No-Knead Dinner Rolls
Updated Nov. 2, 2021

- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus rising
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3½cups/450 grams all-purpose flour
- 2tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2½teaspoons instant yeast
- 1½teaspoons kosher salt
- ⅔cup/160 milliliters whole milk, plus 1 to 3 tablespoons, if needed
- 6tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
- 2large eggs
Preparation
- 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.
- 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.
- Step 3
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 2 to 2½ hours.
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Private Notes
Comments
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.
How can this recipe have 4 stars with so many negative comments? Unfortunately, I didn't read them before starting. I didn't even finish the rolls since the dough looked so bad after the first "rising" and I then learned many users were disappointed with the results.
can I use a nondairy milk instead?
Although I was skeptical that these rolls would result in a beautiful, smooth yeasted small batch roll in a short amount of time, this is exactly what the result was. Adding this recipe to my rotation. Loved everything about this recipe - small batch, no knead, short time frame, delicious results!
@Excellent I had the opposite result. Followed the recipe exactly and the dough did not rise, was super dense, and basically inedible, despite using a new package of instant yeast and adding more milk. In my opinion, echoed by many many comments posted, a flawed recipe.
