You can make dinner rolls ahead of time — here's how

Whether you’re balancing time, bandwidth, or simply oven space, Thanksgiving cooking and baking can be hard to manage in the days leading up to the big feast. One way to get ahead? Start baking right now!

If you want to prep your dinner rolls in advance, our Test Kitchen has a brand-new method for dinner rolls that can be parbaked weeks in advance, then popped into the oven just before serving. Find the new recipe here: Homemade Brown and Serve Dinner Rolls.

(This is also a great recipe if you’re baking for a neighbor or loved one. You can gift them a tray of frozen rolls, which they can pop in the oven and enjoy whenever they’d like.)

Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Why we prefer this method for make-ahead dinner rolls

The best make-ahead rolls have most of the prep work done as early in advance as possible, while still retaining their just-baked characteristics while serving.

For the maximum freezer time without compromising freshness, this roll recipe is made using a flour-and-water slurry that draws upon the Japanese bread-baking techniques known as yudane and tangzhong. This step involves cooking a portion of the flour with water to form a slurry before mixing the dough, a process that pre-gelatinizes the flour. In other words, it allows that flour to hold onto extra water, increasing the amount of moisture in the dough without making it too wet to work with. That way, the rolls stay soft and moist, even with their long bake time and extensive time in the freezer or on the counter.

The rolls are also parbaked before freezing, so that when it comes time to eat them, you only need to bake them for 8 to 15 minutes to brown briefly. During the parbaking step, the rolls will take on almost no color, but during the final bake they’ll become golden brown. 

Because these rolls can be prepped and frozen weeks in advance, you can get your baking done early in November, well ahead of Thanksgiving. If you’d like to save your prep for the holiday week, you can also parbake the rolls, then leave them at room temperature for a few days (rather than freezing); bake them just before eating for fresh rolls in around 10 minutes.

Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

How to prep dinner rolls for freezing 

Once cool, freeze the parbaked rolls directly on the baking sheet (no need to cover or wrap them in plastic) until the rolls are frozen solid, about an hour. 

Then, prepare the rolls for long-term storage by gently pulling them apart and transferring them to a zip-top bag. Alternatively, break the slab of rolls into two or three smaller portions to pull apart after reheating (these will be softer and squishier than rolls that are frozen and finished individually); transfer these blocks of rolls to a zip-top bag.

You want to make sure rolls are in an airtight bag to avoid freezer burn or unwanted odors from other foods in your freezer, especially if you plan to store them for a long time!

How early can I make my dinner rolls?

Rolls can be prepped and frozen up to six weeks in advance. You can also parbake your rolls, then leave them stored at room temperature for up to three days in advance.

Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Can I use this method for any dinner roll recipe? 

Not necessarily. When I asked recipe creator Sarah Jampel, she shared: “Because the rolls get baked for a long time, the dough needs to be pretty high hydration. That’s why it works well to use the yudane dough in the recipe.” (Remember, yudane involves cooking a portion of the flour and liquid together to make a slurry, which increases the total hydration of the dough.)

While we haven't tested this method with other roll recipes, if you want to try with a different dough, we recommend a recipe made with the tangzhong method (a technique very similar to yudane that calls for precooking the flour and water together), such as Japanese Milk Bread Rolls.

Are there other methods I can use to make my dinner rolls ahead of time? 

After lots (and lots) of testing, blog contributor PJ Hamel concluded that the best way to prep roll recipes ahead of time is to shape your kneaded (but unrisen) yeast dough into rolls. Place them in a pan and freeze; once frozen, bag them airtight and stash in the freezer. The day you want to serve them, take as many rolls as you want out of the freezer, place them in a pan, and let them thaw/rise for four to five hours or so. Then bake according to the recipe. (See the full method here: Freeze and bake rolls.)

The obvious downside here is that you need to wait four to five hours (or more, if your kitchen is very cold) for the rolls to rise before you bake them, which is why we prefer our Homemade Brown and Serve Dinner Rolls. However, this freeze-and-bake method is a great backup choice if you have another style of roll you’d like to prep ahead of Thanksgiving.

Find everything you need for a seamless and stress-free holiday with our Thanksgiving Survival Guide.

Cover photo by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova.