Brown and serve rolls are a handy make-ahead holiday offering, and in general just nice to have stashed in the freezer for a busy night. Open up a jar of home canned beef stew, grab a few bake and serve rolls out of the freezer and in minutes you have a completely homemade meal with no mess. For my immediate purposes however, these make-head rolls will allow me to have homemade rolls on the Christmas table instead of relying on store-bought.

This is a Taste of Home recipe which I adapted to be used as brown and serve rolls. I have another make ahead roll recipe on my site as well. These brown and serve rolls don’t have the same sweetness as the other recipe.

Brown and Serve Rolls 

1 1/2 TBSP yeast (or two packs)
1 tsp plus 1/3 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cups warm milk (110 to 115 degrees)
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled slightly
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
6 to 6 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Melt the butter and allow to cool. In a mixer, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in warm water.

Add milk, butter, salt, 1/3 cup of sugar, eggs and 3 cups of flour.

Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. It took me the entire 6 1/2 cups.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic 5-7 minutes. (Because I have a powerful Bosch mixer I only kneaded for 5 minutes. You can also hand knead for 7-8 minutes). Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Before rise

After rise

Gently punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide into 24 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Place either in baking pans or on a cookie sheet and bake at 275 for 20 minutes or until done inside. The rolls should not be brown, however they should be done inside (190 degrees). Allow rolls to cool and freeze. Here are the rolls after done baking and ready for the freezer.

To finish cooking thaw out rolls for about 45 minutes or until thawed, and bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until done. Size of rolls will depend on baking time. Brush rolls with buttered if desired.