What Is Bread, dinner rolls and How Can I Use It?

Here's everything worth knowing about bread, dinner rolls and how to pick it, what it are, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 38 recipes to cook tonight.

Key Points

Small, soft enriched rolls for the table; tender crumb made for soaking gravy.
Serve warm; reheat foil-wrapped at 300°F for about 10 minutes.
Double as slider bread, and stale rolls make excellent stuffing once dried.
Brown-and-serve par-baked rolls finish in 10 minutes; scratch wins on flavor.
Keep bagged 2 to 3 days at room temperature or freeze up to 3 months.

What are bread, dinner rolls?

Dinner rolls are the small, soft rolls you pass around the table with a meal. They are made from an enriched dough, usually with butter and milk and a little sugar, baked into individual rounds with a tender crumb and a thin, golden crust.

Their whole job is to soak up gravy, carry a pat of butter, and round out a plate. They are smaller and softer than a sandwich roll and not built to hold a heavy filling.

You will see them pull-apart, baked snug in a pan so they steam and stay soft, or baked apart for a crustier edge all around. Either way, warm is how they are best.

Serving Them Well

Serve dinner rolls warm. A quick reheat wakes up the butter in the crumb and brings back that fresh-baked softness.

Wrap a few in foil and warm them in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 10 minutes, or microwave one under a damp paper towel for a few seconds.

Split and butter them at the table, or tear into a pull-apart batch like Butterscotch Monkey Bread, where the rolls bake together in a sweet, sticky coating.

They double as miniature sandwich bread. Small soft rolls are ideal for sliders and party bites, and they show up split and stuffed in Swiss Ham Ring-Around and Cajun Stuffed Pistolettes.

Leftover rolls are gold for stuffing. Tear them, dry the pieces overnight or in a low oven, and they soak up stock and butter for a dressing without going to mush the way fresh bread does.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Dinner rolls belong next to anything with a sauce or gravy: roast chicken, pot roast, a holiday turkey, a bowl of soup. The soft crumb is built for sopping, and a crock of soft butter turns the rolls into half the reason people reach for seconds.

The big mistake is serving them cold and dense. A roll that was lovely warm goes gummy and tight once it cools, so reheat right before the meal rather than setting them out early.

The other slip is overbaking. Dinner rolls want a pale gold crust, not a deep brown one. A few extra minutes dries out that delicate crumb and you lose the softness that makes them worth baking.

What to Swap In

No dinner rolls? Soft buns split into pieces stand in fine for the table, though they run a little larger. Biscuits bring a different, flakier texture but the same warm-and-buttered role, the way Ham Biscuits do.

Crescent rolls from a tube are the easy shortcut, baking up flaky and rich, and they wrap fillings well as in Chicken Crescent Almondine. For pull-apart softness in a hurry, a bag of frozen yeast rolls thawed and baked gets you close.

If you only need something to mop a plate, any soft bread torn into chunks does the job, even if it lacks the neat shape.

Brown-and-Serve Versus Scratch

Brown-and-serve rolls are par-baked: cooked partway, then sold so you finish them at home. Ten or so minutes in a hot oven browns the crust and gives you that just-baked smell and warmth with almost no effort. They are a holiday-table staple for good reason.

Fully baked bagged rolls are even quicker, needing only a warm-up, but they are softer and have less crust character than ones you brown yourself.

Scratch rolls take a couple of hours with the rises. The payoff is flavor and freshness and a crumb you cannot buy.

If the meal is the event, scratch rolls earn their time. On a busy weeknight, brown-and-serve is no shame.

Buying and Storing

Pick rolls that feel soft and spring back, with an even golden top and no hard, dry patches. Bagged rolls keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days; the counter beats the fridge, since cold air actually speeds staling in soft breads.

For longer storage, freeze them. Sealed airtight, dinner rolls hold up to 3 months and reheat straight from frozen, wrapped in foil in a low oven, in about 15 minutes.

A roll that has gone a little stale but is not moldy comes back with a quick warm-up under a damp towel. Toss any roll with visible mold, since on soft bread the spores reach further than the spot you can see.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 oz (28g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 85Calories from Fat 16

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 1.8g 3%

Saturated Fat 0.4g 2%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 14mg 5%

Sodium 152mg 6%

Total Carbohydrate 14.6g 5%

Dietary Fiber 1g 4%

Sugars 1.2

Protein 2.7g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 2% • Iron 5%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find bread, dinner rolls: Bread, dinner rolls are usually found in the bakery section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Bread, dinner rolls are a member of the Baked Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 面包，晚餐卷
British (UK) term: Bread, dinner rolls
en français: pain, petits pains
en español: pan, panecillos

How much do bread, dinner rolls weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 ounce	28 grams
1 roll (2-1/2" dia)	35 grams

Baked Products

Biscuit baking mix (bisquick) 416 Cornbread 49 Bread, french baguette 56 French bread 203 Bread, italian 56 Crusty bread 16 Pita bread 88 Rye bread 48 Bread 571 Bread, white 169

Recipes using bread, dinner rolls

There are 38 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Easy Parmesan Meatballs

Italian parmesan meatballs simmered directly in tomato sauce, made with ground beef, milk-soaked bread, garlic, and grated parmesan. Tender, classic, ready in 40 minutes.

Minced Meat Cutlets with White Radish & Sesame

Polish-style fried meatballs or hamburgers literally called ground cutlets (pol. kotlety mielone). My latest rendition contains white radish, sesame seeds, and cilantro leaves. It is far away from home, but I think it's healthy to travel from time to time. My cutlets are served with potatoes, yoghurt, dill, and Bayou Carlin coleslaw. The salad recipe is taken from RecipeLand. Quick and easy dinner to prepare.