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One of the requirements for any holiday dinner at our house is homemade rolls.  Parker House Rolls are a great choice and can be made ahead of time.
Make Ahead Rolls
The only problem with homemade rolls on a holiday is how much time they take. Making the dough, let it rise, form the roll, let it rise, bake. It takes some time and if all you were making is homemade rolls that wouldn’t be so bad but you are making an entire, huge holiday dinner also!!
Today’s recipe will hopefully make that holiday meal prep a little easier and still allow you to enjoy delicious homemade rolls. These rolls can be made ahead and then frozen. Just pull them out 4 -5 hours before you want to bake them so they can thaw and rise. I love to keep a couple of pans of these in the freezer so when the craving for homemade bread/rolls arises I am prepared! They are also great to giveaway to someone along with a pot of soup.
How to Make Parker house Rolls
Mix together the dough following directions below. It is a nice, light and soft dough. Add enough flour so that it is workable. If you have questions about working with yeast, check out this post.
After the dough rises and doubles in size, roll out the dough on a well floured counter. I use a 2 inch biscuit cutter to cut out circles.
Fold each circle over in half and place in a greased pan.
I like to use the round disposable cake pans but any size is fine. If you’d like you can dip the round discs of dough into more melted butter before you fold them and place them in the pan but I find them delicious enough without the extra butter.
One recipe makes two pan fulls.
How to Freeze Roll Dough
If you are going to use them later cover them with plastic wrap and then foil and pop them in the freezer. If you can’t wait and are going to eat them now let them rise. Just place them in a nice warm spot and cover lightly with a towel.
Bake them until golden brown.
Inhale that wonderful smell of freshly baked rolls!! Breathe it in!
Then pull of a roll, slater in butter and enjoy!
Check out more of our favorite roll recipes:
Parker House Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 5 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
Instructions
- Combine yeast and warm water in a cup and let stand for 5 minutes
- Mix together flour, sugar and salt in mixing bowl.
- Add in yeast, eggs and melted butter.
- Mix until well blended.
- Dough will be soft and sticky.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Grease two round cake pans.
- Cover working surface with flour and and enough flour to dough to let you easily roll it out.
- Roll out to 1/2 inch thick and use a 2 inch biscuit cutter to cut out rolls.
- Fold in half and place in pan.
- Cover and let rise again until double or cover with pastic wrap and foil and freeze.
- Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.
- If you freeze them allow them to thaw and rise (approx. 4-5 hours) before baking.
Nutrition Facts:
Brandie Simmons says
Can I prepare the dough 1 day ahead without having to freeze?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
Sure, just keep it refrigerated and covered
morag mccune says
Can you make the overnight cinnamon rolls two days before baking?
Jeanne says
Wonder if you could make them even faster by putting the dough in a pan to cook and then cutting them in squares? A jelly roll might not be deep enough.
Lynn says
I tried the rolls, but had trouble getting them to rise all the way to double. The recipe says to use 2 1/4 teaspoons of dry yeast in 1 1/2 cups warm water. On the yeast jar, the directions say to use that same amount of yeast in 1/4 cup warm water to “proof” the yeast. Do you put ALL of the water in the yeast at once? Or put it in 1/4 cup, then add the balance of the water?
Leigh Anne says
Yes, my directions are correct. Place the 2 1/4 tsp of yeast into the 1 1/2 C of warm water.
Michele says
I was wondering, do you use rapid rise yeast or not for this recipe? Thanks
Leigh Anne says
I used regular yeast. You could use rapid rise and your raise time would be much shorter.