I got this recipe idea here. Then, I experimented and remade it with more wholesome ingredients.
Here are all of my Real Food Recipe Makeovers so far.
You know all those excuses we use for not making homemade rolls very often? This recipe smacks them all down. Here, witness the smacking:
Homemade Roll Excuse #1 – It takes too long.
Not with this recipe. These take one hour – from the time you get out the bowl until the time you serve these fresh out of the oven. I didn’t believe it myself. But now I do. Because I proved it. {Smack.}
Homemade Roll Excuse #2 – It makes a huge mess.
Not these. You mix everything in one bowl, don’t have to knead the dough, grab the dough straight from the bowl to form rolls, then put them directly onto the pan. I shed not a single tear over the fact that I didn’t have to spend several minutes after kneading dough to scrape crusty flour paste off of my countertop.
Homemade Roll Excuse #3 – I’ll eat too many.
This recipe only makes 12-16 rolls, just enough for a meal or two. Plus, the rolls freeze well if you have leftovers.
Homemade Roll Excuse #4 – It’s hard to make homemade yeast breads.
Oh please. My eleven year old could make these. Measure, stir, wait, stir, wait, stir, wait, roll dough into balls, wait, bake, wait, eat. The hardest part is waiting (and trying to figure out if you already added the salt before the phone rang and distracted you).
Are you now ready to get out a bowl and have hot, fresh rolls ready to go with your dinner? Here’s how to make it happen:
One Hour Whole Wheat Yeast Rolls
1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons yeast (I use dry active)
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup melted butter, coconut oil, or palm shortening (make sure it isn’t too hot)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg
3 – 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
1. In a large bowl, mix together water, yeast, and honey. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.
2. Add melted butter, salt, and egg.
3. Gradually stir in the flour. The dough will be sticky but manageable. Cover the bowl of dough with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.
4. With your hands, shape dough into 12-16 balls. Place the balls so that they don’t touch each other on a buttered cookie sheet. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
5. Bake rolls in a 375° oven for 10-15 minutes.
6. If you like (and I do recommend it), brush tops of rolls with a mixture of 4 Tablespoons of butter and 1 Tablespoon honey. Perfection.
Why am I featuring these during the week of the Getting Ahead Dinner Challenge? Can you make these ahead of time to go with your dinner? Sure, if you want. But here’s where I really think it comes in handy: If I have a simple dinner already prepared and ready to cook, but I want a quick dinner roll to go with it, these rolls are perfect! Plus, since the rest of my dinner is already prepared, I actually now have time to surprise my family with fresh rolls too!
OR, what if you need some buns to go with Sloppy Joe Meat or Barbecue Chicken that you have prepared in your freezer? These rolls are perfect.
So what are you waiting for? You have one hour to make delicious, homemade rolls….GO!
One hour? Sounds good to me! I usually just use our regular bread recipe shaped into rolls. I’ll try this the next time we need rolls.
Any sub for the egg?
Thanks!
I think I’m going to make these for breakfast in the morning! I’ll probably do everything through the shaping and putting them on the cookie sheet tonight, then put them in the fridge until morning. Now I’m looking forward to surprising everyone for breakfast tomorrow!
If you were to freeze these, would you just shape and freeze and not let them rise? Then pull them out let defrost and rise before baking?
These look SO yummy! I make a lot of bread, but very rarely make any rolls. And as I am sitting here, I can’t even think of why I don’t. These are going on my next menu plan….. Thank you!!
I don’t have experience subbing eggs, but hopefully one of my readers will!
Yep, that would work!
Thank you! I love it when I can make a homemade bread recipe during naptime (my kids naptime, not mine:)
Can you give any tips for shaping the rolls? I have struggled with getting the size right. It seems that they always end up to tall. But when I have tried flattening them some they don’t get big enough. Thanks!
For these, I just pinch off about a two inch ball and roll it around in my hands. The dough is sticky, so that’s the best way I found to do it for these.
A good egg substitute is 1 T ground flaxseed to 3 T water, for each egg.
Since the egg here is for a richer dough rather than a binder I would just
add 2 more tablespoons of fat.
This may sound silly but what kind of yeast do you use? I have instant yeast for bread making. Will that work? Do you use the same kind of yeast on all your recipes, even those that call for yeast packets? I’ve had this question before but have never asked. :) Thanks for all the good ideas!
I use dry active yeast in all my recipes. :)
I buy it in bulk, so I never have packets on hand (much cheaper this way!). One packet equals 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast.
I pinned this! What an awesome recipe!
In the process of making these. Funny, because I was thinking about making buns this week, but wasn’t looking forward to the time and effort. Thank you so much, problem solved. I used whey instead of water, so we’ll see how these turn out. I always struggle to use up my whey from making ricotta.
Ummm, if you were right here I would give you a huge hug!! :) Seriously, as much as I plan meals and things I quite often forget to get bread started early enough. This recipe will be a lifesaver!!! Thank you!!
These are awesome. I made them a couple of weeks ago and made dinner rolls with half and then added dried minced onions to the top of the other half and made onion buns for burgers with the other half. Significant other loved them. Definitely a keeper recipe. Would like to try making some cheese rolls with them next.
I can’t wait to try these, yum! Grocery stores never seem to have actual whole wheat dinner rolls, only the faux-wheat ones. My family will be pleasantly surprised :) Oh and I see they barely need any time to rise, so yeah perhaps I could pull it off on a weeknight and send a leftover roll in my daughter’s lunch the next day.
Oh my stars! These look delish…I’m definitely going to be making some of these. Honey butter melted on top…yes please!
These turned out absolutely amazing!! I just took them out of the oven to go with supper. I had to try one of course! When shaping them I took the ball of dough and rolled in to a ball while flattening slightly. The honey butter brushed on top is so good!!
Wouldn’t it be absolutely *wonderful* if we could make rolls during OUR naps???? (What naps!?!?)
LOL!! I got such a kick out of this comment I couldn’t resist adding my own :)
And I am so looking forward to making these soon!
Is that plastic wrap (or what) covering the rolls?
I made these tonight to go along with our dinner. This was my first time baking bread / rolls, and the process was definitely easier than what I had imagined making homemade rolls would be. I did change a few ingredients (vegan diet), using agave for honey, Earth Balance for butter, omitting the salt, and using a flaxseed meal “egg” in place of the egg. I did use more flour than recommended as my dough was pretty sticky. Other than that, it was a piece of cake to make these! Once they came out of the oven, I lightly dabbed a little Earth Balance on each roll, skipping the agave. I love the taste of these. Reminiscent of the rolls we had at lunch in elementary school. (These are a bit sweeter than a usual dinner roll, but I attribute that to the agave.)
Thank you. I was going to ask this question.
That’s just a big layer of honey/butter! :)
My daughter made these last night for dinner along with the sloppy joe recipe, and they turned out yummy and took 1 hour. Recommend excluding the honey from the butter/honey mixture that is spread on top, since it kind of went against the sloppy joe flavor…..But you can (like I’m getting ready to do) just slather a layer of honey inside as part of your breakfast….oh the sacrifices I make. teehee
Thanks again for a yummy recipe. :0)
Can they be made without the honey? I love sweet breads but my hubby doesn’t. Thanks!
Yes, although you will need at least a little bit of honey in your yeast/water/honey mixture to activate the yeast.
Great, thanks for the quick reply! Can’t wait to make these!!
This came right at the right time. I’d already had one “roll fail” earlier in the week (NOT one of your recipes, just for the record) and I was determined to get some rolls right. These were easy and fast and they worked beautifully! Thank you! We had these with leftover chicken noodle soup, and we all know leftover soup is better than sameday (a little trick we mama’s keep up our sleeves!). Thanks for the recipe. The rest are going into the freezer for slider buns or more dinner roll dippin’.
Laura,
Thanks for the great quick recipe for yeast rolls. I made them tonight, a little larger for hamburger buns, and they were perfect!
I made these today and the dough was extremely sticky. Should I have added more flour to get a more manageable dough?
Hi Kristen – I use instant yeast (SAF) in my breadmaking too and found that I can use it in any of my recipes that call for yeast. The only difference is that instead of proofing the yeast in liquid, just mix it in with your flour and any other dry ingredients and proceed with the recipe. No proofing (softening) is required – and obviously it saves a little time. About 2-1/2 teaspoons instant equals one packet of active dry.
I had sticky UNmanageable dough too. :) since I was against the clock for my baby’s ONE YEAR birthday party (whaaat?), I made a rustic loaf, let it rise 15 min on my buttered baking sheet, and baked till it reached 160* inside. I then served the honey butter on the table. :) even my MIL complimented it. :)
I just tried to make these rolls… they turned out like glorified pancakes, any suggestions on what I did wrong? They taste fine, but do not look like rolls, lol! I have never really made bread before, any suggestions would be appreciated:)
Sure, that would probably be a good idea. :)
Hmm, I’m thinking more flour next time for yours too. But the main point of this comment is: He’s ONE already??!?!
Sounds like you may need to add a little more flour than this recipe calls for. While 3-3 1/2 cups works well for me, others are finding that more flour is necessary. :)
Great, thanks so much, I will tray that next time! My son just loved them so they are a definite try again:)
I thought more flour too. And I KNOW, WHAT THE HECK?!? :)
I had a bunch of leftover chicken from a crockpot roaster and no rolls for sandwiches, so I put this recipe together for lunches and it was perfect! I had planned on putting some in the freezer but I’m not sure they’re going to last that long. Thanks!
I find that if I slightly dampen my hands when forming the dough balls, then I don’t need to add any extra flour. I need to do this several times to get all of the rolls done but it keeps them light and fluffy :) Thanks again for another wonderful recipe!!
Hi, I just made these and when it came time for the 20 minute rise time, they didn’t rise any…they cooked and were the same size. Any idea what I did wrong?? They tasted great but just didn’t rise.
Hmm, not sure. It could be that your yeast wasn’t good?
All we have to say is “Delicious, honey butter goodness!!”. I made these to go with our Veggie Beef soup, and my whole family devoured them! Thanks Laura!
P.S. Two of my “pooh bears” said “I could eat lots and lots!” :)
I made these rolls last week for dinner and they turned out delicious! Has anyone tried making cinnamon rolls using this recipe? Think I will attempt this and see what we come up with. :) Thanks Laura for all the wonderful recipes!!
if you oil your hands slightly with melted butter dough will not stick to your hands. i pinch the dough off then cup one hand and use the other( my right ) to shape the roll i use the ball of my hand( the part right under thumb) and press and roll when it becomes nice and smooth like when you need bread ( about 15 seconds each) i pich the cup part into a ball and then put the pinched button part down on the cookie sheet. i also like to put mine slightly close together so when they rise and bake the tops are nice and brown but the sides are smoother and they pull apart from each other. yum thanks for the great whole wheat one hour recipe. :-)
Just made these to go with your potato soup recipe and they were awesome! Going to double the recipe next time to make extra to freeze????
This doesn’t really apply to this recipe but I keep meaning to ask you about this: Do you ever use soft white wheat? I just found it for an unbelievable price at azure standard, and I know it’s generally used for muffins and quick breads and cakes and such, but I have no experience using it. I’d like to buy some but I want to hear from someone I trust (that’s you) that’s used it before.
Soft white wheat…hmmm. Guess that is why none of my cakes turn out well; I use run-of-the-mill flour in them. I have not tried using whole wheat for cakes, but I have found that every recipe Laura has on her website has turned out well for me. Her whole wheat bread recipe, to die for! I’m going to try these rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Hope my finicky-roll-eating brother likes them!
I made these, but used spelt instead of whole wheat. They are very yummy, but spread out too much. I used ~3 3/4 cups of flour (spelt doesn’t absorb as much liquid). Not sure the solution to the flatness, but maybe more flour (less sticky dough). Any thoughts?
Yes, Laura has used it in some muffins and quick breads. It works nicely.
I am making these right now! They are rising very slowly. I’m not sure if they will rise more or not at this point. They’ve been resting in my gas oven (that’s off) for about an hour now. I used about 1 and 3/4 packet of yeast, but it was expired yeast. I also used 1/3 brown rice flour, 1/3 spelt flour and 1/3 oat flour, and 1/2 cup whole white wheat. The raw dough tastes great! I’m shaped them into mini long rolls for tonight’s steak subs. It’s okay if they don’t expand more, I am sure they will at least make a great addition anyway. I also didn’t put all the honey in and will leave the extra calories from sugar and fat off the top of these to keep em’ in the healthy range!
I forgot to say thanks. This is literally the first bread I have ever made. I’ve got a sour dough starter happening right now too for a whole grain sour dough bread in a few days. I like the “warm up” this recipe is giving me! Thank you for the easy and tasty recipe!
These were delicious and so easy to make! No trouble at all. Everyone loved them. I served them with your barbecue crock pot chicken and your “throw your potatoes into the crock pot all day” baked potatoes and a veg. It was a complete heavenly homemaker dinner and a huge success! Thank you!
I made these for the second time. I’m so glad I decided to try them! I’ve tried a few short-rise rolls, and they were a little weird… but these are beautiful and light and probably the best whole-wheat roll I’ve ever made. The first time I made them, I used a cup of soft white wheat and the rest hard red, and I think it made them extra light. Tonight I just used all hard red and it was still quite tasty. Thank you so much for sharing!
I made these the other night in the form of hamburger and hot dog buns. Thank you! They were delicious! I included a link on my blog to your fabulous recipe so that others can enjoy your great recipe. Keep up the good work :)
I loved these and am making a huge batch today to freeze. How long do you think I need to let it defrost and rise on counter before baking? Not sure how long they take to defrost and hate to not have them ready in time for dinner one night. They were so so tasty we all can’t ever get enough!
You can also use 2 Tablespoons water, 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil and 2 teaspoons baking powder for the egg :-)
Am I reading this right that the recipe calls for 2 Tablespoons of yeast? isn’t that a lot? I have never used more than the 2 1/4 teaspoons with 3 cups of flour. just checking…sometimes there are type errors when writing the recipes.
Yes, although it seems like a lot, 2 Tablespoons is correct. :)
It would probably take at least a few hours of defrosting and rising…I would give it 4-6 hours minimum just to be sure. If you take them out first thing in the morning you will have more than enough time by supper.
Just letting you know that these are some of the best whole wheat rolls I’ve made! My family of 5 love them and I know that we are all getting REAL food in our bodies :) Thanks!!
I was just thinking I need some homemade bread of some kind (I can’t eat the store-bought with chemicals) but am so tired from being sick–this is perfect!!!! :)
Thank you for this recipe. This was my first attempt at making buns. I had instant yeast and made the mistake of mixing it with the water and honey, instead of just adding it to the flour. I used bread wheat flour, and after letting them rise for 20 mins, baked them in my toaster oven ( I could only do six at a time lol) at 200 degrees for five minutes ( to help them rise a bit more), then turned up the oven to 375. When it reached that temp I backed for a further 10 minutes. They turned out absolutely perfect.
I made these for dinner tonight… My hubby says, “I know the Bible says man cannot live by bread alone, but I’d like to give it a try with these…” Thanks so much for the easy and delicious recipe!
I’m wondering about dividing each dough ball into 3 balls, putting in muffin tins, letting rise and then baking for cloverleaf rolls for Thanksgiving. Anybody tried it?
Great idea!
I use this recipe all the time!! I’ve never taken the time to leave a comment though, so I figured I should. <3
Your recipe is my go to recipe for rolls. I usually use half wheat half white flour because my husband doesn't care for whole wheat. I use this recipe for slider buns, thanksgiving rolls, and entertaining constantly. They're the perfect balance of sweet and savory.
Thank you for this!!
I made these last night to go along with our roast dinner, they were a BIG hit!! 2 things, I’m glad I used your tip and put the honey butter mixture on top… and that I doubled the recepi ;)) Thank you for sharing, it’s a keeper!!
Surely 2 tablespoons of yeast is too much? I made these today and followed the recipe exactly but they were so yeasty….over poweringly so. Should it be 2 tsp instead? I’ve never used so much yeast in bread rolls before
I do use 2 Tablespoons, but I would think 2 teaspoons should be enough since you found them to be too yeasty. They may take a little more time to rise, but otherwise it should work!
I have tried the bread and loved it. It is easy to make. I used 1 Tablespoon of Avocado oil instead of the cream as we can only get ultra pasteurized cream here and I am trying the rolls now.
I’m so glad substituting Avocado oil has worked well for you!
So bummed. I followed this recipe to a tee and these were a total flop.. they just didn’t rise at all! I ground my own hard white wheat flour and everything.. just double checked all the other ingredients. I followed the times listed exactly, but my only thought was maybe they need much longer for rising?