“I forgot the dinner rolls!” says my friend Laura before I even have a chance to say hello on my end of the phone. “How could I overlook bread? I thought of everything else and it’s ready to go: the pork loin, the Brussel sprouts, the tossed salad, the tart for dessert. I wanted this dinner to be special for Tony’s new partner and wife.”
“Weren’t you supposed to go out to eat with them?” I ask the minute Laura takes a breath.
“We were,” says Laura. “But Tony felt sorry for them, they’ve been here two weeks, stuck in a hotel, and they’ve been eating out every meal. Tony thought they might enjoy a home meal.”
“It’s not a problem,” I say. “I’ll just bring over some of the Italian dinner rolls we have in the freezer. You can thaw them out and pop them in the oven right before dinner. Problem solved.”
Find a quick dinner rolls recipe
“I appreciate the offer, truly I do,” says Laura. “But I can’t take your dinner rolls. Tony bragged to his new partner that I’m a good cook. You know Tony, he eats everything. It doesn’t take anything fancy to make him happy. He promised his partner that he and his wife would get a delicious homemade meal made entirely by me. It’s noon. I don’t have time to make your Italian hard rolls.”
“Yes, you do,” I say. “Not the hard buns but a quick Italian dinner rolls recipe that takes only a few hours to make. When are they due over?”
“Around 6:30.”
“Then you have plenty of time to make these dinner rolls.”
Easy instructions for yeast dinner rolls
“E-mail me the recipe, I hope there aren’t a lot of steps.,” says Laura, sounding just a bit unsure. “I’m confident with cakes and cookies; it’s the live yeast that intimidates me.”
“Don’t worry. It’s mostly a waiting game,” I say. “You mix the yeast dough together and watch for it to double. You form the dough into little balls, wait for them to rise, and then you bake.”
“That’s it for the dinner rolls?” asks Laura.
3-Hour Italian dinner rolls start to finish
“Yes! Well, you do have to make an egg white wash and brush it on top of the dinner rolls before baking.”
“Okay,” says Laura. “I think I can handle that. This dinner is putting me under a lot of pressure. I don’t mind cooking for people I know, but these strangers are expecting a lot. I’m a nervous wreck.”
“You’ll do great! If you have a question I’m just a phone call away,” I say. “Do you want me to come over and help?”
“No. That’s okay. You’ve got lots to do before this weekend. Just send me the dinner rolls recipe, and I’ll get started. I’ll call you tomorrow and fill you in on how the dinner went.”
Easy Italian dinner rolls fragrant and soft
The phone rings. I pick it up it but before I can say hello, Laura is talking a mile a minute. “The dinner rolls were a huge success! I couldn’t believe how easy they were to put together and how fast they rose. Everything turned out perfectly!”
“I’m glad,” I say. “See, I told you; you had absolutely nothing to worry about.”
“That recipe is a keeper! Tony wants me to make some more dinner rolls tonight. We’re having his favorite for dinner, pasta with Bolognese Sauce Antica. It looks like I better stock up on yeast; he’s going to want those rolls on a regular basis.”
Versatile easy dinner rolls recipe
This recipe makes 12 rolls or 8 sandwich buns. The rolls make delicious slider buns for pulled pork or Italian beef. The sandwich size rolls make a perfect bun for hamburgers or spicy tuna salad.
It’s fun making challenging bread such as Pugliese Bread or Ciabatta, but sometimes a quick and easy yeast rolls recipe is exactly what you need.
Tutti a tavola è pronto!
Easy 3 Hour Italian Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups distilled water divided at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 teaspoons instant yeast
- 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour will need more for dough board
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
Instructions
- Put the kneader attachment onto the stand mixer.
- In the stainless steel bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve the yeast with 1 teaspoon sugar and 3/4 cup distilled water, at room temperature.
- In another bowl whisk together the 3 1/2 cups flour, salt, 1 Tablespoon sugar.
- Add the dry ingredients on top of the yeast mixture.
- Start the mixer on low speed and start to pour about 1/2 up of the remaining distilled water into the bowl as it is kneading. Save the remaining 1/4 cup water in case the dough is too dry.
- Add the butter and the olive oil to the dough as the mixer is kneading.
- If dough seems too dry, add water 1 Tablespoon at a time.
- Total kneading time should take about 8 minutes. when finished kneading the dough, it should feel soft but semi-sticky and smooth. It should only slightly stick to you hands when removing from the bowl.
- Do not add too much flour or the buns will be heavy.
- Remove the dough to a very lightly floured surface; cover with a clean tea towel (not terrycloth) and let rest 5 minutes.
- Shape into a ball (the dough will come together nicely after resting).
- Place into a large greased deep container.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 60-90 minutes.
- To check if the dough is ready to be punched down, very gently stick two fingers about 1/2-inch into the dough, the dough is ready when the finger marks remain.
- Punch down dough and slice in half.
- Slice each half into 6 even pieces. (12 total)
- Shape each piece into a round ball.
- Place balls spacing well apart onto a large oiled parchment lined baking sheet.
- Cover and let rise 30-40 minutes.
- Right before placing in oven, lightly brush with beaten egg white.
- Bake at 375 F. for about 22 minutes or until light golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Note: Recipes and content from © 2016 All Our Way are copyright protected. Please do not use content or recipe without prior written permission. If you want to share the information, please link to this post. Grazie.
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Debra C. says
November 8, 2018 at 9:27 pmI love the idea of making these ahead and freezing. Do you bake them first and then freeze or freeze the dough? Just want to be sure, these sound incredible!
Marisa Franca says
November 9, 2018 at 6:58 amHi, Deb!! You bake them first, then double wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in a big ziplock bag. Day of — pop them in the oven to warm without all the plastic. If you have other things in the oven that’s okay — just stick them on another rack. One thing we don’t do — microwave bread. We find it turns out rubbery.
Lauren Vavala @ DeliciousLittleBites says
October 18, 2018 at 7:34 amI don’t make homemade bread and roll recipes like this very often. I really need to change that – these look so much better than store bought and who doesn’t love warm rolls right out of the oven – yum!
Veena Azmanov says
October 18, 2018 at 7:28 amI love making dinner rolls at home. These look so good. My kids love such soft squishy bread to eat. So this would be a big hit in our home.
Dan Zehr says
October 18, 2018 at 4:00 amAn interesting recipe for these dinner rolls. I bet those flavors are amazing! Cannot wait to try this! Love! Thank you for sharing this great recipe.
Dianna says
October 17, 2018 at 10:59 pmThis Italian dinner roll recipe looks great. My family loves a good roll recipe.
Claudia Lamascolo says
October 17, 2018 at 1:58 pmItalian dinner rolls are so delicious I love the soft dough and such a unique flavor out of other. You are amazing to be able to make them in 3 hours wow , I sure am going to try these during the holiday!
Sourav says
July 14, 2018 at 2:14 pmWow nice article keep it up
Marisa Franca says
July 14, 2018 at 2:35 pmThank you, Sourav! Hope you’re having a nice weekend.
Jovina says
April 1, 2018 at 10:05 amHappy Easter
Sasha @ Eat Love Eat says
January 4, 2017 at 4:39 amYou can’t beat the smell of fresh bread baking! I love how simple these are.
Marisa Franca says
January 4, 2017 at 4:22 pmThank you, Sasha. During the holidays we got carried away by making so many dozens! The house smelled wonderful 🙂
Michelle Ferrand says
January 1, 2017 at 10:51 pmI love that you can freeze these and then have them ready whenever you nee them!
Marisa Franca says
January 2, 2017 at 6:43 amHello, Michelle! They taste just like the fresh ones. Delicious!
Carol Borchardt says
January 1, 2017 at 6:27 pmOh man, Marisa! I can almost smell these baking! Reminds me so much of the fresh rolls my mother used to make.
Marisa Franca says
January 2, 2017 at 6:42 amHappy New Year, Carol! Yes they do smell good. Toss out the perfumey candles — the bread smell so much better 🙂
Elaine @ Dishes Delish says
December 27, 2016 at 8:22 pmOne of my all time favorite things to eat at either a restaurant or a holiday is the rolls! These look simply divine!! Thanks for sharing.
Marisa Franca says
December 28, 2016 at 7:11 amHi, Elaine! The rolls are easy to mix up at the last minute. Now you don’t have to go to a restaurant for the rolls 🙂
Chiara says
December 23, 2016 at 12:21 pmI’ve never ate rolls but they look so delicious and easy to make ! I wish you a Merry Christmas to you and your family, un abbraccio !
Elizabeth| Ellie & Elizabeth says
December 22, 2016 at 5:30 amUgh I think my autocorrect took over my comment lol, it looks like I’ve been hitting the sauce. I’ve never made rolls…I certainly have eaten plenty lol…Merry Christmas!
Marisa Franca says
December 22, 2016 at 6:38 amThat’s okay! I think I sound better after the sauce 🙂
Elizabeth| Ellie & Elizabeth says
December 22, 2016 at 5:27 amYaaaaassss! Just in time for Christmas dinner.ive never ate rolls (yikes) but I think I’ll try these. With garlic butter ??.Meery Christmas my friend! Love the stories!
Marisa Franca says
December 22, 2016 at 6:38 amMerry Christmas, to you too Elizabeth! The rolls are super easy — you’ve got to try them. The problem is they are so good the family will insist you make then all the time. 🙂 Do we get to see Ellie’s Christmas outfit?