sides are coated in oil.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel and place in a warm, draft-free area of your kitchen to rise for one hour (or until doubled in size).
- Remove dough from the bowl and place on the countertop.
- Divide the dough into 15-16 equal portions. You can get precise and weigh out your dough to ensure equal-sized rolls, but I just eyeball it!
- Place each ball of dough, seam side down into a greased pan (or well-seasoned cast iron skillet) leaving adequate space between each roll to allow the rolls to double in size.
- Cover rolls with a slightly damp tea towel and allow them to rise until doubled in size (about one hour).
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bake rolls for 12-15 minutes.
- Rolls should be just starting to turn golden brown on top when they're done.
- When they're fresh out of the oven, take a stick of butter and rub it over the tops of the rolls generously.
- If you can, it's best to let the rolls cool for 30 minutes before eating, otherwise the centers may turn a bit gummy!
Video
Notes
- For all-purpose or bread flour use 3 & 3/4 cups flour.
- For store-bought whole wheat start with 3 and 1/2 cups flour and only add more if it’s too sticky to handle.
- See notes in the blog post above on how to do a “windowpane test”.
- Read the notes in the blog post on using fresh-milled flour and how it acts differently than store-bought flours.
- Don’t skip the step of melting butter on the tops of the freshly baked rolls! Trust me!
Well, no rolls for Thanksgiving this year. How long does it take for the yeast to bloom? I tried 3 different yeasts (borrowing from neighbors) and NONE bloomed until I added sugar … which wasn’t in the recipe. As the note said, I replaced the spelt flour with 3 & 3/4 bread flour. Apparently, it means 3 & 3/4 flour TOTAL. So there was no such thing as “tacky” bread. It was stiff as a rock. Recipe says to let it rest after mixing. For how long? What should it look like? Is it supposed to rise? Ultimately, very unclear. Dough had to be thrown away. Not enough time to try again after spending over an hour just trying to get yeast to bloom. No rolls for Thanksgiving and family wasn’t thrilled about that.
There is a step by step video and written instructions. If your yeast didn’t bloom then it wasn’t active, you can’t blame a dense roll if your yeast wasn’t active on the recipe. I’m not sure what else 3 & 3\4 cup of all-purpose or bread flour would mean but 3 & 3\4 cup flour. The rest periods are spelled out in minutes in the recipe instructions. I don’t know how to be anymore helpful by providing a video tutorial, exact written instructions and the substitutions for other flours. As you can see from the other reviews, this is a great recipe when followed as written.
Oh my goodness! Thanks so much for this recipe. The delicate flavor of the fresh ground Spelt really takes them to the next level. So soft and fluffy!
I love this recipe. I use it to make cinnamon swirl bread and oh my goodness…it is so yummy!! I would like to transition to sourdough. Any idea how to convert this to sourdough?
Do you have information on how much of the master dough to use if we take that approach to make the dough?
I love this recipe! I’ve been making these since last year and they’ve turned out great every year! This year for thanksgiving, I made the dough and rolled them out Wednesday night. I put them in the fridge and over night and Thursday morning I baked them. They still turned out perfect! So for those curious about prepping them ahead of time, it works! I just wouldn’t leave them in the fridge for longer than 12 hours. Thanks for sharing Melissa!
Hello Melissa, I have a Wondermill and I’m excited to try this recipe. I love sweet potatoes and wonder if you’ve ever added them or pumpkin? Also, do you have a cinnamon roll recipe?
I would also love to know about making ahead! It’s the 11th hour, day before thanksgiving and trying today to do all I can ahead of time. Can I refrigerate overnight these rolls? Possibly after the first rise after I’ve divided the dough? Then take them out tomorrow let them rise final time before baking? If that has worked for anyone, How many hours ahead can I keep them in fridge?
I haven’t tried refrigerating the dough after the first rise and then baking, but I’ve done that with other doughs. If you do that I would form the rolls after the first rise and then put them in the fridge formed. If you can do that tonight and then bake in the morning (like an 8 to 12 hour time in fridge) that would be best, the longer you go the potential less rise you’ll have.
Have you ever made these ahead of time for a large gathering and frozen?
Reading the recipe you have fresh ground spelt flour with all purpose flour. Do you always use the all purpose flour with the spelt flour or do you also use fresh ground Hard Wheat Berry?
Generally I do the all-purpose because it does have a lighter finished texture but doing hard white wheat as the other would be fine.
In this lovely roll recipe under directions you have rise time only once then show it only takes an hour+ min. Shouldn’t it be 2 rise times?
The recipe calls for it to raise twice: once after kneading it and next when you make the rolls and place in a pan. I made it on October 31,2021 and that’s what I did.
Perfect timing! We were just debating if we wanted to wake up our starter to make our usual sourdough rolls for Thanksgiving…and honestly, we weren’t totally feeling it this year – and then I got your email with this recipe and now we’ve got a new roll solution. They look amazing, can’t wait to try them.
Great Bread recipe. Hints Helpful
Can you use a mock buttermilk non dairy milk? Anyone tried it???
I have a written recipe for crescent rolls from my grandma. I think it’s from the 1950s. Calls for compressed yeast and scalded milk. Going to try it today. Email me if you’d like the recipe.
Would love your recipe!!!
Love your emails and everything you share. I have even done up a little book. Just love the old recipes much better than the stuff out there today.
Can you possibly do PDF’s so I can save the recipes that way? Would be so much easier.
Keep up the excellent work you are doing.
God Bless krys
Krys, the recipe has a print button so you can print it out for safe keeping.
These look lovely! The only problem is that Spelt actually has higher levels of gluten than wheat and it is a big problem for celiac, but might be better for someone with a wheat intolerance or sensitivity.
I love the taste of spelt, all nutty and yummy.
The gluten in ancient grains, like spelt and einkorn is a different type of gluten than found in modern wheat, which makes it easier for most people with sensitivities to tolerate.
My daughter is able to eat spelt flour that I grain myself!!
These look so good….would they make good hamburger buns? If not, how would you modify the recipe?
Hi Jeff, I think they would work for hamburger buns. They are the perfect size for my homemade hamburgers…if you tend to buy or make larger burgers, you could just make fewer (but larger) rolls.