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Honey Butter Rolls

These Honey Butter Rolls are soft and fluffy, fresh and warm, topped with a sticky sweet and savory honey butter compound mixture. Redefining what dinner yeast rolls actually mean.

Be still my heart.

Spreading Honey Butter onto a casserole of dinner rolls

The Best Honey Butter Rolls

Caution: it’s dangerous to be left alone with these Honey Butter Rolls.

Just like my Cheesy Garlic Rolls and Milk Bread Rolls, I could eat a dozen honey butter rolls in one setting because it’s ridiculously hard to stop eating at one.

That soft yeast bread with a golden brown, slightly crusty top paired with honey butter is a dream and terribly addicting. For all my fellow carb lovers out there, I know you get it deeply.

We make honey butter rolls for the holidays and they are gone in a flash. Nothing is quite like made-from-scratch homemade dinner rolls.

Once you start it’s super hard to go back to store-bought.

And yes, honey butter rolls are perfect for your Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday dinners. But who said you can’t indulge in these dinner rolls smothered in honey butter goodness for regular dinners.

In fact, I highly recommend eating these honey rolls for lunch, breakfast, snack, when you are having a bad day.

They work especially well as food therapy! 😉

Top down view of 12 honey butter rolls

Baking with Yeast

Baking with yeast sounds intimidating, but it definitely sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is.

My goal here is to arm you with everything you need to confidently make these Honey Butter Yeast Rolls. YES, YOU GOT THIS.

Here’s a quick high level summary of the key steps to make these honey dinner rolls:

  • Make and knead dough – using a stand mixer will make this process super easy. If you don’t have one, you can knead this by hand and dinner rolls will still come out great
  • Let dough rise – this takes an hour
  • Shape dough into rolls
  • Let rolls rise – this also takes an hour
  • Bake rolls
  • Make compound honey butter – DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!
  • Spread rolls with honey butter
Spreading honey butter on to soft dinner rolls

How to Make It

When making yeast bread, definitely give yourself some time to knead and wait for the dough to rise. It is not something you can do in a hurry.

It’s not hard, but it does take some time. Because yeast takes time to rise.

That being said, here are the short list of ingredients you will need for this honey butter rolls recipe:

  • 2% milk – can use whole milk or 1% but avoid fat free. Needs to be 100-110 ℉ to activate the yeast
  • Instant yeast
  • Granulated sugar
  • Honey
  • Butter – unsalted and salted. Unsalted is for the dough, salted is for the honey butter compound.
  • Egg
  • Salt
  • Bread flour – in a pinch all purpose flour can be used.

To begin, mix together all the dough ingredients. Started with milk, unsalted butter, yeast, sugar, honey, egg and salt. Mix well, then add in the flour and start kneading, either with a stand mixer using a dough hook (see picture below), or with hands.

Kneading dough with dough hook on a stand mixer

After kneading the dough, bring it to a large greased bowl and cover with a clean towel. Let it sit in a warm spot for one hour for the dough to rise.

Make sure to use a large bowl because dough will grow at least twice its size.

Dough in a bowl
Before
Risen bread sough in a bowl
After

Remove dough from bowl and roll into a long tube. Then cut into 12 pieces.

I typically cut the long tube in half first, and then cut it into six pieces on each side. Try to keep each piece the same size as much as you can.

Knead each piece of dough and then shape it into a ball.

Place the rolls into a greased (for easy removal of the rolls after it is baked) 9’x13′ baking dish.

Dough balls in baking dish
Before

Cover and let it rise again!

Rolls should be much bigger and touching after an hour. Kinda like this!

Risen dough in casserole dish
After

Bring rolls into the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 350℉.

While yeast rolls are baking in the oven, prepare the honey butter compound by mixing softened butter and honey together. If butter is not softened, microwave it at 50% power for a few minutes until it is soften. Be careful not to overboil the butter.

Adding honey to softened butter
Honey butter in a measuring cup

When dinner rolls are done, it should be golden brown and slightly crusty on top, yet soft inside and easily pulled apart.

Baked dinner rolls

Then spread that honey butter onto the top of the rolls and serve the rest of the honey butter on the side so that you can spread it onto the rolls as you consume them.

Pro tip: if you are a honey butter lover, simply make more! Because when it comes to these Honey Butter Rolls, the more honey butter, the tastier!

Honey Butter Rolls in a baking dish

These Honey Butter Rolls take a little bit of time to perfect, but it’s on the whole actually pretty straightforward. If you want a yeast roll recipe that is even more straight forward using my favorite frozen dough, check out these Cheesy Garlic Rolls.

Frequently Asked Question

How do I make the dough ahead?

To make ahead, make and knead the dough, let it rise, cut and roll into 12 roll balls, then freeze in an airtight bag or container. Make sure they do not touch each other when you freeze them so that they are not stuck together frozen. When ready to bake, place frozen rolls on greased baking dish, cover, and let it rise for ~4 hours until they are bigger and touching each other, then bake!

Can I use active dry yeast instead of instant yeast?

Yes! Use the same amount as you would for instant yeast. However, let active dry yeast activate in warm milk and melted butter (100-110℉) along with sugar for 10 minutes, and then add the rest of the ingredients (except flour), mix well, and then add in flour and knead the dough using a stand mixer or hands. Active yeast requires some activating time in warm liquid while instant yeast do not.

How to store these rolls?

Keep rolls in a sealed container or zip lock bag (to prevent from drying out). It can be stored in room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.

Top down view of a bunch of rolls

DID YOU ENJOY THIS RECIPE? Please comment below and give us a 5-star rating! This will help others find this recipe on Google and Pinterest. We very much appreciate your help! 🤍

Other Holiday Favorites

These honey rolls are perfect for holiday dinners. Serve them with some of our other holiday favorites!

Your life will no longer be the same with these Honey Butter Rolls. So proceed with caution! 😉

Spread honey butter onto yeast dinner rolls

Honey Butter Rolls

Soft and fluffy yeast rolls smothered with honey butter topping. These dinner rolls makes the perfect side dish to your Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday dinners, or dinner any day!
4.97 from 30 votes
Print Pin
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Resting Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 221kcal
Author: MinShien

Ingredients

  • 1 cup 2% milk
  • 3 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 1/8 cup bread flour more if needed

Honey Butter Compound

  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 3 tbsp salted butter softened or melted

Instructions

  • Warm milk and unsalted butter to ~100-110℉ in the microwave. (temperature suggested to effectively activate yeast).
  • Combine warm milk and butter mixture, yeast, sugar, honey, egg and salt in a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl). Whisk to combine.
  • Add bread flour. Using a stand mixer with the dough hook on, or your hands, knead dough until bread flour is folded into the dough. When done, dough should be slightly sticky but a big clump shouldn't stick to your fingers when you touch the dough with dry fingers. If dough is too wet, add more bread flour 1 tbsp at a time. (See Note 1)
  • Transfer dough to a greased large mixing bowl. Cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm spot for 1 hour.
  • After dough has risen, it should be at least twice its original size. Punch dough to remove air bubbles, then transfer dough to a floured surface. Roll dough into a long tube, then cut tube into 12 pieces – try to keep them about the same size (First, cut tube into half, then cut into quarters, and then divide each quarter into three pieces). Lightly knead each piece of dough and shape it into a ball.
  • Place each ball onto a 9' x 13' baking dish. See picture on how to place them. Cover with towel and let it rise in a warm spot for another hour.
    Dough balls in baking dish
  • Pre heat oven to 350℉. Bake for 20 minutes.
  • While rolls are baking, combine softened salted butter and honey in a bowl.
  • Remove rolls and spread the top of the rolls with honey butter. Serve remaining honey butter on the side. Enjoy!

Notes

Note 1: Different temperature in the house and weather can affect how wet or dry the dough is. Because of that, the amount of bread flour needed will vary. Getting a feel for the wetness of the dough is key to evaluate how much bread flour is needed.

Nutrition

Calories: 221kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 139mg | Potassium: 93mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 215IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Take a pic and tag me at @joyous.apron, or hashtag #joyousapron on Instagram!

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4.97 from 30 votes (22 ratings without comment)

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Recipe Rating




16 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Looks soooo good. will definitely give it a try.
    Btw i have been making your cranberry bread regularly. We like it very much. Great recipe!

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      Yay! So glad to hear 🙂

  2. 5 stars
    These are delicious!! Such good texture and flavor. My first time making rolls, and it was so easy. They were a little underdone on the bottom, so next time I’ll increase the bake time a little.

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      Thanks Hannah! So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback about the bake time! I’ll be sure to add that in the recipe notes!

  3. 5 stars
    This was my first real stab at making bread, and everything turned out incredible. My friends will love them at dinner tomorrow. I feel much better about breads now 🙂

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      Yay! I’m so glad your first bread-making experience went well! These rolls are excellent and some of my favorites as well.

  4. 5 stars
    We love these rolls. They are prefect for soups, chilis and stews. I am going to make some for our holiday dinner too. This recipe is a keeper!

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      I’m so glad you think so, Gloria! I have to agree 🙂

  5. Terry Andrews says:

    5 stars
    I can hardly wait to make these!! I’m sure it will make our Christmas dinner even better with these rolls!!!

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      I hope you love it! Happy holidays !

  6. Carlee L. says:

    5 stars
    These are so lovely in flavor and texture, especially after they puff up and fill the pan. An instant favorite!

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      Yay! Happy to hear it went so well, Carlee!

  7. 5 stars
    I love how soft and fluffy these turned out. I made them for Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit. I had to come back around and let you know that I enjoyed them!

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      Thank you for letting me know Julie!! I’m glad to hear that!

  8. Priya Srinivasan says:

    5 stars
    Oh my such gorgeous looking honey butter rolls! Love that beautiful crust on top! Everyone enjoyed it very much!

    1. Joyous Apron says:

      Thank you! Great to hear that everyone loved it!