No Yeast Dinner Rolls - Quick and Easy

It is really easy to make no yeast dinner rolls with this recipe, even on busy weeknights. And if you like quick bread recipes like this, check out our no yeast bread loaf too. 

This recipe is one of the easiest homemade bread recipes on our blog and that's why it has become one of the most tried recipes as well. Easy, simple, quick and quite satisfying, these quick dinner rolls are worth trying.

Perfect Bread Rolls Without Yeast

• These homemade easy dinner rolls are made without yeast. So they are easy and quick to make. 
• There is no proofing in this recipe. So you don't have to wait for the first and second rise time. 
• There is no kneading. Just mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients well, make dough balls, brush them with yolk and then bake.
• You don’t even need a stand mixer to make this dinner roll recipe, which has no yeast, combine everything in a mixing bowl with your hand.
• It is an amazing short cut to make quick dinner rolls even with no yeast thanks to baking powder, yogurt and olive oil.
• These rolls are great to serve with a comforting food like Turkish beef stew or meatball stew.

About The Ingredients

The basic ingredients for these easy and quick dinner rolls are as follows:

• Baking powder: It is the substitute for yeast in this quick dinner roll recipe. When you bake with baking powder, you don’t need to let the dough rest and rise. The final texture of baking powder bread is not as airy as yeast bread rolls, but it is still soft and satisfying.
• Plain yogurt: Homemade yogurt or Greek style yogurt works best. When baking powder is combined with the acidic structure of yogurt, it reacts even better and you end up with soft and fluffy bread rolls. If you don’t have yogurt on hand, you can use buttermilk or a mixture of milk and mayonnaise or vinegar too. 
• Oil: Just like in our Turkish style hot water cornbread recipe, we use olive oil in this recipe too. We use it in most of our bread recipes as it helps softness. You can use softened or melted butter as a substitute if you want.
• Flour: We use either all-purpose flour or a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. As you can guess, they are softer when we make them with all-purpose flour only. 
• Sugar: It is totally optional. You can leave it out if you don’t want any sweetness at all or increase the amount of it if you want your no yeast bread rolls sweeter. 
• Egg yolk: We use it to brush the tops of rolls to give them a shiny golden top. You can leave it out and skip the egg wash step. If you still want your rolls to shine, you can brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter right after you remove them from the oven.

How To Make

You will learn how to make quick and easy homemade dinner rolls without yeast with this recipe and won’t get stressed again about making your own rolls for special dinner occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter Dinner.

1. Combine baking powder, yogurt, oil, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Gradually add the flour into the wet mixture. If everything holds well after adding 4 cups of flour, stop there and don’t add the rest of the flour. If it is still too sticky, add the rest of the flour and combine well. Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
3. Roll it into balls and place on a baking sheet that is greased or lined with parchment paper. You can wet your finger tips when shaping the dough balls. So the dough doesn’t stick to your hands. Brush their top with beaten egg yolk.
4. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown, for about 20 minutes.

Expert Tips

• Make sure yogurt is at room temperature. This is very important. If you use it cold, the rolls won’t rise well.
• If the yogurt you use is too thick, you might need to add some milk or water. But again, they must be at room temperature. 
• Use all purpose flour in the dough if you want really soft no yeast dinner rolls. When you use a combination of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, they are not as soft, but still fine.  
• If you want to use a mixture of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, whisk them together first.
• Try not to use too much flour. Although these no yeast rolls turn out fine with the measurements in the recipe, add the flour gradually until everything holds together. It's okay if the dough is a bit sticky. Use a little oil (olive oil in my recipe but you can use whatever oil you like) to wet your hands and make small balls from the dough.
• Wait the dough for 15 minutes before rolling it into balls.
• Wet your finger tips with water or oil when taking a piece of dough and roll it into a ball.
• These homemade rolls without yeast are great on the day when they are baked. We love them cold too on the next day but if you are after soft rolls, we suggest you reheat them in the oven or microwave so that they get as soft as they are on the first day.
• You can roll the dough into balls and store in the refrigerator overnight and bake them the next day right before serving.
• If you don’t want to use egg yolk on the top, just bake the rolls without it and brush their tops with melted butter after they are baked. 

Why Are My Dinner Rolls Not Soft?

The most common mistake made when making bread rolls without yeast is using cold liquids. In our recipe, we use yogurt. And it has to be at room temperature or a bit warm.

So you had better remove it from the fridge at least 1 hour before you start making the dough. Let it sit on the counter to reach room temperature.

If you are in a hurry or don't want to wait, you can heat it a bit over boiling water.

Fill a saucepan with water, bring it to a boil. Remove from the heat. Place a bowl over it. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the water. Put yogurt in that bowl and let it sit there for 2-3 minutes. Stir occasionally so that it gets heated equally.

If you use buttermilk as a substitute for yogurt, follow the same steps.

Another mistake is about the baking time. If you over-bake the rolls, they will become hard. So it is always good to check once their top gets golden (in about 15 minutes).

Check whether their bottoms are firm enough. You can remove them from the oven if they are golden on the top and firm on the bottom without waiting the baking duration to end.

Pro Tip: Cover the baking sheet with a damp kitchen towel right after you remove it from the oven. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes and then transfer the rolls onto a cooling rack.

Variations

• Add some chopped herbs like fresh dill or parsley and minced garlic or garlic powder in the dough to give these yeast free dinner rolls more flavor.
• You can stuff these with some cheese if you want. You will end up with stuffed buns like Turkish pogaca.
• You can place the dough balls in a greased muffin pan and then bake.

Serving Options

Although our favorite way to eat these easy no yeast rolls is with butter and plum jam, it is not the only option. These are amazing with soups like red lentil soup, cabbage beef soup or vegetarian white bean soup.

Frequently Asked Questions

You might also like: