Easy Frozen Dinner Rolls: A Make-Ahead Recipe

You can make frozen dinner roll dough for rolls that are light, fluffy, and the perfect side you can make ahead of time.

Frozen dinner rolls are easy to prepare, and are much less expensive than store-bought rolls. Save time and money with this simple recipe for frozen unbaked yeast rolls.

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One of my great-grandma’s specialties was her homemade dinner rolls. These were a staple at every family holiday dinner, and they disappeared fast.

After she passed away, my mom typically made the dinner rolls for our gatherings, using Rhodes frozen dinner rolls.

But now that I’m feeding my own family, I realize how expensive store-bought frozen rolls can be!

I make a lot of homemade bread these days, including dinner rolls, which are one of my kids’ favorites.

They will gobble up a pan or two in no time flat, so I like to make dough for frozen dinner rolls. It’s so nice to have them in the freezer anytime we want an easy side.

Make-Ahead Dinner Rolls Recipe

Many people don’t know that you can actually freeze dinner rolls before baking, which is a great way to “make once, eat twice.”

It’s also a great way to simplify holiday meal prep, by making the rolls ahead of time and popping them in the freezer until needed.

One of the most common questions I get about my homemade yeast rolls recipe is, “Can you freeze these dinner rolls?”

So I thought I’d provide a guide for exactly how to freeze them!

How to Make Frozen Dinner Rolls

The process is actually super simple! I’ll walk you through it step by step.

How to Make and Freeze Dinner Roll Dough:

Activate the yeast. Add the warm water to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Then, you’ll sprinkle some yeast, salt, and sugar into the warm water, stirring gently.

Let it set for a few minutes until it’s nice and foamy.

Create the dough. Next you’ll add in the butter and egg, mixing at low speed. Gradually, add in the flour.

Use the lowest speed to knead the dough for about ten minutes (you can also do this by hand).

Let the dough rise. Now it’s time to let the dough rise. You’ll want to lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to it, turning the ball once or twice to coat it well with oil.

Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise.

This is the point where I use the Instant Pot to proof the dough. In this case, you can oil the insert pot of the Instant Pot, and transfer the dough there, turning to coat with oil.

You’ll close the lid and use the Yogurt function at “normal” to provide the perfect environment for the yeast to thrive.

You’ll want to let the dough rise until it’s roughly doubled in size, or about an hour.

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can put the dough in a warm place and let it rise until doubled.

Shape the rolls. Punch down the dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface.

Cut the dough into 18 pieces. I use a pizza cutter to do this.

Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

If your freezer is too narrow to fit a cookie sheet in, you can also freeze these in a muffin tin–just be sure to grease the tin first or the frozen dough balls will be really hard to remove!

Freeze the rolls. Pop the cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour, “flash freezing” the dough. This will freeze them enough that they won’t stick together during storage.

Then transfer the frozen rolls to a zip-top bag or other freezer-safe container and keep in the freezer.

How to Thaw Frozen Dinner Rolls for Baking

On baking day, pull out the amount of rolls that you want to bake. Grease the pan you’ll be baking them in, then put the frozen rolls in the pan.

I typically use round cake pans, but you can also use muffin tins or a sheet pan.

Spray some plastic wrap with cooking spray and lightly cover the rolls (sprayed side down) while they thaw and rise, doubling in size.

Depending on how warm your house is, this can take between 4-6 hours. You can see the progression below!

You can also proof frozen rolls in the Instant Pot! The method uses the Yogurt setting and works quite well and is much faster, taking less than an hour and a half usually.

Baking Frozen Dinner Rolls

After the rolls have doubled in size, they’re ready to be baked! Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake the rolls for about 12-15 minutes, or until they’re golden-brown on top.

Remove the pans from the oven and brush the tops of the hot rolls with melted butter (or just rub a stick of butter on top while they’re hot!).

Serve and enjoy!

For more bread inspiration, you can make dinner rolls by hand with this Bisquick yeast rolls recipe, use a bread machine, or you can also proof dough in the Instant Pot, which is a great way to help the dough rise.

I even use the Instant Pot method of proofing dough when I make this super easy french bread and homemade soft pretzels!

More Delicious Recipes:

• Instant Pot Thanksgiving Recipes
• Instant Pot Easter Recipes
• No-Knead Bread in the Instant Pot

Don’t forget to save this recipe to your bread board on Pinterest!