Easy Overnight Dinner Rolls
These Easy Overnight Dinner Rolls are soft, light, buttery, and SO delicious. Serve warm from the oven with a generous amount of butter and a sprinkle of flaky salt on top.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Dinner rolls you can make the day before
- Recipe run through
- Recipe q&a
- Tools I recommend
- Bake Easy Overnight Dinner Rolls with me
- For more buns and rolls recipes, check out:
Dinner rolls you can make the day before
I am so excited to share this super easy, weekday (or weekend) friendly dinner roll recipe with you!
All you have to do is simply mix up the dough, knead, and then pop the whole dough into the fridge. The next day, take the dough out of the fridge a couple of hours before you are ready to serve. Shape into balls, rise, bake, and voilá!
Recipe run through
Day 1
Make the dough
- Mix up the main dough – Add all ingredients, except butter, to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Start with the minimum amount of milk, and add more if needed. Knead for 10-15 minutes until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Add butter – You want your butter to be soft and at room temperature, but not melty. Cut it into cubes, and slowly, while the mixer is on, add one cube of butter at a time. When you have added all the butter, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and continue mixing at medium speed until the dough passes the window-pane test. Depending on your mixer, this can take anywhere from 10-25 minutes.
- Overnight rest in the fridge – Gently shape the dough into a round, and place it in a lightly oiled baking bowl. Transfer to the fridge for 10-18 hours or overnight.
Day 2
Shape, rise and bake
- Shape into rounds – Remove the dough from the fridge and dump it onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide it into either 12×60 grams or 9×80 grams rolls. Shape each dough piece into seamless rounds.
- Place in baking pan – Arrange the rolls in a 9×9-inch baking pan, cover, and rise in a warm spot (ideally at around 78°F/26°C) until they have doubled in size and look nice and puffy.
- Bake – Preheat your oven to 355°F/180°C. Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes, until nice and golden on top.
Easy Overnight Dinner Rolls Q&A
Yup! You can simply skip the fridge proof and leave the dough to rise in a warm spot instead (ideally at around 78°F/26°C) until doubled. Then dump the dough onto your work surface and shape it into rounds. Place in a greased/lined 9x9x-inch baking pan, and lastly, let them proof for 30-45 minutes until they are nice and puffy—Bake as instructed in the recipe card below.
I recommend using bread flour or strong white flour with a 13-15% protein percentage. I also recommend adjusting the amount of liquid (in this case, whole milk) to the specific flour you are using. For example, lower protein flours usually require less liquid, while higher protein flours need more liquid.
The Window Pane test is one of the best ways to tell if you have kneaded your dough long enough. Hold a corner of your dough with both hands and slowly stretch it out. If you can stretch the dough until it’s thin and nearly translucent (without tearing), it’s ready to go! If the dough tears apart rather quickly, it should be kneaded longer.
Yes, here are some pointers on how to do that:
You might want to use a little extra liquid (milk) because whole wheat flour absorbs liquid differently from white bread flour.
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend using only whole wheat flour for this recipe. It depends on the specific flour, but whole wheat doughs will usually be more challenging to handle, and the result will be different in terms of flavor and texture.
I would stick to a 50/50 bread flour/whole wheat flour ratio and add extra liquid if necessary.
Absolutely! Let them cool down after baking and simply transfer them (the whole batch or singular rolls) to the freezer. Take them out of the freezer to thaw a few hours before you are ready to serve. Reheat the rolls for a couple of minutes at 390°F/200°C and serve immediately. Easy, right?
You don’t need a lot of tools to make dinner rolls, but there are a few things I recommend you have on hand:
- Digital Scale is essential for exact measurements.
- Stand mixer fitted with a dough hook to easily knead your dough.
- Brød & Taylor Proofer Box – to perfectly manage the temperature during proof.
- Bench knife – to divide the dough and assist you during shaping.
- This dough fits perfectly in a 9×9-inch baking pan.
Bake easy overnight dinner rolls with me
More buns and rolls recipes
- SOURDOUGH MILK BUNS
- SOURDOUGH BRIOCHE BURGER BUNS
- BRAIDED SOURDOUGH CARDAMOM BUNS
- NORWEGIAN SCHOOL BUNS
- THE BEST SOURDOUGH CINNAMON ROLLS
Easy Overnight Dinner Rolls
Equipment
- Digital scale
- Stand mixer
- Bench knife
- 9×9-inch bread pan
Ingredients
Dough
- 370 g bread flour
- 20 g sugar
- 8 g instant dry yeast
- 8 g salt
- 185-210 g whole milk
- 70 g eggs 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 65 g unsalted butter softened
Toppings
- melted butter
- flaky salt
Instructions
Day 1
- Add all ingredients, except butter, to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Start with the minimum amount of milk, and add more if needed. Knead for 10-15 minutes until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.370 g bread flour, 20 g sugar, 8 g instant dry yeast, 8 g salt, 185-210 g whole milk, 70 g eggs
- Add the softened butter in cubes, one cube at a time. Continue kneading at medium speed for 10-15 minutes until your dough passes the window-pane test.65 g unsalted butter
- Gently shape the dough into a round, and place it in a lightly oiled baking bowl.
- Transfer the dough to the fridge for 10-18 hours or overnight.
Day 2
- After 10-18 hours: remove the dough from the fridge and dump it onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide it into either 12×60 grams or 9×80 grams rolls. Use a scale for accuracy.
- Shape each dough piece into seamless rounds and place in a greased/lined 9×9 baking tray. Cover and proof in a warm spot (ideally at 78°F/26°C) for around two hours, or until the dinner rolls have doubled in size and look nice and puffy.
- Preheat your oven to 355°F/180°C. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until nice and golden on top.
- Brush with melted butter and add a sprinkle of flaky salt immediately as they come out of the oven. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
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12 Comments
Fatima Rajoo
Gòod
Julia
These turned out AMAZING!! Thank you 🙂 they were a hit at dinner!
Marie
Lovely rolls, soft and buttery
Anastasia
It’s my favorite dough! I love it with sinnamon and cardamom and make a rolls with it. The BEST! Thank you! ❤️💋
Ana
Hi! I don’t have any instant yeast so I’m wondering do I use the normal dry one and reduce a little bit of the amound of milk added to the dough? Help me
Chandni
Hi !
Can we avoid the eggs here ? Any substitute?
Julie
Elise – I’m making these now and will freeze for Thanksgiving. do you recommend waiting until thaw and reheat before putting the butter and salt? or doing right away and freezing.
thank you ! love your recipes.
Julie
Bread by Elise
Hi Julie! I recommend waiting until after you have reheated the rolls so that they are freshly buttered and salted once served. 😊 Happy baking!
Juie
Thank you ! I can’t make enough of these !
I make them a bit smaller (50 grams) and roll and tie in a knot. they turn out beautiful. another batch i added a bit of crushed rosemary – so fluffy and delicious…….
Rameeta
Hi,
Can this bread recipe be used to make pull apart breads?
Heather
This are AMAZING! I’ve searched years for the perfect yeast roll recipe and I’ve finally found it! This are so light, fluffy and SO easy to make!!
Cynthia Marrs
Your recipe is so easy to follow. And, you write beautifully. So nice to know that there are young people today that know how to write with good grammar and spelling. I am making these tonight for baking tomorrow.