The BEST One Hour Honey Butter Dinner Rolls Recipe

These One Hour Honey Butter Dinner Rolls are the perfect side dish for any dinner!  Feathery, light, and tall with a slight sweetness from the honey butter, these fluffy dinner rolls are a must-have at the dinner table.

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Have you always wanted to make your own homemade bread but were afraid of all the steps involved? This 1-Hour Honey Butter Rolls recipe is the perfect bread recipe for first-time bread bakers!  I’ll show you exactly how to achieve the best homemade dinner rolls that you’ll want to make weekly!

The Players for One Hour Honey Butter Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

• Milk –  I’ll be using whole milk for this recipe, but feel free to use what you have on hand.
• Water – Warm water is used to activate the yeast and create a smooth dough.
• Butter – Using room temperature butter provides richness and flavor to the rolls, both in the dough and in the honey butter topping.
• Sugar – Adding sugar to yeast rolls ‘feeds’ the yeast and helps it to grow.  Also, adding sugar will bring a touch of sweetness to our 1-hour dinner rolls.
• Yeast – Using active dry yeast will help the dough rise, giving the rolls their light and fluffy texture.
• Salt – Adding salt enhances the flavor of our rolls.
• Flour – I’ll be using all-purpose flour for these honey butter dinner rolls.
• Honey – We’ll be using a melted butter and honey combination to spread over our warm rolls when they’re fresh out of the oven, yum!

Tools:

• Thermometer – A kitchen thermometer is useful for measuring the temperature of the milk and water when you remove it from the oven.
• Silicone Brush –  To brush the honey butter over the warm dinner rolls, you’ll need a silicone basting brush.

How to make One Hour Honey Butter Dinner Rolls

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit and once it reaches 170 degrees, turn it off.  This provides a warm spot for our dough to rise. Spray a 13″ x 9″ baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Warming the Liquids

In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the milk and water and heat it in the microwave for 1 minute and 20 seconds.  For my microwave, this is the perfect time to achieve the temperature I want (between 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit).  Using liquid that is too hot can destroy the yeast cells, making them unable to ferment the dough properly. This will result in the dough not rising as it should, leading to dense and heavy dinner rolls.

Add 4 tablespoons of room-temperature butter to the warm milk and give it a stir to help the butter melt. 

Proofing the Yeast

In a bowl of your stand mixer or using a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, add the melted butter and milk mixture to the bowl.  Add in your sugar and 1 rounded (or heaping) tablespoon of yeast and give it a quick stir, using a dough hook attachment. I don’t scrape my tablespoon of yeast with a knife to make the yeast exactly 1 tablespoon. I add the yeast to a tablespoon so that there’s a small pile of yeast above the exact measurement.

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the yeast to activate for 5 minutes without peeking. To see if your yeast is good and active, head down to the bottom of this post to perform a proof test.

Adding the Dry Ingredients

Remove the towel and add in your salt and 1 cup of flour.  I like to add 1 cup of flour at a time to my large bowl to ensure that everything is being incorporated well. You’ll be adding 4 cups of flour in total, plus a couple of tablespoons if your dough is sticky.

Once all of the flour is in the bowl, knead the dough in the mixer, or by hand, for 3-5 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, you can add a little more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches the right consistency. Sometimes it takes 3 tablespoons of additional flour for me in my kitchen. You want to see the dough pull away from the sides of the bowl. 

First Rise

After a few minutes of mixing, gather the dough into a ball while still in the bowl (the dough should be tacky but not sticking too much to your fingers) and cover it with a towel.  Place the bowl into your warm oven and allow the dough to rise for 15 minutes.

Second Rise

After the first rise, get your work surface ready by placing a sheet of parchment paper down or spray your counter with nonstick spray.  Place the dough onto the parchment paper and divide the dough into 15 equal portions.  Roll the dough into balls and place the shaped rolls into your prepared baking pan.  

Turn your oven back on to 170 degrees Fahrenheit (or the lowest setting for your oven), cover the dish with a kitchen towel, and place the rolls back in the warm oven for their second rise. Allow the dough balls to rise for another 15 minutes. 

Bake the One-Hour Honey Butter Dinner Rolls

Once the rise time on the rolls is done, remove the kitchen towel from over the rolls, set your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and set a timer for 20 minutes.  Leave the rolls in the oven while the oven reaches 375 degrees.  The 20 minutes includes the amount of time it takes for the oven to reach its desired temperature and the amount of time it takes to bake the dinner rolls. Bake until the rolls are a perfect golden brown.

While the rolls are baking, prepare your honey butter by mixing 2 tablespoons of melted butter and honey together in a small bowl.

Brush with Honey Butter

Remove the baked dinner rolls from the oven and brush the top of the rolls with your honey butter.  Be sure to brush the sides of the rolls too! Allow the rolls to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

Storing and Freezing Instructions

To store leftover honey butter dinner rolls, cover them with plastic wrap or place them in an airtight container.  The dinner rolls will last on the counter for up to 2 days.  

To freeze your dinner rolls, place the cooled rolls in a single layer on a baking sheet and flash freeze for an hour or so until they are frozen. Wrap the frozen rolls in plastic wrap or parchment paper and place them into freezer bags. The rolls will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. 

To thaw frozen dinner rolls, place them into the refrigerator overnight or place them on the counter for a few hours to defrost. Warm in the microwave for a few seconds to reheat.

How to Check if my Yeast is Good?

To determine if yeast is good and active, you can perform a simple test called proofing:

1. Dissolve the yeast: Start by dissolving the yeast in warm water (around 110°F) along with a small amount of sugar. This provides the yeast with food to feed on and helps activate it.
2. Wait for bubbling: Cover your dish and let the yeast mixture sit for 5 minutes. During this time, if the yeast is active and alive, it will begin to bubble and foam on the surface. This bubbling indicates that the yeast is producing carbon dioxide gas through fermentation.
3. Check for rising: You should see an increase in volume in the yeast mixture. The mixture should appear frothy and doubled in volume. This confirms that the yeast is active.
4. Smell: Finally, give the yeast mixture a gentle sniff. Active yeast typically has a slightly sweet and pleasant aroma, reminiscent of bread dough or a beer. If the yeast smells sour, off, or has no odor at all, it may be inactive or old.

If the yeast passes these tests by bubbling, increasing in volume, and emitting a pleasant aroma, it is likely good and ready to be used in your recipe. If there is no activity or minimal bubbling after the allotted time, it’s best to throw the yeast away and use a fresh batch.

Pin it for Later!

If you end up making these delicious One Hour Honey Butter Dinner Rolls, leave me a comment about how it went!  Was this your first time making fresh rolls?  I would love to chat with you!

Here are some Dinner Recipes to Serve with Honey Butter Rolls:

• Easy Oven Baked One Pan Chicken Parmesan
• 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Recipe
• Easy Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Meatballs
• Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe
• Classic Meatloaf with Ground Beef and Ketchup Glaze
• One-Pot Homemade Cheesy Hamburger Helper
• Creamy Cajun Shrimp Sauce Recipe with Rice
• Easy TikTok Creamy Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe
• Homemade One-Pot Lasagna Casserole Recipe
• Isaac’s Pepperjack Tomato Soup (Copycat Recipe)
• Panera’s Copycat Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup 

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