This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
Here’s Why You’ll Love These Sage Dinner Rolls
9 simple ingredients Browned butter adds depth of flavor, without adding too much prep time Rolls are super soft, buttery, & flaky Delicious earthy herb flavors from fresh sage & thyme; feel free to switch up the herbs Adjust prep time to your schedule—make-ahead options detailed in Notes below
Key Steps in This Recipe
Let the dough rise until double in size and then punch it down to release the air: More than a side dish, these savory rolls are like a side of comfort for your comfort food! All of the browned bits at the bottom of the pan hold so much flavor; do not omit!
Which yeast do I use? You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast in this recipe. If using active dry yeast, the rise times will be a little longer. I recommend Platinum Yeast from Red Star, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers.
Combine the yeast with warmed milk, a little honey, and your yeast. Let this mixture sit for 5 minutes or until foamy on top (pictured below, left). Then, add the rest of the ingredients to form a soft dough (pictured below, right), and then knead. See my How to Knead Dough video tutorial if you’re new to yeasted dough or would benefit from a visual of this step. After that, shape into 14–16 balls and arrange in a baking pan. Don’t worry if they’re not all uniform in size. A 9×13-inch pan is ideal for these brown butter sage dinner rolls, but you can bake them on a lined baking sheet or in two 9-inch round or square pans instead. Let the shaped rolls rise before baking. Look how puffy they get after 1 hour of rising: Thyme & sage work hand-in-hand to produce a deep herb flavor in today’s rolls. If you want to switch it up, substitute rosemary or parsley for one or both or try these garlicky herb skillet rolls instead. I have even more dinner rolls options if you’re looking for inspiration: Brush the warm rolls with the remaining brown butter, mixed with a little more chopped sage, and finish with an optional sprinkle of sea salt. If you’re ever shopping online for sea salt and need a recommendation, I use and love Maldon flaky sea salt. Serve brown butter sage rolls with cold weather favorites like your Thanksgiving dinner, creamy chicken noodle soup, lemon thyme chicken, sausage stuffed peppers, turkey pot pie, or minestrone soup. Today’s soft dough is best shaped into rolls.
