Garlic Butter Rolls
The dinner rolls you'll want to put on the table for just about everything. Extra buttery, super soft, and loaded with mellow garlic flavor.
Servings: 15 rolls
Equipment
- Stand mixer with dough hook attachment (or you can knead by hand)
- 13x9 inch baking dish
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- 1 large clove garlic thinly sliced
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ teaspoons 1 package instant yeast
- 3 ½ - 4 cups (420 - 480 grams) all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- Optional: chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives), flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Make garlic butter: Melt 4 oz butter slowly over low heat with thinly sliced garlic until butter is fully melted and garlic softens a bit. Strain out the garlic and set it aside to reserve for later. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk strained butter with 1 cup milk and make sure the mixture is warm (about 100-115° F). If necessary, re-warm it lightly to get to the right temperature range. This helps the yeast activate and will make your rolls rise faster.
- Mix the dough: Whisk in 1 egg, 3 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 ¼ tsp yeast and 3 ½ cups (420 grams) flour until a shaggy dough forms.
- Knead: Connect the dough hook attachment and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl (8-10 minutes).If dough is too wet and sticky, you can add some more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time, to achieve the right texture. Avoid over-flouring. The dough should look somewhat shiny and feel tacky and soft without sticking to your fingers.
- First rise: Scape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, tossing to coat. Then cover and let rise in a warm spot until puffy and roughly doubled (45-60 minutes).
- Shape rolls: Divide the dough into 15 equal pieces*, shape each into a ball by rolling a few times on a lightly floured surface, and place them in a buttered 13x9-inch baking dish.
- Second rise: Cover and let the rolls rise again until puffy and touching, 30-60 minutes. When they're getting close to ready, preheat the oven to 375° F (190° C).
- Bake: Bake until golden brown on top, about 15-20 minutes.
- Brush with garlic butter: Melt 2 Tbsp salted butter. Mince the reserved garlic from step 1, stirring it into the melted butter. Brush this garlic butter generously over the rolls while warm.
- Optional but highly recommended: Sprinkle rolls with chopped fresh herbs and flaky sea salt.
Notes
*Dividing the dough: If you want perfect, consistent rolls, use a digital scale to weigh your dough and divide it by 15 to determine how much each dough ball should weigh. They should be about 55-57 grams each. Or, simply eyeball it! No one said these rolls had to be absolutely perfect.
For serious garlic lovers: If you love a lot of intense garlic flavor, by all means add more garlic cloves! Simmering the garlic with butter in step 1 and using this same garlic to brush on top at the end of baking softens the sharp flavor of raw garlic, making it more subtle and sweet, similar to roasted garlic. For a more intense flavor, add an extra minced clove to the butter to brush on top.