No stand mixer, no knead, no special equipment required. These No Knead Dinner Rolls are perfectly soft and fluffy and are astonishingly effortless to make. Just combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon – that’s it! It’s the easiest recipe for bread rolls in the whole world!
This recipe for bread rolls will blow your mind!
These dinner rolls are:
- made without kneading;
- without a stand mixer or any other electric appliance;
- take 2 minutes of active effort to mix the dough;
- have golden tops and are soft and fluffy on the inside.
Every single time I make these, I am in utter awe of how effortless they are, and how amazing they taste. They are in every way just as good as classic dinner rolls, made by kneading the dough by hand (tired arms, tired arms!) or using a stand mixer.
I truly believe to my very core that only those with a refined palette and/or baking experts can tell the difference between these No Knead Dinner Rolls and traditional kneaded-tired-arms dinner rolls!
See how soft and fluffy they are??
Kneaded vs No Knead Dinner Rolls
In the interest of being completely open and honest, here are the differences that I notice between kneaded dinner rolls and these No Knead Dinner Rolls:
- The kneaded rolls stay a wee bit more moist for longer. ie. they are slightly better the next day compared to the No Knead ones. But actually, homemade bread, muffins etc, being preservative free that they are, are always best consumed fresh so I don’t see this as a major disadvantage. Neither the kneaded nor No Knead rolls are great the next day. They lose their moisture and both need to be warmed up before serving to make them moist again. It is just that with the kneaded ones you could possibly get away with not warming up (but they aren’t great), whereas the No Knead ones definitely need warming up;
- Kneaded rolls rise a wee bit more. Not noticeable for normal people, and you’d never say the No Knead ones aren’t soft and fluffy. They are, they really are. It’s just that the kneaded ones rise a touch more with the same amount of yeast.
Dump-and-mix NO KNEAD Dough
In terms of the prep, the batter is literally a dump-and-mix job. There is a major difference in rise time compared to kneaded dough which can rise in 30 – 45 minutes for the 1st rise, then around the same for the 2nd rise after forming the rolls. For these No Knead Dinner Rolls, the dough is much wetter than kneaded dough, so it takes longer to rise. 1.5 – 2 hours, depending on how warm it is where you are. If you use my ridiculous-but-effective tip of rising the dough in your (empty! warm!) dryer, it takes 1.5 hours. 🙂 (See recipes notes for details)
You can see in these photos how different the dough is compared to traditional bread dough. It’s not knead-able, it’s way too sticky. It’s almost more like a muffin batter!
Quick little tip: To get a beautiful golden surface, the dough needs to be rolled tightly and smoothly into balls. With sticky dough, this is tough to do. So here’s my work around: Press the dough down lightly, then bundle it up like a money-bag (mmm…Thai Money Bags…). Flip it over and you have a nice smooth surface with the dough stretched tightly = smooth golden surface. I demo this in the recipe video too (below recipe).
Awesome Make Ahead Tip!
Another big bonus for these rolls: you can roll the dough into rolls then refrigerate overnight (uncooked) and bake them fresh when you’re ready to serve! It’s quite amazing actually, I wasn’t sure it would work but it does.
Easter is coming up! That’s why I decided to squeeze these in so soon after sharing Hot Cross Buns (which you can make using this No Knead technique, the recipe is in that post). I know some people think baking with yeast is daunting. But I swear to you, watch the video. See how soft and irresistible these rolls come out. And be prepared to be blown away by how easy these are to make!
Carb Monsters unite! – Nagi xx
More No Knead Breads & Flavour variation options!
- No Knead Cinnamon Rolls
- No Knead Hot Cross Buns
- Irish Soda Bread
- Cheese and Bacon Rolls (use this no knead dough for that recipe)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
No Knead Dinner Rolls recipe video! No laughing at the Baby Hands – you’ll cop a serious eyeful in this video!
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SOFT NO KNEAD Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Buns:
- 1 tbsp dry yeast (Note 1)
- 55 g / 1/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar), or sub with normal white sugar
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml warm water (Note 2)
- 600 g / 20 oz bread flour (4 1/2 US Cups, 4 Cups everywhere else exc Japan)+ extra for dusting (can use all purpose / plain flour) (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup / 250 ml milk, lukewarm, whole or low fat, (Note 2)
- 50 g / 3.5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs, at room temperature, beaten with fork
Brushing:
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
- Place the yeast and 2 teaspoons of the sugar in a medium bowl, then pour in water. Leave for 5 minutes until it froths.
- Place flour, remaining sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix to combine.
- Make a well in the centre. Add milk, butter, eggs and pour in the yeast liquid, including all froth.
- Mix until combined with wooden spoon - it will be like a thick muffin batter. Not pourable, but thick and sticky.
Rise #1:
- Leave dough in the bowl, cover with a wet (clean) tea towel and place in a warm place (25C/77F+) to rise for around 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until almost tripled in volume. See Note 4 for how I do this (you will laugh - but it works every time!). Dough surface should be bubbly (see video or photos in post).
Forming Balls (watch video, it's helpful):
- Line a 31.5 x 23.5 cm / 9 x 13" tray with baking paper with overhang.
- Remove tea towel and punch dough to deflate, then mix briefly in the bowl to get rid of the bubbles in the dough.
- Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough on work surface. Dust top of dough then shape into a log. Cut log into 4 pieces, then cut each piece into 3 pieces (12 in total).
- Take one piece and press down with palm, then use your fingers to gather into a ball, flip (so smooth side is up) then roll the dough briefly to form a ball. This stretches the dough on one side and that's how I get a nice smooth surface on my roll. (For this step, use as much flour as needed to handle dough and avoid piercing inside into the wet dough)
- Place the ball with the smooth side up on the tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Line them up 3 x 4.
Rise # 2:
- Spray surface of rolls (or cling wrap) with oil (any), then place cling wrap over the tray.
- Return tray to warm place and leave for 30 - 45 min, until the dough has risen by about 75% (less than double in size).
- Partway through Rise #2, preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) or 180C/350F (fan/convection).
- Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, or until the surface is a golden brown and the roll in the centre sounds hollow when tapped. The surface colour is the best test for this recipe.
- Remove rolls from oven. Brush with melted butter.
- Use overhang to lift rolls onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool to warm before serving.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
When he got sent to the naughty corner and he was wondering whether he was allowed back in….
Made these very yummy
Thank you Nagi next time I’m cooking them in the same way I cook your No Knead artisan bread so they will be crisp (I hope)
I made these for Christmas. I really enjoyed how easy they were and very optimistic. I used regular flour, my yeast was fresh and foamed perfectly. The rolls rose wonderfully. I put them in the fridge overnight and baked them the next day. They rose again, also nicely. Ultimately the baked rolls were enormous, beautiful and tall, they tasted so nice, BUT they were so very heavy, dense and a little crumbly. Not sure if I made an error or if it was simply the FL climate. I will try again. Especially interested in using it for focaccia.
These turned out perfect! My wife says they remind her of old times. I’m making more today, to her delight!
Just made these wonderfully easy and fluffy rolls. The recipe couldn’t be any easier and as long as your yeast is fresh they are fail proof. Perfection!
Hi Nagi!
I’m definitely testing these ones out!
I make brioche occasionally and I found that making thangzhong (basically cooking up a paste with part of the flour and water/milk from the recipe) and adding it later to the mixture, makes the bread last a loooot. Also leaving it to proof in the fridge helps a lot in terms of conserving it for longer!
I’ve always found yeast intimidating, but if I was ever going to give it a go it was in 2020. These were so easy and came out perfectly! I did find they were a bit on the sweet side though, would cutting back on some of the sugar have a detrimental impact?
Hi Sarah, I have made these successfully cutting the sugar in half – but you do need some in there for the yeast to rise and keep these rolls super fluffy. N x
Thank you! x
I’ve made this so many times and am always amazed at how delicious these look and smell! They taste heavenly, like brioche, and are handy for sandwiching nearly anything!
Jus made these dinner rolls this morning. Came out really wonderful. Soft an fluffy. Made 12 rolls. They’re big but I demolished 2. That’s how nice it is. My flour measurement is 4 cups and 5Tbsp. I used the instant yeast.
If I want to wrap fillings inside the bun, which step should I do it ? and any other additional steps to follow ?
Successful recipe. I made two batches, one with 1 packet of 7 gram yeast (I only had 1 in the house) and one with the instant yeast with the amount in the recipe. I have made the one with 1 packet of 7 gram, and the bread turned out really delicious. Soft, fluffy, high bread, and topped with some cheese. And I did not even used bread-flower, I used all purpose flour, with high protein. Needed more flour till it is sticky. Great recipe! Tomorrow I will make the other batch. Thank you for the recipe, easy to make!
How can I forget the 5 stars? I am so exited about this recipe 😍😍😍
I’m baked these rules yesterday and I have some exciting news. I had made them previously and I knew that they made 12 quite large buns. Too large for my family so I decided to make 24 smaller ones. I only had one appropriate pan, so I rolled out the 12, put them in the oven, and put the remaining dough in the fridge so it wouldn’t rise until I had shaped it
(I was thinking hot dog buns). Unfortunately, by the time the rolls came out of the oven, (perfect by the way), I was just too tired to shape more rolls so I left the dough in the refrigerator. The next day I realized that I had not covered the dough with plastic wrap or put olive oil on it or anything and the skin was thick and dried out. I thought maybe it would turn into Dutch Crunch bread but it didn’t look like it was going to rise much. Well, hell no, I was not taking this lying down. I got out a baking sheet, flattened the dough into a flat rectangular shape, brushed it with olive oil and Italian seasoning and set it aside to ‘rise’ a little. Once plump, I put it in the oven at 390′ for about 18 minutes. Another brush with oil and a smattering of coarse salt and it was the best textured and tasting foccacia I had ever had and got rave reviews all ’round. A lovely crunch on top and light and springy inside. From now on I will always be putting half the recipe in the fridge to dry out overnight, let it warm up about 1/2 an hour, shape it into a rectangular (or circle) and brush with oil, etc., then let it rise again for about 45 minutes. (I just waited until it looked like it still had a little puff left). Awesome recipe. Thanks Nagios.
Thank you for this recipe! I just made them and they turned out pretty good, but they do have a yeasty flavor. Any idea why that happened? I used two 7g packets of active dry yeast.
I was wondering the same thing because the last two times I’ve made them (ie. every time), they had a strange little taste to them but it didn’t seem to bother anyone else so I thought it was just me. I did notice, however, that when I put the dough in the fridge overnight before the second rise, that weird taste was gone. Granted, im supposedly a ‘super taster’ so if you have a really good sense of smell, you might be one too. Two-sided coin.
Anyway, I put half in the refrigerator overnight and ended up using it as foccacia and it was unbelievably awesome
Ok I tried these again, using bread flour and measuring the yeast to one Tbsp instead of using two packets and they came out amazing!
I followed the recipe and my dough seemed way too dry, but I went for it anyway, and the rolls ended up really hard and dense. How do I adjust? Use less flour? I used the US 4.5 cups.
Hi Carolyn, sorry you had issues here – and you definitely only used 600g of flour?? N x
That had happened to me the last time I made them as well. This time I put in 4 cups of flour and ended up still having to put another tablespoon or two of milk. Last time I had to knead it. This time I just went for the same consistency that showed in the video. Next time I’m making it I will probably Windsor 4 cups of flour, but before adding the liquid ingredients I’ll take out half a cup of dry ingredients and add it back a little at a time if needed.
Might be the four too. Some flours needs more water/milk than others. Try a strong flour (normally suitable for breads)
How long can these rolls be refrigerated before cooking? I planned badly and started the second rise too early. Are they ruined after 24 hours?
Hi Jennifer, they should be fine after 24 hours 🙂 N x
These are delicious and so easy
I’ve been baking bread for the last 40 years and these buns are the best I’ve ever made
We actually thought they were great the next day as well
I did brush with melted butter both before and after
Husband requested that I make them again
Hi Nagi!
Love this recipe. Question, making these for thanksgiving and the rolls come out so big that I was wondering if I could make one batch and then divide the dough into 24 rolls instead or 12.
Have you tried this or has anyone else who commented here?
Hi, today I made smaller ones, about 24 rolls. And they rise high enough. Give it a try. Some people like smaller rolls.
Love all your recipes and I also enjoy to see dozer🐶 he is such a cutie❤
I can’t believe I made bread rolls so good my husband gobbled up 3 in one sitting. He then told me they were better than his!! Which I can’t deny, although he is the more seasoned baker of the two of us. I felt so proud! Thank you Nagi for yet another winner!
YUM! This recipe looked a little daunting at first with all the steps. But after making it, I found it’s actually pretty easy. Best part of all is how great they came out! We’re definitely making this again and again! I mixed a little honey with some softened butter (ala Texas Roadhouse restaurant) to serve with them. My family ate them all up!
Wahoo, that’s great to hear Sue – love the honey butter idea too! N x
Will this recipe work for making a loaf?
Hi Isabel, I haven’t tried with this recipe just yet – one to put on my list! N x
OMG!!!! I’ve been baking with yeast for 35 years. This is the first roll recipe that was simple, easy and turned out exactly as you said it would. THESE ARE GREAT!!! Going to try the cinnamon buns today!
PS: Thank God for your baby hands! ♥️
You’ll love the cinnamon buns Judi – that are to die for!! N x