Butter Rolls are called butter rolls for a reason! They are made with butter and then dipped in butter. So much buttery goodness!!
So how are your Easter menu plans shaping up? We’ve been invited to some friends for dinner and when we were discussing the menu I told her I would bring the rolls. She said we didn’t really need rolls. I tried not to gasp into the phone. Not need rolls? Having Easter dinner without rolls at our house is almost against our religion.
Traditionally, my mom is the roll maker at our house and in fact, if you asked her friends what one recipe my mom is most known for, it would be her rolls. Specifically her orange rolls. Orange rolls are a must on our Easter table. I do have a non-orange roll eater at my house and you may too. If you do, today I have another one of my mom’s roll recipes.
This one is for butter rolls. Can you guess why they are called butter rolls? Maybe because they have a bit of butter in them?! Not only do they have butter in the dough but they are then dipped in butter and after they are baked they are brushed in butter. They deserve their name – butter rolls.
They are a yeast roll. They are not as light as my crescent rolls and have a slightly denser texture. But all that butter gives them a yummy butter soaked exterior.
Of course you start out with yeast. I love when the yeast proofs! All is well with the world.
The dough is slightly sticky but not too sticky to work with. It had the consistency of thick cake batter. You should be able to handle it with your hands without it sticking to everything. If is too sticky just add more flour. Those of you at high altitudes may need to add some additional flour.
After it has risen and doubled in size I plop it out onto my kitchen countertop that I have sprayed with some cooking spray. You can make these rolls into whatever shape you want but I prefer cloverleaf.
Then I form it into little balls, about one inch in size. You will need three balls for each roll and the recipes makes two dozen rolls.
Grease your muffin tins lightly and then dip each little ball into melted butter and place in the muffin tin (3 to a tin.)
Then allow then to rise again until they are doubled in size.
Don’t forget my trick of preheating your oven to 150 and turn it off once it is preheated. Then place your pan of rolls into the oven to rise. They will rise faster. (Just be sure you turn the oven off so they don’t start baking!)
After they have risen bake them and 350 for 12-15 minutes or until they are nice and golden brown. Then give them another nice bath of butter. You can spread it on with a knife or melt the butte and brush it on. It will melt and fill in all the cracks.
Then they are ready to pop in a basket and add to your Easter dinner table or dinner anytime!
And of course you can break the roll apart and add even more butter if you’d like! One of my favorite parts of cloverleaf rolls are pulling each part off and buttering it individually. I think I eat bread so that I can eat butter!
Butter Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 pkg yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 C warm water
- 1 C milk
- 1/2 C butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 C sugar
- 3 eggs
- 4 1/2 C flour
- 1/2 C butter melted for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a small pan bring milk to a boil and add butter and salt. Turn off heat and allow butter to melt.
- Cool in refrigerator until it comes to room temperature.
- In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm water and add 1 tsp sugar. Allow to proof.
- In another larger bowl beat 3 eggs; add 1/3 C sugar and mix together.
- Add cooled milk and yeast to egg mixture.
- Add flour, one cup at a time beating with mixer constantly. This will be slightly thicker than cake batter.
- Cover batter with a towel and allow to rise until double.
- Grease counter top and place dough on counter. Do not add more flour unless it is just too sticky to handle.
- Form dough into small, 1 inch size balls.
- Melt 1/2 C butter and dip each ball into butter before placing in pan. Put three balls into each muffin tin to form cloverleaf rolls.
- Let rise until double.
- Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown
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Hey .. Any substitute to make them eggless ?
So delicious! Soft and a little sweet. All that butter did amazing stuff! My bread usually comes out somewhat dry, but the butter does wonders.
Regular flour or self rising?
Not too familiar with using yeast. Thankyou……Lori k
regular all purpose flour, I will all specify if it is something other than that.
Enjoy!
These look delicious and I want to make them. I live alone and need to half the recipe, but don’t know how to half the 3 eggs? Or….can I make the whole batch and freeze the extra dozen balls for a later time?
Terrie, You could freeze them or just use two eggs for half a batch
If I am doubling this recipe to make 4 dozen rolls, should I be including 2 packages of yeast, or just one package?
If you are doubling the recipe you need to double all the ingredients.
I made these and they came out pretty good. I realized after my first batch was done that I should have used salted butter. They were missing “something”. I used salted butter and some salt to the rest of the dough and the second batch was perfect.
Gloria, So glad they worked out. I always use salted butter and will specify if it is unsalted.
Hi I’m planning on making these aside my thanksgiving dinner and was just curious how long it takes for the dough to rise each time? Thanks!
Plan on 45 – 60 minutes per rise. It will depend on how warm your house is.
Hi,
Is it possible to refrigerate the dough for about 30-40 hours before baking the rolls?
Elizabeth, I have never refrigerated the dough but if you do, just allow enough time for it to rise before baking, may take several hours since the dough will be chilled.
Made these last year and loved them! Although, I made them the night before and reheated. They were good the next day, but they were awesome the night before. I don’t remember how much time it took altogether because I was making so many other things, too. I’m wanting to make them the day of and have them done when meal is ready…do you happen to have an idea of how long they take start to finish? Thanks so much for your help! And double thanks for the recipe! 😉
Lorissa, Good question. I’m usually making them along with a lot of other stuff too!
Hi Leigh Anne! Have you ever tried making these rolls with Gluten Free Flours? We have family members that must eat GF. Thank you!
Mary, I haven’t tried it but if you have a good gluten free flour you like I’d definitely try it.
I just was wondering exactly how much yeast as I know it says one package but I bought a jar of yeast
One package is 2 1/4 tsp
Hi.
I’m from South Africa. Just wanted to find out how much is 1 packet of yeast?
It is equivalent to 2 1/4 tsp. Enjoy!
Just wanted to let you know that I successfully made this recipe vegan! I substituted almond milk for cows milk, earth balance buttery spread for butter, and flax eggs (3 tbsp of ground flax seeds + 3tbsp of water) for the 3 eggs. I ended up using about 3 cups of flour and then I incorporated 1 more cup after the rise because it was too sticky to handle. Thanks for the great recipe!
Nicole Thanks so much for letting me know and sharing your info. So glad it worked for you.
These look so yummy ! I’m going to makethem for thanksgiving! Just to clarify, there’s no kneading involved ?
That’s correct. They dough is beaten but not kneaded.
Made these to go with my Thanksgiving dinner. I replace APF with 2 cups of KAF Bread flour and 2 1/2 cups of KAF White wholewheat flour. They were awesome!
I don’t have a hook mixing machine but I do have a bread machine. Do you think that I could do this on the dough cycle. Start it with ingred. and then add flour one cup at a time very slowly???
I think you could definitely do that. Give it a try!
Hi,
I followed you over from Sundae Scoop and these rolls look amazing. I’ll be trying them out this week. I would like to invite you to share this, and any other posts, on my link party at http://www.michellestastycreations.blogspot.com. Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Michelle
Yummmy! Can you believe I BOUGHT some of these for Easter?? Please link up to Foodie Friday
these looks delicious! found you thru tip junkie linky party and Iim glad I did!
These look amazing and relatively easy. I am starting a “homemade bread challenge and these are definitely getting added to my list.
I made these for Easter and they turned out super yummy- I really liked the texture. I was a little skeptical about not adding additional flour when rolling into balls, but found it worked out fine when I had some melted butter on my fingers. Thanks for sharing!
Can you make these night before and then just warm them up a few minutes before dinner?
That should work fine. I always reheat my rolls in a brown paper grocery bag in the oven. Splash some water on the outside of the bag to keep it from burning.
Thank you for linking this up to Fantabulous Friday @ Little Becky Homecky!!
i was just looking for rolls on pinterest and got here from there! yum! do you ever do rolls with whole wheat? i don’t make bread much, but want to give it a try…on a new wheat kick…
I have never made rolls with just whole wheat – I have done half and half though. Half white, half wheat.
Just found your website (don’t even remember how) and I gotta tell you that you put a smile on my face. Can’t wait to try some of your recipes:0)
I would have gasped too!!!
Leigh Ann, can these rolls be frozen? If you can’t answer this question because of time constraints i understand. Happy Easter!
Rere, I have never frozen them before but if I was going to do so I think I would shape them after the first rise and then freeze them. If you try it let me know!