From-scratch, pillowy, fluffy dinner rolls in under an hour sounds too good to be true, I know. But it’s not! These rolls are amazing, not just because of the reliable yet delicious outcome, but because they’re so simple to make that they’re achievable by anyone — even if you have no bread baking experience whatsoever. When you can have rolls this good in this little time, there’s no reason to rely on store-bought. And besides, these are WAY better than anything you can get in a grocery store!

These are EASY, I promise.
First, you’ll want to preheat your oven to 180 degrees. That’s low, I know, but it’s only for proofing purposes. Then you’ll start to work on your dough.

That dough starts with all purpose flour, sugar, salt, and — very important — rapid-rise instant yeast. Not, active yeast, not … yeast, rapid-rise instant yeast. That’s the key to making these so quickly, that rapid rise.

Then, you’ll mix in your liquids, which consists of milk and butter.

The milk needs to be warm, but not hot, so microwave it until it reaches 120 degrees. Then, stir in your butter until it partially melts. Add that to your dry ingredients and get to mixing.

A stand mixer and dough hook are very handy here but you can always knead by hand if you prefer (or if you need to). Keep kneading until the dough is smooth and springy, which will take about three minutes with a stand mixer. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest ten minutes to relax.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and do your best to divide it into fifteen equal portions. You can use a kitchen scale if you’d like to get really precise, but I keep it casual and just divide the dough into three sections and then each of those into five smaller sections.

Shape each chunk of dough into a ball, pinching the bottom together, and place them in your butter-greased baking pan. (A 9×13-inch baking dish is perfect here.) Dampen the top of the rolls just by wetting your hand and brushing it over the top. This keeps them from drying out in the oven, where you’re going to set them to proof for twenty minutes.

They’ll puff up nicely, and then you’ll remove them from the oven while you increase the temperature.

Once it’s preheated, pop them back in and bake. They only take about fifteen minutes until they’re beautifully golden brown.

Serve ’em warm brushed with melted butter and I promise you you’ll never go back to store-bought.