Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls

Mixed Like Muffins. No Kneading, No Rise Time.


How to put what tastes like hot yeast bread on the table in 40 minutes? Without kneading? Without waiting for the dough to rise? Here's how. Mix a batch of muffins leavened with both baking powder (for rising) and yeast (for that distinctive yeast flavor). Are they yeast rolls? Yes. Muffins? Yes. The rolls/muffins come out of the oven hot and golden, welcome morning (with eggs, say) or noon (with a bowl of soup, say) or night (with a big supper salad or a stew that needs sopping up). It might just be magic: the great taste of yeast rolls, the mixing convenience of muffins.

Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls ♥ KitchenParade.com, yeast rolls mixed like muffins. No kneading. No rise time.

Fresh-Baked Bread, Family-Approved & Mere Minutes to the Table. Just One Bowl, No Mixer Required. Extra Welcome When "Supper's a Little Skimpy". Hearty & Filling. Fun Picnic Food. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Vegetarian.

COMPLIMENTS!
  • "... they are good, aren’t they?" ~ Carole
  • "These were a big hit, 15-year-old boys love them!" ~ The Sister

Is It Magic? Maybe.

On My Mind ♥ KitchenParade.com, the magic of parents.

Moms and dads are known for magical powers. Just think of the owies and ouchies that vanish with a quick kiss and a warm hug, how a child’s excitement flourishes with words of encouragement and praise.

But how do busy parents transform soups and salads from weeknight same-old to weeknight special?

It’s no illusion. Straight from the oven, hot rolls are a magic of their own sort. But after work and errands, before homework and bedtime rituals, what busy parent has time to wave a wand for rolls?

You do, that’s who.

These rolls require no kneading and no time to rise. Just mix the batter and bake, like muffins. The rolls’ texture lands someplace between fluffy homemade rolls and hearty homemade muffins.

Stir in some fresh herbs or add a honey-sweetened butter. Suddenly, supper is something special, magical even.

About This Recipe: Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls

  • With this recipe, put hot rolls on the table in under 45 minutes, combining the taste of yeast bread with the mixing convenience of muffins. Mix the rolls in a single bowl just like muffins, no kneading and no rise time. Bake the rolls in a muffin pan.
  • Distinctive Ingredients = Yeast for flavor + Baking Powder for leavening
  • Short Ingredient List = both the above + 1 egg + sugar + vegetable oil + bread flour + salt + fresh herbs (optional)
  • How long does it take to mix a batch of muffins? About 15 minutes. Same here!
  • Appearance-wise, these rolls look like domed muffins.
  • This is pantry-friendly recipe, especially for bread bakers who keep yeast on hand.
  • This is a budget-friendly recipe, no fancy hard-to-find ingredients to seek out or keep on hand.
  • As written, the recipe makes a dozen rolls but there's enough batter to make 18 muffins.
  • There's no replacing my mother's traditional Homemade Yeast Rolls but these yeast rolls earn a place in my recipe repertoire.
  • Not quite what you're looking for? Check out my other homemade bread recipes.

Extra Magic? Honey Butters!

Honey Butters for Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls ♥ KitchenParade.com, yeast rolls mixed like muffins. No kneading. No rise time.

Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls are savory rolls low in sugar. So I pair them with easy-to-whip-up honey butters, just butter and honey plus another little something.

My favorite is Honey Mustard Butter but Honey Cinnamon Butter is fabulous too.

When I make these, I feel like my Auntie Gloria, who always had a "special little bit of something special" she could pull out of the fridge on a moment's notice. For easy bookmarking and searching, here are both the recipes, Honey Butters.

Bookmark! PIN! Share!

How do you save and share favorite recipes? recipes that fit your personal cooking style? a particular recipe your mom or daughter or best friend would just love? If this unusual recipe inspires you, please do save and share! I'd be honored ...

Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls ♥ KitchenParade.com, yeast rolls mixed like muffins. No kneading. No rise time.



WEEKNIGHT-EASY YEAST ROLLS

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 40 minutes
Makes 12 rolls (or up to 18)
  • 1 package active dry or instant yeast (2-1/4 teaspoons, 7g)
  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
  • 1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
  • 4 cups bread flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 500g
  • 2 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons) baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons table salt
  • Chopped fresh herbs such as chives, sage or rosemary, optional

Heat oven to 425F/220C. Spray the cups of a muffin tray with standard-size cups.

YEAST In a bowl, gently stir together the yeast and water. Set the bowl aside, after a few minutes, it should begin to bubble as the yeast activates.

WET INGREDIENTS In a bowl large enough to become the main mixing bowl, whisk the egg, sugar and oil.

DRY INGREDIENTS Separately, stir together flour, baking powder and salt (see ALANNA’s TIPS).

With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients a cup at a time into the wet ingredients, just until mixed, stirring in a third of the yeast-water mixture between additions. Stir in the herbs, if using.

BAKE With two soup spoons (one to scoop and the other to scrape) or a large cookie scoop, fill the muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

Best served hot but keep well for two to three days.

ALANNA's TIPS You may skip separately mixing the flour, baking powder and salt but only by carefully distributing the salt and baking powder so no salty, powdery pockets get trapped inside the dough. The rolls are quite big, you could easily stretch the recipe to fill 18 muffin cups.
NUTRITION INFORMATION per roll, assumes 12: 216 Calories; 5g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 36g Carb; 1g Fiber; 638mg Sodium; 17mg Cholesterol; 6g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 4 & PointsPlus 6 & SmartPoints 6 & Freestyle 6 & myWW green 6 & blue 6 & purple 6 & future WW points



Extra Magic? Honey Butters! For a little something special, whip up a small batch of honey butter. The only trick is to use butter softened at room temperature, it really doesn't work to soften it in the microwave. But if you must, cut the butter into cubes and run the microwave just 5 or 10 seconds at a time. Our "house" butter is Land O Lakes salted butter, if you're using unsalted butter, be sure to add salt to these butters.


Honey Cinnamon Butter Stir a tablespoon of honey and a pinch of cinnamon into 4 tablespoons (that's 56 grams and usually half a stick) of softened butter.


Honey Mustard Butter (my favorite) Stir a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of good mustard into a half stick (that's 56 grams and usually half a stick) of softened butter.


Seasonal Cooking: Finally, Fall Across the Years

Chicken Cider Stew Mashed Sweet Potatoes Roasted Sweet Potatoes Turkey Sweet Potato Soup Creamy Wild Rice Soup Acorn Squash with Quinoa & Cherries Weeknight-Easy Yeast Rolls No-Knead English Muffin Bread Lamb with Lemon & Oregano Snickers Cookies on Sticks (or NOT) Easy-Easy Pear Sauce Slow Cooker Braised Lamb Shanks or Venison Shanks Fun Pretzel Roll Hot Dogs


This Week, Elsewhere

~ Finnish Carrot Casserole ~
~ How to Roast a Whole Pumpkin ~
~ Roasted Fennel ~
~ more Recent Recipes ~
A Veggie Venture

If you like Kitchen Parade's recipes, you'll love A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables with more from-scratch recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, home to the famous Alphabet of Vegetables and vegetables in every course, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.


Need Hot Bread, Fast? More Recipe Ideas

more
~ homemade bread recipes ~
Skillet Cornbread ♥ KitchenParade.com, an adaptable, forgiving recipe. Rises Tall. Stays Moist. Not Too Sweet. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special.

Mom's Perfect Biscuits, the family recipe, perfected by three generations of biscuit makers and one persistent food blogger. The secret ingredient? One egg.

Finnish Whole-Wheat Flatbread ♥ KitchenParade.com, hot bread on the table in minutes.

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

© Copyright Kitchen Parade
2007, 2013 & 2023

Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Sounds delicious and super simple. That's as easy as those frozen things in a tube.

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  2. Alanna,
    That's an intriquing recipe.

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  3. Great looking rolls Alanna!

    Bruno

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  4. Baking powder AND yeast? Interesting. I'm going to try these with the soup on Sunday..if I have that much baking powder on hand ;-)

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  5. Anonymous11/03/2007

    Finally I was able to try the weeknight rolls and they are good, aren’t they? Sort of a cross between a muffin and a yeast roll – I put the leftovers in a freezer bag and think they will come out Ok to heat up in the microwave, like non-yeast breads do.

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  6. Hi Alanna! Question for you....is bread flour a specific kind of flour? Different than cake flour or self rising flour or the regular flour I have? Can I use any of those listed instead?

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  7. Hi Lelo ~ Good question! Gluten is what gives baked goods their 'chewiness'. Bread flour has the most gluten (and thus is best for heavier baked goods like bread), cake flour the least (and so is used for lightening things like the angel food cake I made today), and all-purpose flour is in the middle. I use bread flour in this recipe because I like how the texture it gives these rolls. As for the self-rising flour, it's an all-purpose flour that already has baking powder added (1 1/2 teaspoons per cup) so you can use it, with a lighter, less roll-like result, just do the math and reduce the specified baking powder. Let me know how it goes!

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  8. Anonymous11/12/2007

    These were a big hit at my house. 15-year-old boys love them!

    Can't wait to try them with some garlic and herbs.

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  9. Hello The Sister - So glad you and 'A from Texas' like these!

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  10. Hi Alanna - I had no idea you had a blog. My mother-in-law clips your column for me in St. Louis and mails it to us in Ireland. I've tried several of your recipes and just made these rolls. Am so excited to find your site and will be back I'm sure! Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. But I also love hearing your reactions, your curiosity, even your concerns! When you've made a recipe, I especially love to know how it turned out, what variations you made, what you'll do differently the next time. ~ Alanna