These soft and fluffy Honey Butter Dinner Rolls are made with an enriched dough and topped with a delicious spreadable homemade honey butter!
These Honey Butter Dinner Rolls are adapted from my Brioche Dinner Rolls recipe. They're made with a brioche dough. They're buttery, soft, fluffy, and sweetened with honey. They're elevated with a homemade honey butter that you'll want to slather on everything! These rolls would be perfect for your next holiday gathering, like Thanksgiving!
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🍞 What is Brioche?
Brioche breads are made with an enriched dough and have an added sweetness factor to them than regular dough. Enriched doughs contain milk, eggs, and butter. A LOT of it. Basically, a lot more fat than a regular dough would have. Brioche dough typically contains more sugar than you would find in a normal dough, as well as a lot more butter. While a typical dough would have flour, yeast, water, salt, and a little sugar, Brioche dough contains eggs (sometimes 3 or 4) and more butter than you normally would find in a regular dough. This particular recipe calls for 8 tablespoon of butter, about 113 grams.
♥ Why You'll Love This Recipe
Soft & Fluffy - These dinner rolls are incredibly soft and fluffy and super delicious! They use the same base recipe as my Homemade Brioche Burger Buns.
Brioche Dough - The enriched dough creates a deeper, richer flavor that you won't get with regular rolls. The sweetness from the honey is just perfect!
Homemade Honey Butter - The easy honey butter makes these rolls so much better. Slather a little on top or cut them open and slather them in the center. It's SO good. And so addictive.
Simple & Easy - Aside from the long kneading and proofing times, this recipe is easy to make. Put everything in a stand mixer and let it do the work.
Perfect side - These honey dinner rolls are the perfect side to any dinner or holiday meal, like Thanksgiving. Pair it with a side of Wingstop Cajun Fried Corn!
Make Ahead Friendly - Short on time day of an event? Prep them the day before, then let them proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours before baking.
📝 Ingredient Notes
A full list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions are located in the recipe card at the end of the post.
Honey Butter Dinner Rolls
- Flour: This recipe can be used with either Bread Flour or All-Purpose Flour. I prefer bread flour, but if you don't have any, all-purpose will work.
- Yeast: My favorite yeast to use is Active Dry Yeast, which requires proofing before adding it to the flour mixture. If you don't have any, you can use instant, and the yeast proofing can be skipped and the yeast can be adding straight to the mixture along with the milk.
- Milk: It's best to use whole milk because since this is an enriched dough, the more fat, the better.
- Salt: ALWAYS important in any recipe. Without salt, the bread will taste flat.
- Honey: This adds sweetness to the Brioche dough and creates a bit more of a softness.
- Egg: Make sure you're using large eggs.
- Butter: A key ingredient in Brioche is butter. My recipe calls for both melted butter during the first kneading and then softened butter during the second kneading.
- Butter: I use salted butter for the honey butter, but you could use unsalted butter. Make sure to add a pinch of salt.
- Honey: A little honey to sweeten the honey butter.
See recipe card for quantities.
🍴Special Equipment
Kitchen Scale - It's so important to use a kitchen scale for accurate results.
Baking Pan - My favorite 9x13 Metal Baking Pan is from USA pan. It has straight edges, bakes evenly, and never fails.
Mixing bowls - I love using glass Mixing Bowls when making batters and doughs.
Mixer - I love using my stand mixer when making enriched doughs because it takes a while to knead.
Spatula - A spatula would help scrape down the bowl when making dough.
⇄ Substitutions
Flour - If you don't have any bread flour, you can use all purpose flour. You might end up needing a little more flour because all purpose flour has a lower protein content than bread flour, which absorbs less liquid.
Yeast - I do suggest Active Dry Yeast, but if you only have Instant, you can use that. Use equal amounts.
Honey - If you don't have any honey, you can just use my Brioche Dinner Rolls recipe, which uses sugar.
✨ Variations
Plain - Leave out the honey butter and use sugar in the dough.
Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls - brush an herbed garlic butter to the top of the rolls right out of the oven.
𓎩 Step-by-Step Instructions
A few instruction photos to help you nail this recipe every time.
Step 1
In a small bowl, add the warm milk, yeast, and tablespoon of honey and set aside to activate and foam, about 5 minutes.
Step 2
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, honey, salt, whole egg + egg yolk, melted butter, and yeast mixture and knead for about 5-10 minutes until completely combined and forms a dough that pulls away from the bowl.
💡 Hint: Don't add more flour. Let the dough knead and come together. It will be tempting to add more flour, but trust the process. If you weighed your ingredients using a scale, the dough should all come together.
Step 3
After the first knead, add in the softened butter and knead for an additional 15-20 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Step 4
To know when the dough is kneaded properly, perform the windowpane test: Take a small piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers until it's thin and light can pass through it without tearing. If it tears, knead for another 5 minutes and try again.
Step 5
Place the dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl and cover and let rise for 1-2 hours.
🎩Trick: One trick I love doing is to pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, then turning off the oven and letting my dough proof in the oven. This cuts down on proofing time, especially if I’m in a hurry, but it also helps in the winter when it’s especially cold.
Step 6
Dough after it has risen for 1-2 hours should be doubled in size. Keep in mind that it could take longer, depending on temperature of the house, as well as the fact that enriched dough takes longer to proof.
Step 7
Divide the dough into 15 equal balls (I like to use a kitchen scale to make them even) and roll them into balls.
Step 8
Line the dough balls up in the baking pan. Cover them and let them rise for about an hour until puffy and risen.
Step 9
Place the baking pan in the oven on the middle rack and let bake at 350° Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes until golden.
Step 10
Add butter and honey to a bowl
Step 11
Mix softened butter and honey together until completely combined. Top rolls with honey butter, or cut open a roll and spread a layer of butter inside.
💬 FAQ
Brioche dough recipes are different than regular dough recipes because of the amount of fat it contains. A regular bread recipe typically contains flour, yeast, water, salt. A brioche bread recipe is an enriched recipe that contains milk, eggs, and butter. My Brioche dough recipes contain extra sugar or honey to give it an extra hint of sweetness, which is not typical in a regular bread recipe.
Yes! In fact, I have several brioche dough recipes that you'll find delicious.
To make these rolls ahead, prep the dough, let rise, then roll them into 15 balls and line the baking pan. Cover and refrigerate over night. The next day, remove them from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours, then bake.
My milk temperature is a guide so that you don’t use too hot of milk (could kill the yeast) or too cold of milk (won’t activate the yeast). Milk temperature between 105-115 degrees F. will do the trick and yield best results.
To know if your dough is ready, perform the windowpane test where you take a small piece of dough and stretch it out between your fingers. If it stretches out without tearing and light can pass through, then it has passed the windowpane test. If it tears, let the dough knead another 5 minutes, then perform the test again.
💡Pro Tips
Measure Flour Correctly - As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don't have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
Don't add too much flour - This dough will be tacky, but shouldn’t stick to your hands. It will also be very silky (this due to all the butter added). If while kneading, the dough doesn’t come together after 15 minutes, you can add one tablespoon of flour at a time. But be patient before adding the flour. You don’t want a dry dough.
Don't Skip Kneading - Knead the dough for at least 5-10 minutes before adding the softened butter. This will ensure the dough forms and pulls away from the bowl. Then once you add the butter, knead for another 15-20 minutes until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough has pulled away from the bowl again.
Windowpane test - To know if your dough is ready, perform the windowpane test where you take a small piece of dough and stretch it out between your fingers. If it stretches out without tearing and light can pass through, then it has passed the windowpane test. If it tears, let the dough knead another 5 minutes, then perform the test again
Proof in pre-heated oven - One trick I love doing is to pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, then turning off the oven and letting my dough proof in the oven. This cuts down on proofing time, especially if I’m in a hurry, but it also helps in the winter when it’s especially cold.
Make ahead - To make these rolls ahead, prep the dough, let rise, then roll them into 15 balls and line the baking pan. Cover and refrigerate over night. The next day, remove them from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours, then bake.
Internal Temperature - If you're not sure when the rolls are done baking, you can test by using a cooking thermometer. The thermometer should read 190° or above.
❄ Storage
These rolls will stay fresh stored in airtight container or Ziploc bag for about 3 days.
📖 Recipe Card
Honey Butter Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Honey Dinner Rolls
- 1 cup warm milk 110-115°
- 1 packet of active dry yeast 7 grams
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 3¾-4 cups (450-480g) bread flour
- ⅓ cup (120g) honey
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoon melted butter
- 4 tablespoon softened butter
- 1 large egg (for egg wash) optional
Honey Butter
- ¼ cup (56g) salted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Prep the yeast - In a small bowl, add the warm milk, yeast, and tablespoon of honey and set aside to activate and foam, about 5 minutes.1 cup warm milk, 1 packet of active dry yeast, 1 tablespoon honey
- Knead the dough - In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 3 ¾ cup flour, honey, salt, eggs, melted butter, and yeast mixture and knead for about 5-10 minutes until completely combined and forms a dough that pulls away from the bowl. Note - if dough does not form a ball and is too wet, start adding 1 tablespoon of flour at a time. Make sure to knead well after each tablespoon of flour before adding more. This will ensure you don't add too much flour.3¾-4 cups (450-480g) bread flour, ⅓ cup (120g) honey, 2 large eggs, 1½ teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoon melted butter
- Add softened butter - After the first knead, add in the softened butter and knead for an additional 15-20 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. To know when the dough is kneaded properly, perform the windowpane test: Take a small piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers until it's thin and light can pass through it without tearing. If it tears, knead for another 5 minutes and try again.Place the dough ball in an oiled bowl and cover and let rise for 1-2 hours.4 tablespoon softened butter
- Grease a 9x13 baking pan or add parchment paper instead of greasing, if you like. I like to use a 9x13 metal baking pan because they heat and bake evenly.
- Shape the dough - Divide the dough into 15 equal balls (I like to use a kitchen scale to make them even) and roll them into balls and line them up in the baking pan. Cover them and let them rise for about an hour until puffy and risen.Optional - brush the rolls with egg wash before baking, if you want a bit more of a golden color.
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit
- Place the baking pan in the oven on the middle rack and let bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. If you're not sure when the rolls are done baking, you can test by using a cooking thermometer. The thermometer should read 190° or above.Note: If the tops are browning too much before they're done baking, tint lightly with aluminum foil to avoid burning.
- Make Honey Butter - Mix softened butter and honey together until completely combined. Top rolls with honey butter, or cut open a roll and spread a layer of butter inside.¼ cup (56g) salted butter, softened, 2 tablespoon honey
- These buns will stay fresh stored in airtight container or Ziploc bag for about 3 days.To last longer, store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Gabriel says
⅓ Cup (120g) Honey, ist das richtig?
Die Brötchen sehen super aus!
Viele Grüße,
Gabriel
Hakima says
Yes, 120 grams of honey. You could use sugar instead, if you like, but if you decide to use sugar, use about 50-66 grams. 🙂