Easy Yeast Rolls (Southern Family Recipe) (2024)

A Southern family recipe, these easy yeast rolls are perfectly soft and fluffy. Enjoy these homemade dinner rolls with any Southern supper.

Recipe Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Sugar
• Salt
• Instant yeast
• Vegetable shortening
• Eggs
• Melted unsalted butter

Helpful Kitchen Tools

• Pizza Cutter
• 9×13 Baking Dish

How to Make Easy Yeast Rolls

Measure your dry ingredients (sugar, salt, 2 cups of flour, and yeast) into a large mixing bowl.

Cut in shortening with a long-tined fork.

You can use a fancy pastry cutter if you want to but that’s just one more thing to clutter up my kitchen so I got rid of it years ago.

After you get your shortening cut up in there real good, add your eggs.

And mix them in there.

Like so.

Now we add our melted butter.

You want to melt this and then give it time to cool so that it isn’t too hot.

Add the remaining flour.

Finally, add the water, making sure the water is the temperature of baby’s bath water.

If you don’t know what temperature a baby’s bath water is then you could always go borrow a dirty baby, I suppose…

Stir that up well.

It’s going to look like a lumpy blob when you’re done.

Cover that with a towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, it’s going to look like an even bigger lumpy blob.

This is good. You have done well, grasshopper.

Now we need to flour a surface and pour our blob of yeast roll dough out onto it.

I just put out a sheet of waxed paper to save cleanup and sprinkle a good bit of flour over it so my dough doesn’t stick.

Now it’s time to knead your dough.

How to knead the dough

Okay, so you need to knead your dough ball a time or two.

What I do is just put some flour on my hands, press the dough into a ball, and then smoosh it out with the heel of my hand. Then put it into a ball again and smoosh it out again with the heel of your hand.

Then wonder what crazy person decided to call that part of your hand a heel because that makes no sense at all to me.

From here there are two ways you can go with these easy yeast rolls.

I’ll start with my favorite and the less-maintenance one.

I like this method best because it’s easy and ends up yielding larger and smaller rolls which seem to suit company better anyway.

The first method

After kneading your dough two or three times, shape it into a rectangle.

If it doesn’t look like a perfect rectangle to you then squint your eyes until it does…

Cut into strips with a pizza cutter.

And then cut crosswise.

Spray a 9×13 casserole dish or baking dish with cooking spray.

Arrange the yeast rolls into the prepared pan and spray tops lightly with cooking spray.

Cover with a towel and let them rise for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, they should look like this.

Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes.

How good do these homemade yeast rolls look?

Brush the baked rolls with melted butter or margarine when done.

Look at how fluffy they are!

Enjoy with a spread of butter.

The second method

Pat your dough out into a circle, about twelve inches in diameter.

With a pizza cutter, cut the circle into sixteen pieces.

Spray two 9×13-inch baking dishes with cooking spray.

Roll each triangle up beginning on the big end and rolling towards the point.

Space them out a bit and put them into the prepared pans.

I spray the tops lightly with more cooking spray to have prettier rolls when they are done baking and to help prevent them from sticking in the next step.

Cover with a towel and place in a warm place for another 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, they should look like this.

Preheat the oven (without rolls in it) to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes.

Brush with melted butter or margarine when done or serve with a spread of butter.

Another delicious option is mixing the butter with honey for a sweet honey butter topping.

They both look mighty good to me!

Storage

Store homemade dinner roll leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Recipe Notes

• The thing about yeast bread that is most tricky to folks is getting their liquid ingredients at the right temperature. A good rule of thumb that has always served me well has been to make sure liquids are about the same temperature as baby’s bath water. Yes, I stick my finger in the melted butter, it doesn’t hurt anyone. If it’s as warm as a baby’s bath water, but not hot, then it is a great temperature.
• I’m using instant yeast (also known as rapid-rise yeast), but you can also use active dry yeast. The rolls will just take longer to rise.
• For richer bread dough, swap the water for milk.
• Want to add some flavor to your homemade yeast rolls?
  • Add 2 tablespoons of fresh or dried chopped rosemary.
  • Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (any cheese works).
  • Make garlic and herb dinner rolls by adding 2 teaspoons of dried herbs or 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.

Recipe FAQs

What kind of yeast should I use?

I don’t like to use packets of yeast because I have the patience of a nervous lizard. So I use this Fleischmann’s instant yeast jar you can purchase besides the packets. This way I just measure it out. The back of the jar will tell you how many teaspoons equal a packet. Bonus: this little jar will keep forever if you put it in your fridge.

You may also like these quick bread & roll recipes:

Spoon Rolls

Quick Mayonnaise Dinner Rolls

Homemade Dinner Rolls (a.k.a Preston Rolls)

Soft Unleavened Bread

Easy Orange Rolls

Old-Fashioned Butter Rolls

“Strength comes from the inside,

but must be fed on the outside to be able to grow.”

-Richard Manintveld

Submitted by his loving wife, Deidra.