No-Knead Dinner Rolls

No-Knead Dinner Rolls
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Total Time
45 minutes, plus rising
Rating
4(1,654)
Notes
Read community notes

These no-knead rolls couldn’t be easier: Just mix together a few ingredients, and let them rise. The dough rises slowly for a long time, because the dough needs to gain strength as it rises, which contributes to its structure after baking. The rolls that emerge from the oven have a golden crust that’s lightly crisp, and a soft interior that is best served fresh.

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Ingredients

Yield:9 rolls
  • cups/450 grams all-purpose flour
  • 2tablespoons granulated sugar
  • teaspoons instant yeast
  • teaspoons kosher salt
  • cup/160 milliliters whole milk, plus 1 to 3 tablespoons, if needed
  • 6tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
  • 2large eggs
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (9 servings)

293 calories; 10 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 224 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large bowl, stir the flour, sugar, yeast and salt until combined. In a small saucepan, heat ⅔ cup/160 mililiters milk over medium-low until it’s just warm to the touch (about 95 degrees), about 1 to 2 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons butter and heat until melted. Remove the saucepan from the heat. If it is much warmer than 95 degrees, let cool briefly before continuing.

  2. Step 2

    In a small bowl, lightly whisk the eggs just until combined. Gradually whisk the eggs into the milk mixture, then pour into the bowl with the flour. Using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, stir the dough until it’s uniformly combined. If it seems dry or isn’t coming together, stir in more milk 1 tablespoon at a time (up to 3 tablespoons) to bring it together. (This milk does not need to be heated.) The dough should be sticky.

  3. Step 3

    Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 2 to 2½ hours.

  4. Step 4

    Grease a 9-by-9-inch baking pan with butter. Divide the dough into 9 even pieces (about 85 grams each), and round each into a tight ball. Place the rolls evenly spaced into the prepared pan. (They will not be touching. There will be about ¼ to ½-inch between each roll.)

  5. Step 5

    Cover the pan with greased plastic wrap, and let rolls rise until they nearly double in size, about 35 to 45 minutes: They will now touch inside the pan and look puffy and risen. Toward the end of the rise time, heat the oven to 375 degrees.

  6. Step 6

    Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a small pot over medium heat or in a small dish in a microwave. Remove the plastic wrap from the rolls, and brush the tops of the rolls generously with about half the butter. Bake until the rolls are golden brown, 20 to 24 minutes. Halfway through baking, brush the surface of the rolls with more butter and rotate the pan.

  7. Step 7

    When the rolls come out of the oven, brush them with the remaining butter. Let cool at least 5 minutes before serving warm.

Tip
  • The rolls can be made through Step 4 and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Cover the pan tightly with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate. Remove the rolls from the fridge to sit at room temperature for 45 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.

Ratings

4 out of 5
1,654 user ratings
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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Would it be ok to post an alternative recipe here? I've got one that makes 16 rolls and goes from dry ingredients to ready to serve hot from the oven in 60 minutes.

I should have read the comments. I actually made these twice because the first time they were such a mess I thought I must have measure something wrong. Both times they were very, very dry and to even get the dough to a si glue mass took much more milk than the recipe calls for. I agree with the other commenters, they are more like biscuits than rolls, but not really very good rolls. Dense and even with all the extra milk pretty dry. Don’t bother with them.

Made these today. Am an experienced bread baker - cannot recommend even to a beginner. There are better no-knead recipes. Tried it to save time but didn’t see a meaningful time difference between these and kneaded. As for glass baking dish - don’t recommend. Low or no fat milk is a significant chemical change. If you are that worried about milk fat (and really it isn’t that much) go with kneaded bread made with water and olive oil. Stay away from no knead whole wheat unless you want bricks.

Please share the recipe! Thanks.

Seriously- what is with all these bad reviews? I started the recipe, then read the reviews and panicked, but these came out amazing! They have great flavor, texture, and are way better than the trusted recipe I made in addition....because of all the bad reviews. Follow the recipe as written, don't substitute anything, and you'll have great results.

Yeast seems to be the latest food item to fall victim to panic buying. So what are we to do who want a baked good with a light, airy texture that is at least reminiscent of a fine dinner roll? My proposal: popovers! No yeast required! Flour, milk, butter, eggs! Even if you don't have a popover pan, you can always fudge and use a muffin pan. There are 3 recipes for popovers here on cooking.nytimes.com for you. Few things say 'comfort' like hot popovers and plenty of butter! Stay well!

I am experienced at yeast baking. I found myself in a pinch for rolls (don't ask) so I tried these knowing that most comments reported less-than-stellar results. This recipe was perfect with three tweaks: 1) Use Rapid Rising Yeast, much better results. 2) Increase additional milk by 4-6 T. I used skim milk. 3) Melt the extra 3T butter in baking pan. As each roll is formed, roll it in the melted butter and set roll on melted butter in pan. Don't brush with butter during baking.

I was already deep into this recipe when I read the notes, but these turned out close to perfect. The only real changes I made were that I used honey instead of sugar and used 50 grams each cornmeal and whole wheat flour and 350 AP flour. I also oiled the bowl and folded the dough over on itself when it was 1 1/2 hours into the rise to develop the gluten further, and then let it rise for another 45 minutes. They were soft and delicious.

I followed the receipe as written and we enjoyed the dinner rolls.

I made these with overnight refrigeration between steps four and five. I started them in the afternoon when it was a bit cooler in my house, so I let them rise a bit longer (at least three hours), putting them in the fridge when they looked about doubled rather than basing it on time. Cooked for 24 minutes and they were amazing - soft and fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside!

Reduce the salt to 3/4 teaspoon, increase the milk to 1 cup and the sugar to 1/4 cup.

Salt doesn't "have" to be kosher but in a recipe that calls for it you should to stick to the recipe. The difference is grain size. Sea salt and kosher salt have larger crystals. Table salt has small grains that can pack twice as much NaCl in a measurement as the kosher or sea. That results in "too salty" or breads that don't properly rise. Kosher grains can be different sizes; depends on the brand. Find a kosher brand that works for you and stay with it. Many articles online about this.

I accidentally added all of the butter in to the milk while heating, instead of setting aside part of it to melt on top later. As it turned out...they were great! Because of the added butter they were slightly dense, and turned out more like biscuits; the dinner crowd didn't complain! If you're going for accuracy, though, I don't recommend trying to put together a new recipe while on a phone call :)

Kosher salt is much coarser than table salt. Because of this, there's less salt, by weight, in a given volume. Kosher salt is about 230 grams/cup, while table salt is about 288 grams/cup.

I used bread flour instead of AP flour and they came out like bread- not biscuits as many folks mention in their notes. I let them rise a little longer than recommended. Slightly dense, and slightly bland, but yummy.

I’m an average cook and rarely make bread. The recipe was easy to follow, easy to make, and delicious. I used unsweetened soy milk instead of regular milk and did add more as I mixed the ingredients. I also took the suggestion from someone else’s note to roll each roll in melted butter instead of brushing on butter later. I will definitely make this again.

These were so dry and dense, not even close to a dinner roll. I would not recommend wasting your time making this recipe.

Sadly these were a disaster for us. I take the blame although I'm not sure what I did wrong. We laughed at how dense and 'not roll like' they were. oh well. I think I should stick to cooking and not baking :)

I make no knead bread all the time. I use 3.25 cups flour and 1.5 cups water. These rolls use half the amount of liquid. They took 4 to 5 hours to rise and were horrible. They were hard and dry and the texture was terrible. Made the recipe exactly and they were terrible.

Eh…wish this was fluffier and lighter. It’s easy to make but no one at the table finished their roll. I’d skip this recipe.

I made them exactly as the recipe called, and they look fantastic.

I see a lot of similar comments on what I have experienced. The dough was not wet or soft. It was very dry and dense. When they came out of the oven, they were more like dense biscuit rolls. However, they did pair well with a copy-cat, texas roadhouse butter. I think I will definitely try it one more time just to make sure, but I might out source a recipe for fluffier and lighter dinner rolls.

Definitely more a biscuit than a roll....

Made with modifications and they turned out well. I weighed my flour for accuracy. When dough seemed dry during mixing, I added about 1/3c water. When I had a sticky, shaggy mound with no flour pockets, I did my first proof in the refrigerator overnight. Next day: Left the bowl out to come to room temp-about 2-3 hours, formed 14 rolls, placed on parchment lined baking sheet, raised until doubled, & baked. Nice yeasty flavor like Mark Bittman No knead bread.

These came out as dinner biscuits, that were tasty but not worth the hassle. I did 1.5x the time in the two rising steps, but the rolls still came out dense as other reviewers have mentioned. My dough was a bit dry, so there could have been an element of user error. Fun too cook, but next time I will look for another dinner roll recipe.

Picked the recipe based on the time I had, read the comments after it was rising. I found the dough to be very wet and sticky. I think people are getting into trouble because they are using the volume measurement instead of weighing the flour. I would recommend using the weights for the dry ingredients. I used the butter in the bottom of the pan trick from a commenter - great! I also put a teaspoon of the warm milk/butter mixture into the eggs to mix, then gradually added more. They were great!

These were very easy to make, but my rolls came out very dense. Perhaps my yeast was to blame, and I will have to try again with a fresh container.

Made these for Thanksgiving and they were very, very dry. The dough didn't feel right from the beginning and it only got worse when baked. Agree with the other commenters that they were more like biscuits in texture. Also, I wasn't able to find a 9x9 inch pan, only 8x8 inches. Would not recommend this recipe.

Made these for Thanksgiving, and was hoping for a light, fluffy dinner roll. These are much denser and crumblier than expected...more cake-like. Almost like a biscuit. Flavor was fine, but the texture was not what I was looking for in a classic, white dinner roll.

I am a pretty experienced bread baker and these turned out like rich, dense biscuits. The only change I made was to use bread flour, which I would have thought would make them better…. I was definitely in the “didn’t work” crowd and probably would not try them again. I wish they had worked!

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