Easy Buttery Soft Dinner Rolls

The Best Easy Buttery Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe – light and fluffy yeast rolls folded with melted butter like the famous Parker House Rolls!
If you love light, fluffy rolls, folded with warm melted butter in the middle – like the famous Parker House Rolls – you'll love our take on the classic recipe! These rolls are gorgeous and look complicated – but they are remarkably easy, and good for a beginner baker.

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

How to Make Buttery Soft Dinner Rolls

If you love soft and buttery Parker House Rolls, you can LOVE our take! They are fabulous alongside Turkey or Prime Rib for a holiday dinner – but are easy enough to make for a weeknight Pork Tenderloin or Pot Roast dinner, too!

These rolls are similar to Parker House Rolls – baked buttery soft and solid as a side dish. We've taken steps to simplify the recipe even more, so even beginner bakers can use it!

Parker House Style Roll Ingredients

First assemble the following ingredients:

• All-purpose flour (5 cups) – Provides the structure and softness of the rolls, creating a light, tender crumb.
• Instant yeast (2¾ teaspoons) – Helps the dough rise quickly and evenly for fluffy, airy rolls.
• Salt (2 teaspoons) – Enhances flavor and balances the sweetness while strengthening the dough.
• Large eggs (3) – Add richness, color, and softness, making the rolls extra tender and flavorful.
• Whole milk (1¼ cups) – Gives moisture and a creamy softness that makes the rolls pillowy.
• Unsalted butter (12 tablespoons) – Infuses the dough with buttery flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture.
• Sugar (3 tablespoons) – Adds a subtle sweetness and helps promote a beautifully golden, tender crust.

Steps to Make Easy Parker House Rolls

Once we've gathered our ingredients, we will use the following process:

Prep

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs; set aside.

Make Dough

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, 9 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar and cook over medium-low heat until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves, and the mixture reaches a temperature between 125 and 130 degrees F. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add milk mixture to bowl followed by the eggs and mix until no dry flour remains, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Knead

Increase speed to medium and knead until dough is smooth, elastic, and mostly pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 6 to 8 minutes. The dough will still stick to the bottom of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 30 seconds.

Form

Form dough into a tight ball and transfer to a large, greased bowl.

Rise

Spray the top of the bread lightly with nonstick spray, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let proof in a warm place until doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes.

Four long Rectangles

Punch down the dough and separate it into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a rectangle 4 inches wide by about 10 inches long.

Brush Butter and Fold

Brush the middle of each dough piece with melted butter, and fold dough over on itself (so butter is in the middle.)

Crimp

Crimp the edge of the dough all the way down.

Cut

Cut the roll into 6 pieces. Repeat the process with the other 3

Assemble and Proof

Prep your pan by adding foil or parchment paper and thoroughly spray foil or parchment with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange rolls seam side down in the prepared pan in three rows of four. Cover the pan with oil sprayed plastic wrap and let the rolls proof in a warm place until they are about double in size, about 60 minutes.

Bake

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake the rolls until browned and centers register 200 degrees, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Be sure the internal temperature of the center roll is 190 degrees F.

Brush with Butter

When the rolls come out of the oven spread butter on them right away, allow to cool and enjoy!

Kitchen notes

Don't Rush. Be sure not to skip the first or second rise, it is important in order to get a good texture.

Refrigerate Parbaked Rolls. While the dough is in its final rise, preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Bake the rolls at 275 degrees F for 25 – 35 minutes – dough will be risen and have a “crust” layer, but will NOT be browned at all and will not look “done”. You can partly bake these rolls and then freeze them, ready to pop into the oven for a quick bake for solid easy-to-serve soft buttery rolls for a holiday dinner or dinner party. These rolls will still be soft and fluffy – not dry – like rolls that are baked long ahead of dinner and reheated.

Refrigerate Prepped Parker House Roll Dough. If prepping the dough a day or two before serving, you need to wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap, and punch down dough a few times in the first few hours of refrigeration. Dough must be punched down every 24 hours in the refrigerator. It is best if used within 48 hours of prepping.

Pre-heat Oven Properly. It's important to preheat your oven properly to get the best rise for your rolls – don't skip preheating!

Buttery Soft Rolls Recipe FAQs

Can we pre-make Parker House Rolls?

Dough can be made ahead of time and refrigerated to be shaped and baked before dinner. Rolls can also be parbaked and frozen, so they can bake to perfection before serving.
Please follow our thorough tips above to prep rolls before serving.

How Can we Make Shaping Parker House Rolls Easier?

If you're having problems shaping your soft roll dough, and it snaps back too much when you try to shape it, please use our easy Parker house rolls method to roll out dough balls into long oval shapes, then brush with butter and fold in on itself to make buttery side in the middle.
Continue on with baking directions as listed in recipe.

How long do soft buttery rolls take to bake?

About 20 minutes or until they reach the internal temperature of 190 degrees F.

When are rolls done baking?

These rolls will be tall, with a golden brown and slightly crunchy crust (it will give a bit of snap if flicking the top with your finger – but will feel light and almost hollow, not dense and thick, inside) when fully baked.

Can we use dry active yeast in Parker House Rolls?

This recipe can use dry active yeast as well.
You would need to use 3.5 teaspoons of dry active yeast and add it to? cup of the milk heated to 110 degrees F with a teaspoon of sugar.
Let it activate for 10 to 20 minutes until foamy.
The milk and sugar amounts will be reduced from the amounts in the ingredients, so you will still use the full amounts called for but they will be divided.
The milk and butter mixture doesn't need to be between 125 and 130 degrees in this case since you're activating the yeast separately.
It needs to be melted and warm but not hot.
Using dry active yeast will require up to an additional 30 minutes of proofing each time and will add about 1½ hours to the total prep time.

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Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2¾ teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1¼ cups whole milk
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 3 tablespoons sugar

Method

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs; set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, 9 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar and cook over medium-low heat until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves, and the mixture reaches a temperature between 115 and 120 degrees F.
4. With the flour will mixer running on low speed, slowly add milk mixture to bowl followed by the eggs and mix until no dry flour remains, about 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Increase speed to medium and let the mixer knead until dough is smooth, elastic, and mostly pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 6 to 8 minutes.
6. The dough will still stick to the bottom of the bowl.
7. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for 30 seconds.
8. Form dough into a tight ball and transfer to a large, greased bowl.
9. Spray the top of the bread lightly with nonstick spray, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let proof in a warm place until doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes.
10. Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with two pieces of tin foil, overlapping foil and letting the ends hang over the long edges of the pan. Spray the foil with nonstick spray; set aside.
11. Turn the ball of dough out onto a clean lightly floured counter and divide in half. Stretch each half into a 24-inch-long roll and use a rolling pin to flatten it so it's about 5 inches wide. Then brush the surface of the dough with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.
12. Starting at the top long edge, fold a third of the dough down toward you. Then fold the bottom third of the dough over to meet the edge.
13. Roll dough a couple of times to seal and reshape as necessary to form an even log.
14. Using a sharp knife, trim 1 inch of dough off each end and discard, then cut dough into 12 equal pieces. Arrange rolls seam side down in the prepared pan in three rows of four. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.
15. Spray plastic wrap thoroughly with nonstick spray, cover the rolls with it and let the rolls proof in a warm place until they are about double in size, about 60 minutes.
16. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake the rolls until browned and centers register 200 degrees, about 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
17. Transfer the rolls to a wire rack using the foil for handles. Brush with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter.