The Best Make-Ahead Dinner Rolls

While we're certainly not above using heat-and-serve rolls, there's nothing quite like the feeling of pride that comes from making a basket of warm, homemade dinner rolls from scratch. Sure, baking bread takes a bit more time. But it's easier than you might think and the results are so much better than anything store-bought. A feeling of accomplishment and hot, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth dinner rolls—what could be better?

Whether you're brand new to bread baking or the designated baker in your family, this yeast roll recipe is worth bookmarking because you're going to return to it again and again. Not only do these dinner rolls look wonderful in a bread basket (look at those golden swirls!), the dough is easy to work with and will give you tender, buttery results every time. The rolls are actually baked in two 12-cup muffin pans, which helps them hold their spiraled shape and bake up nice and golden brown.

Best of all, these yeast rolls can be made in advance. Make the dough, chill it overnight, then assemble the rolls as directed in step 4, placing each dough spiral inside a muffin cup. Cover the pans with plastic wrap and refrigerate them overnight. The next day, remove the pans from the refrigerator and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Bake as directed in step 5—don't forget to brush the hot, baked rolls when melted butter when they come out of the oven.

You can also bake the rolls, let them cool completely, and freeze them in ziplock freezer bags. Reheat before serving in a warm oven.

However you choose to make—or eat—these rolls, you really can't go wrong. They are delicious turned into mini sandwiches, slathered with butter and jam at breakfast, or eaten as-is, right out of the pan.