No stand mixer, no knead, no special equipment required. These No Knead Dinner Rolls are perfectly soft and fluffy and are astonishingly effortless to make. Just combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon – that’s it! It’s the easiest recipe for bread rolls in the whole world!
This recipe for bread rolls will blow your mind!
These dinner rolls are:
made without kneading;
without a stand mixer or any other electric appliance;
take 2 minutes of active effort to mix the dough;
have golden tops and are soft and fluffy on the inside.
Every single time I make these, I am in utter awe of how effortless they are, and how amazing they taste. They are in every way just as good as classic dinner rolls, made by kneading the dough by hand (tired arms, tired arms!) or using a stand mixer.
I truly believe to my very core that only those with a refined palette and/or baking experts can tell the difference between these No Knead Dinner Rolls and traditional kneaded-tired-arms dinner rolls!
See how soft and fluffy they are??
Kneaded vs No Knead Dinner Rolls
In the interest of being completely open and honest, here are the differences that I notice between kneaded dinner rolls and these No Knead Dinner Rolls:
The kneaded rolls stay a wee bit more moist for longer. ie. they are slightly better the next day compared to the No Knead ones. But actually, homemade bread, muffins etc, being preservative free that they are, are always best consumed fresh so I don’t see this as a major disadvantage. Neither the kneaded nor No Knead rolls are great the next day. They lose their moisture and both need to be warmed up before serving to make them moist again. It is just that with the kneaded ones you could possibly get away with not warming up (but they aren’t great), whereas the No Knead ones definitely need warming up;
Kneaded rolls rise a wee bit more. Not noticeable for normal people, and you’d never say the No Knead ones aren’t soft and fluffy. They are, they really are. It’s just that the kneaded ones rise a touch more with the same amount of yeast.
I’m so convinced of the merits of no-knead breads however, that I have since posted No-knead Artisan Bread and Focaccia – both spectacular loaves in their own right that don’t require single minute of kneading!
Dump-and-mix NO KNEAD Dough
In terms of the prep, the batter is literally a dump-and-mix job. There is a major difference in rise time compared to kneaded dough which can rise in 30 – 45 minutes for the 1st rise, then around the same for the 2nd rise after forming the rolls. For these No Knead Dinner Rolls, the dough is much wetter than kneaded dough, so it takes longer to rise. 1.5 – 2 hours, depending on how warm it is where you are. If you use my ridiculous-but-effective tip of rising the dough in your (empty! warm!) dryer, it takes 1.5 hours. 🙂 (See recipes notes for details)
You can see in these photos how different the dough is compared to traditional bread dough. It’s not knead-able, it’s way too sticky. It’s almost more like a muffin batter!
Quick little tip: To get a beautiful golden surface, the dough needs to be rolled tightly and smoothly into balls. With sticky dough, this is tough to do. So here’s my work around: Press the dough down lightly, then bundle it up like a money-bag (mmm…Thai Money Bags…). Flip it over and you have a nice smooth surface with the dough stretched tightly = smooth golden surface. I demo this in the recipe video too (below recipe).
Make-ahead and bake on demand
Another big bonus for these rolls: you can roll the dough into rolls then refrigerate overnight (uncooked) and bake them fresh when you’re ready to serve! It’s quite amazing actually, I wasn’t sure it would work but it does.
Easter is coming up! That’s why I decided to squeeze these in so soon after sharing Hot Cross Buns (which you can make using this No Knead technique, the recipe is in that post). I know some people think baking with yeast is daunting. But I swear to you, watch the video. See how soft and irresistible these rolls come out. And be prepared to be blown away by how easy these are to make!
Carb Monsters unite! – Nagi xx
More No Knead Breads & Flavour variation options!
Cheese and Bacon Rolls (use this no knead dough for that recipe)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
No Knead Dinner Rolls recipe video! No laughing at the Baby Hands – you’ll cop a serious eyeful in this video!
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SOFT NO KNEAD Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Buns:
- 1 tbsp dry yeast (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup caster/superfine sugar , or sub with normal white sugar
- 1/2 cup warm water (Note 2)
- 4 cups bread flour + extra for dusting (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt , cooking/kosher salt
- 1 cup milk, lukewarm, whole or low fat, (Note 2)
- 50g / 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter , melted and cooled
- 2 eggs , at room temperature, beaten with fork
Brushing:
- 1 tbsp butter , melted
Instructions
- Place the yeast and 2 teaspoons of the sugar in a medium bowl, then pour in water. Leave for 5 minutes until it froths.
- Place flour, remaining sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix to combine.
- Make a well in the centre. Add milk, butter, eggs and pour in the yeast liquid, including all froth.
- Mix until combined with wooden spoon – it will be like a thick muffin batter. Not pourable, but thick and sticky.
Rise #1:
- Leave dough in the bowl, cover with a wet (clean) tea towel and place in a warm place (25C/77F+) to rise for around 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until almost tripled in volume. See Note 4 for how I do this (you will laugh – but it works every time!). Dough surface should be bubbly (see video or photos in post).
Forming Balls (watch video, it’s helpful):
- Line a 31.5 x 23.5 cm / 9 x 13″ tray with baking paper with overhang.
- Remove tea towel and punch dough to deflate, then mix briefly in the bowl to get rid of the bubbles in the dough.
- Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough on work surface. Dust top of dough then shape into a log. Cut log into 4 pieces, then cut each piece into 3 pieces (12 in total).
- Take one piece and press down with palm, then use your fingers to gather into a ball, flip (so smooth side is up) then roll the dough briefly to form a ball. This stretches the dough on one side and that’s how I get a nice smooth surface on my roll. (For this step, use as much flour as needed to handle dough and avoid piercing inside into the wet dough)
- Place the ball with the smooth side up on the tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Line them up 3 x 4.
Rise # 2:
- Spray surface of rolls (or cling wrap) with oil (any), then place cling wrap over the tray.
- Return tray to warm place and leave for 30 – 45 min, until the dough has risen by about 75% (less than double in size).
- Partway through Rise #2, preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) or 180C/350F (fan/convection).
- Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, or until the surface is a golden brown and the roll in the centre sounds hollow when tapped. The surface colour is the best test for this recipe.
- Remove rolls from oven. Brush with melted butter.
- Use overhang to lift rolls onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool to warm before serving.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
When he got sent to the naughty corner and he was wondering whether he was allowed back in….
Can you make them smaller? Does that change the baking time? Waiting for the dough to rise – wasn’t as moist or sticky as yours? Wondering what is wrong- yeast was bought bran new.
When making these ahead of time, should you shape dough into rolls, let them rise, and then refrigerate. Or, form the dough into rolls and refrigerate before they rise, and then take them out before baking and let them rise??
HI Tyler! Shape into rolls, put into dish, cover then refrigerate and let them rise in the refrigerater overnight. Works a treat! N x
Made these this morning as a dry run for Thanksgiving. Turned out perfect and they we’re wonderful! Gave some to the neighbors and they loved them too. Took me longer to clean up then to make the rolls. Lol
Glad you enjoyed this Jane! N x
Well my phone has grease thumb prints as I just ate a hot fresh roll. And can I just say.. OMG!! Best rolls ever and easiest bread recipe I ever made! I have a difficult time kneading bread dough due to health issues. And while I love No Knead bread recipes. They’re most always those crusty artisan types. Which are delicious don’t get me wrong. But I wanted to see if there was a recipe for a soft delicious type of bread and cake across your recipe. It’s so fabulous and will he served for Thanksgiving. Now the only problem is not wait the whole pan by myself! Lol Thank you for sharing ❤️
Glad you enjoyed it Jamie! N x
I made it first time and it was really good. I applied a technic learnt from other baker group, putting a little bowl of water in the oven to make the bread moister.
Thank you for such a good and convenient recipe.
What a great tip, I have to try it!!
You are a GENIUS- and I never leave comments but you had me at bread/butter as one and French champagne 😍😍 you may be my spirit animal
😂 Come on my Island!!!
Hi can I stuff chocolate sprinkles or cheese into the rolls before baking them? Would it work? Love your recipes. Thanks so much!!
Could I substitute almond milk for regular milk?
I will be making these on Tuesday . They sound heavenly .I will also make the cinnamon rolls. Sheila Bennett
I made these rolls with my 4 y/o granddaughter, today. She did all the measuring and mixing, and had a blast during the entire process. The very sticky dough caused me some angst, but, I suspended my belief that “I knew best” and followed your recipe, exactly. I was suspicious to the end, and used a thermometer to check the internal temperature (190 F) as the dough seemed so wet. But, they we’re done as stated. Wonderful rolls. I doubt that we’ll have to worry about how they’ll be, tomorrow! (I’d post a picture, if I could see how!)
To do these overnight how long does it take for them to rise out of the Fridge
I made these today, actually still in the oven. My rolls on the 2nd rise didn’t seem as high as yours. It might be because the sheet I used was 15X18? Maybe they spread out instead of up since it was roomy in the pan? Also, they “fell” a little when I moved them from my warm place (oven) to the actual oven I was going to bake them in. Suggestions?
I am wondering of I can use Gluten Free Flour as my daughter needs this.
Will I have the same results?
No sure what I did wrong, I make bread all the time and also have a favorite dinner roll that I use. For some reason the dough did not rise. Although my yeast, water and sugar proofed great but once mixed and set to rise it failed. Not sure what I did wrong.
Great recipe
I have been making my own bread and rolls amongst other things for some time now, but the quest for a beautiful burger bun has always eluded me, until now.
What I love about this recipe is that you can make a very small amount quite easily. I made a quarter of the recipe with white bakers flour and a quarter with white Spelt flour. Both came out really soft and tasty.
I did alter a couple of things. Because sweet bread seems to be an American thing I think, and here in Australia we are not that keen, I cut the sugar down to 1 teaspoon per quarter recipe, so 1 tablespoon if I had made the whole recipe. I also change the butter for cholesterol-lowering margarine. I cooked a couple of rolls last night and a couple this morning after leaving them in the fridge all night to rise, And again both were beautiful. I took them Straight from the fridge and into the oven where I had a pan at the bottom, added hot water to create steam just for the first five minutes, then took the pan out.
Thank you so much for this recipe and I will share it with my friends who look to me to send them Beautiful recipes of all sorts
That’s terrific Annie! So pleased you enjoyed this, thanks for letting me know! N x
My pleasure and once again thank you for the recipe
Recipe says 20 oz. of flour & also says 4-1/2 cups. So which is it? Would like to try these very soon.
Just finished the last step. Now I’m waiting for the 45min for them to rise then i want to bake but don’t know at what degree. I know it’s for 15min but not sure on degree???? Someone help please!
in the recipe Rise#2 tells you the temperature to be baked and the times.
Hi Christina! Oven temp is in the recipe 🙂 N x
Could I substitute gluten free flour?
Please see note 9!
can it reduce all ingredient to 1/2 portion, just make it for 6 ?
Thank you Nagi for this recipe! The buns are fantastic!