Holidays often mean special meals and special desserts. Cakes and candies and all kinds of treats. If you’re anything like me you could eat a piece of bread or a dinner roll at every meal. But some people prefer to wait for special occasions. This is a roundup of some of the best holiday dinner bread recipes to bake and share at your next holiday dinner.
What makes a bread recipe one of the best holiday dinner bread recipes? Well I’d say first is taste. Who wants to eat a dry or gummy bread? Who wants to make an overly complicated recipe that takes days? I would say not most people for both of which. A good croissant is great but it’s not a good recipe for a holiday meal where usually there’s already a lot happening in the kitchen.
So I’ve created this list of best holiday dinner bread recipes to hopefully help give you some ideas, other than your standard dinner roll recipe (which is also great). Hopefully you can find one to grace your table and share with your loved ones. These are not in any particular order, and there are additional recipes on this site that aren’t included.
Baking Tips
With any baking recipe, I’m going to recommend reading the entire recipe start to finish before starting. It will help give you a sense of what’s going to happen and there won’t be any steps that surprise you while you’re baking.
Additionally quality ingredients are always going to make a good impact. I personally almost exclusively use King Arthur flours because it’s a high quality consistent product, plus it seems to be a great company. Make sure you’re using the right kind of baking pan and an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is actually at the temperature it should be. I’ve had a lot of ovens (perks of military life – lots of moving) and about half my ovens temperatures were off. A thermometer saved me a ton of headache.
Best Holiday Dinner Bread Recipes
1. Sweet Potato Rolls
Sweet potato rolls are one of the prettier breads on this list because of their beautiful orange color, thanks to the mashed sweet potato added to the dough. If you’ve ever had a potato bread you know they tend to be super soft and squishy with fantastic flavor. These have all those plus, are extra beautiful. Personally, I love making these for Thanksgiving.
2. Milk Bread Rolls
Milk bread rolls might be my favorite bread on this list. Milk bread is SO soft and delicious. Milk bread is a Japanese bread that uses milk instead of water (obviously) but also uses the Tangzhong technique which helps the bread retain moisture so they are softer and but also stay fresher a little longer than traditional yeasted bread. Don’t skip these!
3. Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
When I say these buttermilk dinner rolls are super soft and fluffy, I mean it. Maybe only second softest to milk bread but the buttermilk does an excellent job of tenderizing the dough to create just a luscious texture and flavor.
4. Buttermilk Biscuits
Sometimes, you have someone at the family dinner who just isn’t really a bread person. Now, personally I’d argue biscuits are bread but I know they aren’t the same type of bread because they don’t use yeast. My sister was always a biscuit person while I was the yeasted roll fan. So if you have that person, or you just want some variety I’d try these buttermilk biscuits.
5. Brown Bread Rolls
If you’ve ever had the brown bread at a steak house or a famous cheesecake restaurant, you’ll probably understand the hype around these. They actually aren’t some sort of pumpernickel or rye, but kind of a chocolate wheat roll. Any way you describe them though, they are utterly delicious.
6. Crescent Rolls
A homemade version of the Pillsbury classic. Fluffy and buttery and so cute. I personally hate popping those cans open, and this recipe definitely delivers WAY more rolls for a crowd.
7. Brioche Dinner Rolls
Brioche rolls may be the most “difficult” to make on this list, but the process isn’t really any different. Brioche is a very enriched dough, so kneading can take a bit more time and patience. That patience will pay off though as they become SO flavorful.
8. Gouda & Prosciutto Rolls
These gouda and prosciutto rolls are a bit different from the rest of the list as these are a bread with a filling. Sort of like a savory cinnamon roll, they are a spiral shape, filled with gouda and prosciutto and topped with garlic butter. These are a fantastic option for an appetizer. If you have a big crowd, I’d recommend doubling the recipe because these will disappear quickly!
9. Pretzel Rolls
Pretzel rolls were having a moment a few years ago, but I’ve had a life long love of the soft pretzel from that first mall pretzel as a kid. Like David Schitt – “I will not feel shame about the mall pretzels!”. These are like a dinner roll version of a soft pretzel and we love them. Making your own pretzel bread is honestly easier than you’re expecting.
10. Mini Focaccia
I love focaccia. A traditional focaccia recipe is easily sliced and shared with a large group of people. I created these mini focaccia to have something more similar to a roll that would seem more single serving. Everyone gets their own focaccia!
