Easiest No-Knead Dinner Rolls — 🍯🙏 These soft, light, fluffy yeast dinner rolls are so easy to make! They’re practically work-free because there’s no kneading involved!
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Easiest No-Knead Dinner Rolls Recipe
There’s nothing better than warm, fresh, buttery homemade dinner rolls. The only thing better than the rolls is that the dough is a make-ahead and no-knead dough.
This quick dinner roll recipe is perfect for anyone who’s never worked with yeast because it’s almost impossible to screw up. If you can dump ingredients in a bowl and stir, you can make these.
I like to brush the tops with honey butter before baking and it makes them even more irresistible. Schmear the extra honey butter on after they’ve baked as you’re devouring them. So good.
The rolls are light, soft, and fluffy. I just want to rip them apart and drench them in honey butter.
Now You Can Make This in a Slow Cooker!
This no-knead roll recipe has been a reader favorite since I first published it in 2013. I recently created a spinoff recipe for no-knead slow cooker dinner rolls, which uses just 6 basic ingredients and is also a breeze to make!
Ingredients in No-Knead Dinner Rolls
These are such easy homemade dinner rolls to make, and they call for minimal ingredients. To make these no-knead dinner rolls, gather the following:
- Water
- Instant yeast
- Eggs
- Oil (canola or vegetable work well)
- Honey
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Butter (for the honey butter)
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make No-Knead Rolls
These no-knead bread rolls are practically work-free because there’s no-kneading involved. Since there’s no kneading, I don’t even use my stand mixer and stir everything together with a wooden spoon in a bowl.
Here’s an overview of how the rolls come together:
- Simply combine warm water, yeast, two eggs, honey, oil and flour.
- Stir the dough together, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for about two hours to rise. (The plastic wrap is very important and shouldn’t be overlooked! If you leave off the plastic wrap, you’ll wind up with dense dough balls.)
- Gently punch down the dough. Knead it only so much as necessary to shape it into balls for dinner rolls.
- Place balls of dough in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Let rise for 1 more hour.
- Bake the rolls for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly golden and puffed.
Baking Tip: Use the Dough for Other Kinds of Bread!
The recipe will yield about 14 to 16 dinner rolls, but I don’t only make rolls with this dough. Sometimes I make mini challah loaves, or I make mini loaves of bread in mini loaf pans.
You can see how much mileage I got from one batch of dough. And it’s not even that much dough, just a 3 1/2 cups flour recipe, but I love the flexibility of it!
Make-Ahead Instructions
These no-knead dinner rolls can easily be prepared in advance and baked off just before you plan on serving them.
To make the rolls in advance:
- Let the dough rise once, then place it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- When ready to use, punch down the dough and form the rolls.
- Let the rolls rise a second time (about 1 hour) before baking them as instructed in the recipe card below.
Recipe FAQs
I’ve made this no-knead roll recipe using a blend of all-purpose and bread flour, but I prefer using just all-purpose flour because it creates softer, squishier bread and it’s not quite as high-rising. If you want to use bread flour as well, I’ve also tested this recipe with a blend of 2 1/2 cups bread flour and 1 cup all-purpose.
You can’t simply substitute all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour in baked goods, as they have different protein contents, etc.
However, if you’re looking for a whole wheat dinner roll recipe I recommend making these Whole Wheat No-Knead Rolls. I’ve tested this recipe many times and know it works!
ou can use oil or melted butter in the no-knead yeast rolls. Oil creates a softer loaf, and butter creates a crustier crust. Also, butter-based dough is firmer and slightly easier to work with, but I have no trouble with oil-based dough and prefer it.
You want to use an active dry yeast or an instant yeast. I use Red Star Platinum Yeast and it never lets me down!
Proofing the yeast is when you sprinkle it over warm water and let it foam up for 5 to 10 minutes. Technically you don’t have to proof instant yeast (which is what this recipe calls for) but because this is a no-knead rolls recipe I prefer proofing the yeast anyways just to make sure it’s alive.
In my experience, no. I recommend baking the yeast dinner rolls as written and then freezing them. Frozen dinner rolls thaw beautifully — just set them on your counter and let them come to room temperature!
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No-Knead Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
No Knead Rolls
- ⅞ cup water, scant 1 cup, warmed to about 125F for Platinum yeast, about 105 to 115F for most other yeast
- 2 ¼ teaspoons instant or active dry yeast (one 1/4-ounce packet, I use Red Star Platinum
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil, or 1/4 cup butter (oil creates a softer loaf, butter creates a crustier crust; butter-based dough is firmer and slightly easier to work with, but I have no trouble with oil-based dough and prefer the bread)
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour, I have also used 2 1/2 cups bread flour and 1 cup all-purpose; bread flour creates chewier, firmer bread; AP creates softer, squisher bread and it’s not quite as high-rising
Honey Butter (Optional)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, very soft
- 2 to 3 tablespoons honey
Instructions
Make the dough:
- Pour water into a microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl and warm it to manufacturer’s directions on yeast packet, about 45 seconds on high power. Take the temperature with a thermometer. If you don’t have one, water should be warm to the touch, but not hot. Err on the side of too cool rather than too hot because you don’t want to kill the yeast.
- Pour water into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top; wait 5 to 10 minutes, or until yeast is foamy. This means it’s alive and will work. (This is proofing and technically with instant dry yeast you don’t have to proof it, but for this recipe, I do)
- Add the eggs, oil, 1/4 cup honey, optional salt, and whisk to combine, about 30 seconds.
- Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate the flour. Stir for about 1 minute more. This is as much ‘kneading’ as the recipe requires. Dough will be thick, lumpy, bumpy, and not smooth. This is okay.
- Make a ball with the dough in the center of the bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. * (see note below)
- At this point, you have two choices: bake the rolls now or bake them later.
If baking immediately:
- If you plan to bake now, punch dough down, remove it from bowl, and turn it out onto a well-floured surface.
- Knead it only so much as necessary to shape it into balls for rolls (I divide the dough in half, and if I’m making rolls, I make 8 rolls from each half, for 16 rolls total, they’re just a bit bigger than golf balls). Or form desired shapes such as mini loaves, challah, breadsticks, pretzels, etc. Use only what you need and save the rest for later in the refrigerator.
- Place balls of dough in a cooking sprayed round baking dish or pie plate, or in an 8×8 or 9×9 pan; size depends on how many you’re making. They can be close to each other, but if they’re overly squished they’ll bake into each other.
- Cover baking dish with plastic wrap, and allow rolls to rise in a warm, draft-free environment for about 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. I use the preheated oven trick again.
- In the final minutes of rising, preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake rolls for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly golden and puffed. Baking time will vary greatly based on how many rolls you’re baking, or if it’s another shape such as a mini loaf, the size of the pan, and personal preference. Watch your bread, not the clock.
- Serve as soon as bread is cool enough to handle.
If baking later:
- If you plan to bake later, take dough that’s risen for about 2 hours from step 5, keep it covered, and refrigerate it. Dough may be kept refrigerated for up to 5 days before baking.
- When you plan to bake, pick up at step 5 and follow through the section labeled "if baking immediately."
Make the honey butter:
- Stir to combine the butter and honey. Generously brush or spread the mixture over the top of the dough before baking.
- Reserve remainder to serve with rolls after baking.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Dinner Roll Recipes:
No-Knead Slow Cooker Dinner Rolls – 🙌🏻😋 Learn how to make dinner rolls from scratch in your Crock-Pot in less than 2 hours WITHOUT kneading! These are the EASIEST rolls you’ll ever make!
Texas Roadhouse Rolls — Soft, buttery, fluffy, and light this easy COPYCAT recipe for Texas Roadhouse rolls with cinnamon honey butter is INCREDIBLE!
Parker House Rolls — The BEST homemade dinner rolls because they’re so light, airy, fluffy and practically melt in your mouth!
Honey Dinner Rolls — Lightly sweetened from honey in the dough and are then brushed with honey-butter prior to baking, which lends both a golden color to the rolls and infuses them with a subtle sweetness.
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls — These rolls are soft, slightly chewy, and the pumpkin puree keeps them moist and adds just enough tooth-sinking density.
I agree with you 100%… definitely nothing better than warm dinner rolls! These look amazing!
This is totally a recipe I have to try ,looks so delicious.
Meghan Silva’s Blog
Could this be any easier?! You know I don’t bake much with yeast but that’s about to change with these rolls here. And you know I’ll just eat a basket full of this instead of eating real food.
Oh, Averie…your dinner rolls look out-of-this-world tasty! That cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, is one of my all time favorite yeast bread baking books. Easy dinner rolls fresh from the oven with honey butter is…sheer heaven! Fabulous! xo
Glad you’re a fan of the method, too!
Averie! Those look SO lovely (you are a genius)
You got me at Honey Butter! YUM!
I don’t even eat bread, and all of these bread posts make me salivate more than any of your dessert posts. Not that those aren’t great too, but there is just something about simple baked bread with the basic ingredients. I can smell it from here!
They were so, so, so good. There were no words, actually! I would rather have a warm piece of bread and butter than a warm cookie most days!
I just love the 5 minutes a day bread recipes. They really are so much easier and make for a light, airy delicious bread. I love all of the ways you say you can use them and the honey butter, oh yum! Love it!
Glad you’re a fan of the method too!
Hi Averie! Ahhhhh bread! Bread is my one true love I swear….and chocolate ;) These look so easy I must try them! I have to tell you that your photography is completely flawless. I could look at it all day. And I love your props! I noticed that nice dark wood in nearly all of your posts. Is that a table or a cutting board or what? And where did you get it? It’s beautiful.
It’s a 400 year old vintage Chinese writing desk that I bought from a local antique dealer. :) It was made in the mid 1600s.
Oh my word, I can’t get over how versatile and EASY this recipe is! And um yum!
These rolls look perfect. I can’t tell you how many nights we have dinner and I wish I had some rolls that I made earlier.. now I have no excuse! :)
I have made so many of your bread recipes and they are all fantastic! I love your honey dinner rolls and the soft pretzels and the most AMAZING sandwich bread ever and I am sure this will be no different. We have made the sandwich bread so many times now and now I am wanting to make the challah next! The thing I love about your breads is how easy they are but how great they taste. I have made my share of breads and it is not the case with every recipe. I need to get some mini pans again…I wore mine out years ago! :-)
Thanks for saying that, Michelle! I have made some bread recipes that are complicated and/or don’t turn out (or worse yet, complicated and a dud). The #1 question/issue/problems I get are on yeast bread recipes when readers write with issues. And then sometimes I wonder, well, why are they having this issue…is it me? But then I always remember that you, and a couple other ladies make almost all my bread (and other!) recipes and you don’t have issues at all. So just knowing you try my recipes, it’s a form of testing that I can count on and I am grateful! xoxo
Whoa, Averie, these rolls look SO darn good! Something about the addition of honey makes me think these are pretty addicting, huh?
These look great. I can’t believe they are no-knead. How simple is that? I wonder if they would work with a bit of whole grain flour added in? Oh, and I love the honey butter. Yummmmm!
I have a whole wheat version coming, likely next week. Sit tight for it. Best whole wheat rolls I have ever had :)
Your honey dinner rolls are my favorite dinner rolls I’ve ever made, so I can’t wait to try these! I love that they are no-knead – can’t beat that!
I love those rolls, too, Marie! These are very similar to that in terms of taste, minus the kneading. And I used bread flour in those, vs. just using AP here. So these are softer and more tender; those are a bit more chewy. They are both great – but these are less labor intensive, no kneading, and one bowl!
I’m a sucker for any kind of bread, but when it’s paired with honey butter… so good!