Big Batch Dinner Rolls
Big batch dinner rolls are for when you need to feed a crowd, the masses, or just some bread lovers. These are delicious yeasted rolls and the recipe will make about 24 big dinner rolls.
Get ready for a giant pan of rolls. Now, is the pan itself humungous? I don’t know, to me a half sheet pan is a normal size sheet pan because I bake constantly. But if you don’t, it might be. But these big batch dinner rolls are going to make 24 dinner rolls in one batch! It’s the Superbowl of dinner rolls. Honestly, probably a good recipe FOR the Superbowl, or thanksgiving or anytime a bunch of people will be congregating and consuming carbs.
It’s amazing how just minor changes in a bread recipe can change texture and taste. I have a lot of great bread recipes and my husband loves bread (obviously I do too) but these may be his new favorite.
I have many bread recipes that could be scaled up to create a big batch, but I developed this recipe to be baked at this size so I know the baking science is just right. I wanted to create something sort of like my buttermilk dinner rolls, my milk bread rolls and my no knead rolls but kneaded. If those three got together and created an offspring, it would be these big batch dinner rolls. That’s why the recipe is so large – it’s three in one.
Baking Notes & Tips
I would not try to double this recipe unless you have a professional to industrial size mixer. As is, this is a lot of dough and I DO have a KitchenAid mixer that has a 1 horsepower dc motor. If you’re using a smaller mixer (which is fine) you’ll need to knead this for probably a long time to make sure the dough is kneaded enough. Sometimes I feel like having a little more dough in the bowl can help though so maybe not. But if you want to make double the amount of rolls, make it in two batches.
Because this batch is so big, it’s a lot of dough! The kneading time will increase from a normal bread recipe unless you have a pretty large mixer. Even I let this dough knead for at least 20 minutes after adding the butter.
This is a great bread recipe even if you don’t need big batch dinner rolls right now because it’s pretty easy to freeze what you don’t eat. When testing this I put half of the recipe in the freezer to save the bread for the future. It was just as good when defrosted and eaten a few weeks later. If you want to freeze let the bread come to room temperature, place in a large Ziplock bag. I use the straw trick where you close the bag most of the way, put a straw in and suck air out before closing completely. It’s like using a vacuum sealer but it doesn’t crush the bread.
When you’re ready to enjoy, either put the frozen rolls in the refrigerator the night before, or put them in the microwave on defrost for 2-3 minutes.
Big Batch Dinner Rolls Key Ingredients
- Bread flour – Bread flour when making bread seems sort of duh, but honestly before I started baking bread I don’t know if I knew it existed. I knew of cake or wheat flour and maybe almond flour. Bread flour is going to help your rolls have that distinguishable bread chew and be a little loftier than rolls made with all purpose. Now, can you swap AP in if you don’t have access to bread flour? Yes. Your dough might be a touch stickier because bread flour absorbs a little more liquid but the dinner rolls will still turn out lovely!
- Milk – Milk adds a lot of flavor to your rolls. It also adds fat which is flavor but it tenderizes your dough and makes the bread really soft.
- Sugar – While I do love a good dessert bread, you really aren’t going to taste the sugar in this. It’s such a low percentage of the overall recipe, but it’s there to help the yeast rise, adds more flavor and helps the rolls brown nicely.
Ingredients
- 840 g Bread flour 7 cups
- 50 g Granulated sugar ¼ cup
- 36 g Sea salt 2 tbsp
- 9 g Instant yeast 1 tbsp
- 2 large Eggs
- 300 g Milk 1¼ cup, room temperature
- 200 g Water ¾ cup + 1 tbsp + 1tsp , warm, ~100°F
- 56 g Unsalted butter 4 tbsp, room temperature
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add flour, sugar, salt, yeast, dry milk, eggs, buttermilk and water. Mix on low until a dough comes together (about 5 minutes).840 g Bread flour | 50 g Granulated sugar | 36 g Sea salt | 9 g Instant yeast | 2 large Eggs | 200 g Water | 300 g Milk
- Let your dough rest for about 5 minutes, switch your mixer back on and add butter a tablespoon at a time, letting the butter be fully mixed into the dough before adding the next.56 g Unsalted butter
- After all the butter has been added, let the dough continue kneading until it is smooth and elastic. (usually ~5-15 minutes) It's a lot of dough so if you have a smaller mixer this may take longer than usual. The dough will be sticky but not unworkable.
- Remove your dough from the bowl and shape into a ball. Lightly grease the inside of your bowl and place your dough ball inside. Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm spot until the dough has doubled in size – 1-3 hours.
- Line a half sheet baking pan or two 9×13 size pans with parchment and set aside.
- Remove your dough and divide. I find 24 rolls to be a good average size dinner roll, however you can divide it smaller for more rolls or bigger for less. Weighing your dough will help create uniformly sized rolls but isn't necessary. Make sure to cover your dough portions as you divide them out.
- Take a portion of dough, placing it in your palm and fold the edges in towards the center creating a ball/pouch shape. Flip the dough and your hand over so the seam side is against your workspace. Lightly cup your hand over the dough and move it in a circular motion to create tension and a uniform shape.Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with all remaining dough.
- Cover your pan(s) with a tea towel, greased plastic wrap or another baking sheet and allow to proof for another 30-60 minutes.
- While the dough proofs, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- When the dough has puffed up and fills the pan much more, place your rolls on the center rack of your oven and bake for about 22 minutes. The rolls are ready when they golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and transfer your rolls to a cooling rack to let cool. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before eating. Store rolls in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Enjoy!
