This recipe was in an issue of "Our State" magazine years ago, a publication about North Carolina. I christened the recipe "the perfect roll" - soft, fluffy, flavorful. We like our rolls cut small in my family with no crusty sides. I use a small serrated knife to cut between the rolls when they are cool. I make these ahead and them just heat wrapped in foil.

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Rolls

1 c. warm water
4 scant TB dry yeast
1/2 c. sugar
3 c. buttermilk
9 1/2 to 10 cups bread flour
1 1/2 c. butter, melted
4 t. baking powder
4 t. salt
2 TB vegetable oil

Combine the warm water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Stir to dissolve and set aside for 5 minutes. Heat buttermilk to 100 degrees F. Add to yeast. Add 5 cups flour, 1/4 cup butter, baking powder, and salt. Mix with an electric mixer on low for 4-5 minutes. Add 4 1/2 to 5 cups additional flour to make a soft dough. Turn out dough on a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Grease bowl with the oil. Add dough to bowl, turn to coat top with oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size - 1 hour or more. Punch down dough and let rest 10 minutes.
Spray a large pan (I use a 10" by 17" jelly roll pan) with cooking spray or line pan with parchment paper. Shape dough into approximately 50 rolls and place in prepared pan.
Brush rolls with the rest of the melted butter, cover with plastic wrap and a clean dish towel. Let rise 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake rolls 15-18 minutes. Cool rolls out of pan on wire racks.
Store in freezer zip bags until ready to use. These rolls freeze well. This recipe can be halved successfully.
Roll out the dough after it has risen into a rectangle about 1/2-inch thick, then cut into square rolls with a rolling pizza cutter.

Personal preferences will also dictate many of the aspects for choosing a recipe that is going to give you those same characteristics.

If you like hard rolls, choose lean bread recipes and use high-gluten bread flour. These are best baked separated or baked individually in a muffin tin. Just as lean breads aren't good keepers - rolls made with lean doughs stale quickly without the fat, butter, milk, etc. in enriched doughs.

For soft fluffy rolls use all-purpose flour, or if you mill your own flour like I do, use a mix of hard and soft wheat. The mix of hard and soft flour in the all-purpose flour blend will make for a light and tender crumb. These work well as pan rolls, or individually in a muffin tin if you want to make cloverleaf rolls, Fan Tans, etc.

Parkerhouse rolls are baked individually on a cookie sheet. For Parkerhouse rolls choose a recipe, such as Buttery Flaky Rolls - CookWise by Shirley O. Corriher, which incorporates cold flattened pieces of butter layered into the dough to create flakiness. They are a cross between puff pastry and croissants.

The baking temperature will alter the crust. When baked at a lower temperature (325-350 degrees F) produces a thicker, chewier crust. At higher temperatures (375-425 degrees F) produces thinner, crisper crust.

Using milk instead of water in a recipe will produce a softer crust.

At what time in the mixing you add the fat to the recipe will also influence the crumb. For a close crumb add the fat early in the mixing. For a higher rise and more open crumb add the fat later in the mixing after some of the gluten gets developed.

For "quick" dinner rolls choose refrigerator dough recipes, especially those that include mashed potatoes in the recipe. The potatoes help to keep the dough from dehydrating while in the dry confines of the refrigerator. Betty Crocker Potato Refrigerator Dough is an old standard, and the no-knead recipes are another good choice.

Choose honey as a sweetener if you'd like a darker crust or if you are going to freeze the rolls.

I pre-bake my rolls and wrap them in 2-roll portions for freezing, or for serving at a dinner I'll wrap cooled panned rolls in foil and reheat them before serving (sometimes I'll freeze them ahead of time). Heating re-gelatinizes the starches, which gives them the "fresh baked" essence. I don't like messing with making dinner rolls from scratch at the last minute, especially during a big dinner when there are so many other things to take care of. I have a sister-in-law horror story to go along with that.....

You should allow dinner rolls to cool before serving. Just as you will destroy the crumb of a loaf of bread by cutting into it while still hot/warm from the oven, the same goes for dinner rolls. Cooling is necessary for the structure to "set".

-Grainlady

I like evertyhing in a yeast roll!!!! Hard, soft, break apart, bakes separatly, sweet, no sugar, eggy, no eggs....etc.
have you tried the angel biscuits posted on another thread here? Try them...stick the douch in a bowl tightly covered with oiled saran and break off a softball sized hunk....pat out to about 1/3 inch thick, cut into wedges, roll up the wedges sort of like a croissant...or just flip the ends up, place on parchment on a cookie sheet, preheat your oven and by the time the oven is hot, they are ready...only take about 10 minutes to bake.....and wonderful.

In case you forgot....
like to make them in the mornings for a breakfast roll too.
I usually double the recipe using only 1/3 cup sugar in the doubled recipe.
If you keep the dough for a week, punch it down every day or so.
They are a great roll.
Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls
1 Package dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup melted butter
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 cups buttermilk
Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir in butter
Combine dry ingredients; add to yeast mixture along with buttermilk.
Stir well. Turn dough out on a floured surface, knead gently a few times and shape into a ball. Place in greased bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed. Keeps for one week.
Break off a soft ball sized lump of dough and roll into a circle about 1/4" thick. Cut into pie shaped wedges and roll up from the wider edge into crescent shapes. You do not have to let them rise again.
Bake on greased baking sheet at 400 for 8-10 minutes

Thanks Teresa. I haven't tried a buttermilk roll, so that will go on my list!

Grainlady, Thanks for all your helpful info. I always learn something from you! I'm copying/pasting your information for the future, while I experiment with what I like best.

Linda, your recipe is just different enough from Teresa's, I'm going to have to try that one too.

Thanks everyone! DH is liking the ''test kitchen'' atmosphere, and enjoying the results, so he is embracing all the experimentation while we look for our favorite dinner rolls.

This is my favorite, versatile and a little heavy which is how I like them!
16-1/2 ounces (3-2/3 cups) all-purpose flour
1/4-ounce package rapid-rise yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1 cup half-and-half
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces; more for the pan
3 large egg yolks
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

how to make
Mix the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.
Poppyseed Variation: If making this variation, add 1 tablespoon poppyseeds to the flour mixture now.
Fit the mixer with the dough hook. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the half-and-half and the 3 ounces of butter, stirring constantly, until the butter melts and the liquid registers about 120�F on an instant-read thermometer. With the mixer on medium low, pour the warm milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Add the yolks. Mix on medium low until the flour is completely incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
Cheddar & Black Pepper Variation: If making this variation, add 5 ounces (about 2 cups loosely packed) finely shredded extra-sharp Cheddar and 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper now.
Increase the speed to medium high and knead until the dough is very smooth and elastic and pulls away from the bottom of the bowl (a little will stick to the sides), about 5 minutes.
Herb Variation: If making this variation, add about 3/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (try 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, 1/4 cup chives, and 1 teaspoon thyme) now.
If the dough climbs up the hook, stop the mixer and scrape the dough back into the bowl. Repeat as needed. Also, the mixer might dance around on the counter, so hold on to it.
Let the dough rise: Scrape the bowl, scoop up the dough, and shape it into a ball. Lightly grease the sides of the same bowl (or another large one) and put the dough into it. Cover the top securely with plastic. Let the covered dough rise in a warm spot until nearly doubled in size, 45 to 55 minutes.
Portion the dough: Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and gently press to deflate. There's no need to flour the countertop or your hands (unless you're making the herb variation, in which case the dough may be sticky). With a pastry cutter or a chef's knife, divide the dough into about 16 equal pieces, 2 to 2-1/3 ounces each. To ensure even rolls, use a scale to weigh the portions. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch Pyrex baking dish with butter.
Shape the rolls: Work with one piece of dough at a time; cover the others with plastic or a damp towel. There's no need to flour your hands (unless you're making the herb variation). Put one piece of dough on the counter. With a cupped palm, press down gently but firmly, rolling the piece in tight circles on the work surface until it forms a smooth-skinned ball with a seam on the bottom. Put the ball, seam side down, in the greased baking dish, cover loosely with plastic, and repeat with the remaining dough. (The dough balls can be arranged in rows or placed randomly; just be sure they're even.) Cover the baking dish with plastic and let the balls rise in a warm spot until they're about one and a half times their original size and have risen about three-quarters of the way up the pan rim (they won't yet fill the pan). This will take 40 to 60 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375�F.

Breads and rolls, are probably my all time favorite foods.
For me the best dinner roll is soft, yeasty, slightly sweet, a little dense and comes from the middle of the pan so that there is less crust.

I usually bake my rolls in a stainless steel baking pan, usually at 375� but since getting a new oven, I need to experiment more with convection baking. My oven also has a bread proofing setting and that is wonderful. Much more efficient. I have been timing my rolls to be done at least an hour ahead of serving and putting them in a warming drawer until needed. That works perfect.

Depending on the dinner, I also like to make croissants, another favorite of mine.

Nancy

Another way to get rolls right before dinner, without timing a rise, is to make something like butterflake, which don't require kneading and the dough just gets refrigerated until ready to shape, rise and bake. That can be first thing in the morning or it can be supper time.

Butterflake Rolls

2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
6 to 6 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
1/2 cup shortening (use butter)
1/2 cup butter, softened.
In mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg and shortening, mix well, stir in enough flour to form a soft dough. Do not knead. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, punch dough down and divide into 4 portions. Roll each portion into a 14 x 12 inch rectangle, spread 2 tbls butter over dough. Fold in half lengthwise and cut into 12 strips. Tie each strip into a knot, tuck and pinch ends under. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Yield: 4 dozen

OK, so what do I like in a dinner roll? Depends on the dinner! If I have a bowl of stew or soup, I want a sturdier piece of bread, that's when I like the chewier "rustic" type breads. For a holiday meal or even just as an accompaniment to roast chicken or meatloaf, a regular weeknight meal, I like them soft and puffy, slightly sweet and eggy.

I also butter the tops of rolls when the come out of the oven because my girls and the grandkids really like the softer crust that gives.

Annie

I love your Butterflake Rolls, Annie! One of my oft repeated roll recipes.

Teresa

thanks for that compliment, Teresa. Coming from someone far more of a bread expert than I am, that's especially gflattering..

I really ilke them too, I ought to make some. After the wedding...

Annie

You all are killing me with these recipes--breads are my food nemesis.

CdL, I'm eager for you to figure it out and report back.

LindaC, 11" or 12" softball??

Cathy

Funny, I don't like even a little sweet dinner rolls. I make them exactly the same size (using the scale) and set them apart so each is crusty all the way around.

I have made the whole wheat dinner rolls and, sigh, found them too sweet. My family is from PA but I grew up in Denver. Since 1984 have lived below the Mason-Dixon line. Talk about not knowing what I like ......

Oh Boy! I made another recipe just yesterday, baking them the way Beachlily likes, set apart on the pan so there was crust all around. (Funny, Beachlily, you sound like you know exactly what you like to me!) The last batch was among the favorites, but then I haven't tried the buttermilk, butterflake, or refrigerator rolls yet. I have much work to do! I have all these ziplocks in the freezer now, labeled according to which recipe I made. I feel like the home-grown version of ATK.

Well, after living in the South so long, I would have sworn that sweet dinner rolls were a Southern thang. Not so. I've tried all sorts of recipes and haven't found one I truly like but all my guests and my husband, too, think they were all great. Picky, picky!!

Cathy....a 10 inch soft ball....and in 5 minutes it'll be an 11 inch softball!!