One of the best things of being home is that I can bake as my heart desires. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I turned the oven on after two weeks. I felt like a child when given a new toy.
These butter buns are my family all time favorites. They are easy to make, the dough is so soft and elastic and the buttery crust makes them irresistible.
If you don’t like a soft buttery crust you can leave them plain by not brushing them with butter and maybe use some egg wash instead.
I don’t remember exactly how these buns came to life but over time I changed the recipe according to my mood: 1 egg, 2 eggs, just egg yolks, milk, water, salted/unsalted butter – one thing was the left the same – they disappear in no time.
I usually make these once a week, mostly Sunday morning to have them still warm for breakfast. No, I’m not waking up at 4 am on Sundays. Since I’m using rapid rise yeast, it only takes about 2 hours from the moment I get everything out of the pantry and having freshly baked buns on the table.
Still not convinced to try them out? Maybe after reading how easy they are to make you decide to give them a try.
Let’s turn the oven on and make some Butter Buns
In a bowl mix 1/4 cup water or milk with 1 package rapid rise yeast and 1 tsp of sugar.
Stir and let the yeast dissolve. It’s going to slightly foam. Don’t be scared if it doesn’t almost double in volume like the active dry yeast (explained the differences in my yeast tutorial in case you missed it)
In your mixer bowl add 4 cups all purpose flour ( I recommend unbleached AP from Arthur King). Pour the yeast mixture over.
Add 1 egg or 2 egg yolks
And 4 tbsp melted butter.
In a measuring cup mix 1 cup of lukewarm milk or water with 1-2 tsp salt. If you used salted butter I advise you not to add any more salt. Start mixing slowly adding the milk/water.
The dough might need a little bit more milk. Slowly add 1 tbsp at a time until the dough is soft and cleans itself from the sides of the bowl.
Put the dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic foil and leave at room temperature until it doubles in volume. (should take about 30-40 minutes)
Grease a 11×7 deep dish and put aside. Divide the dough into 16 almost equal balls. Shape them into small baguettes and place them into the baking dish. Cover again with plastic foil and leave at room temperature.
Turn the oven on and let it reach 375F. The oven should be on for about 10 minutes (plus other 15 minutes until it reaches the desired temperature) before you place the buns in.
When your oven is nice and hot and your buns are almost doubled in size brush them with some more melted butter and place them into the oven
Bake for 23-25 minutes until golden. Brush with some more butter as soon as you take them out of the oven.
Let the buns absorb the butter and enjoy
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water or milk
- 1 package rapid rise yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 egg or 2 egg yolks
- 4 tbsp melted and cooled butter
- 1 cup lukewarm water/milk
- 1-2 tsp salt
- additional melted butter for brushing
Instructions
- In a bowl mix 1/4 cup lukewarm water or milk with 1 package rapid rise yeast and 1 tsp of sugar.
- Stir and let the yeast dissolve. It’s going to slightly foam. Don’t be scared if it doesn't almost double in volume like the active dry yeast.
- In your mixer bowl add 4 cups all purpose flour. Pour the yeast mixture over.
- Add 1 egg or 2 egg yolks and the 4 tbsp of melted butter
- In a measuring cup mix 1 cup of lukewarm milk or water with 1-2 tsp salt. If you used salted butter I advise you not to add any more salt. Start mixing slowly adding the milk/water.
- The dough might need a little bit more milk. Slowly add 1 tbsp at a time until the dough is soft and cleans itself from the sides of the bowl.
- Put the dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic foil and leave at room temperature until it doubles in volume. (should take about 30-40 minutes)
- Grease a 11×7 deep dish and put aside. Divide the dough into 16 almost equal balls. Shape them into small baguettes and place them into the baking dish. Cover again with plastic foil and leave at room temperature
- Turn the oven on and let it reach 375F. The oven should be on for about 10 minutes (plus other 15 minutes until it reaches the desired temperature) before you place the buns in.
- When your oven is nice and hot and your buns are almost doubled in size brush them with some more melted butter and place them into the oven
- Bake for 23-25 minutes until golden. Brush with some more butter as soon as you take them out of the oven.
- Let the buns absorb the butter and enjoy
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That’s about it for today, hope you’re going to have a wonderful rest of the week my friends.
Sending you lots of love,
Roxana
Hi! I'm Roxana, busy mom and wife. I'm a self-taught baker, wanna-be photographer and the writer behind this blog. Keep up with my baking adventures by
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{ 98 comments… read them below or add one }
I love how everything you create is a work of art. They look beautiful,fluffy and delicious. Happy Friday! Enjoy being home again in your kitchen
If I close my eyes I swear I can smell these luscious buns! Fantastic! Have a a nice weekend, Roxana.
Looks really nioce.Keep playing with your toy(oven) so we can have fun reading about it:)
Roxana, these buns look absolutely amazing! They are so fluffy and light, great job! I would love some with raspberry jam
! Hope you have a wonderful weekend 
!
I absolutely love these buns! I usually shape my buns just like yours, love when they touch each other! Next time I will try the butter on the crust… yummmm!
wow! once a week! that's awesome for you and your family
these look sooooooo good. i am such a "bread" girl. haha.
I love these! They sound great… you had me at butter
I will try these for dinner one night very, very soon! Thanks for sharing 
thank you Roxana
these buns look soft and delicious would be warm and wonderful for breakfast and also for anytime of the day
buun,bine lucrat,o zi buna
These buns look delicious. I've been interested in trying to bake my own bread and these butter buns seems like the perfect recipe. I love rolls dipped in a little ranch dressing with dinner, or with raspberry jam or honey butter with breakfast.
Roxana your butter buns are perfect.
Mandy
Wow, they look so light and fluffy. I've got to try these!
These buns look like fluffy bundles of pure goodness!
Just saw these on foodgawker and knew it had to be you! They look super tasty
Oh my gosh, these look delicious and easy! I think you have cured me of my bun-phobia.
Oh these would be ab fab with that homemade blackberry jam I have sitting in the fridge
Delish as always Roxana.
Great recipe! Thanks for sharing!
I'm convinced! I will be making them for dinner tomorrow night. Can't wait!
Yum….these look so very good.
Fluffy, buttery, yummy!! They look gorgeous!
These look so good. Who doesn't love fresh homemade bread! And you pictures are beautiful!
This looks like such an easy bun recipe! I'll definitely be spending my Sundays making these from now on!
These buns look perfect for our rainy days here
I can smell them already in my mind 
) I love baking as well!
I can certainly see why those delightful buns disappear! They look incredibly light and delicious….yumm, buttery buns, it even sounds delicious!
They looks so fluffy and who wouldn't try that specially since it takes hardly 2 hours !! just amazing.
btw after reading your post on yeast i starting to work on my phobia and made a flat bread for the first time… and truly yeast is magical!
I can never resist a warm homemade roll. I love your step-by-step photos.
These look like little pillows of goodness. I am still a little intimidated by yeast so thanks for providing the detailed instructions.
wow! homemade butter buns are so comforting:) these looks so good. thank you for sharing this.
They look soooooo good, Roxana!!! I love rolls/buns! Baking bread is truly therapeutic. It's funny cause the children are very anxious, but they let me work when they see me working with flour! Have a great Sunday!
Oh my dear, these beauties are just perfections!
Awesome photos are fantastic recipe!
I love buns and these look perfect, yummy! gloria
Goodness, who doesn't like the buttery crust? It looks so good, i can't imagine why anyone would want to make them without it!
Excellent recipe. Thanks for sharing. Can you pls tell me 375F is how much Centigrade. I will be baking these yummy buns tomorrow. God Bless
Hi Aneesa. 375F is around 185C.
Hope you'll enjoy them. Thanks. Have a wonderful Sunday!
I'm convinced, I'm convinced! And I want the buttery wash on them, too. The fully monty! They look just perfect. I have got into a habit of making brioche each week. Time for a change to your butter buns! Thank you.
i am def making these tomorrow !!! thank you
Congrats on Top 9, sweetheart!! xoxo
Awesome bread:)
Perfect buns! My boys would gobble these gems up! Congrats on the Top 9
Wow! These are awesome! Would love some now.
Oh boy those look so gorgeous. Congrats on the Top 9. These deserve it…Yum!
Congrats on top 9. These butter buns look so yummy and easy to boot.
Hi Roxana,
Just to jog your memory, on November 12th of last year you watched my video on making dinner rolls and left a comment on my site. I created this recipe in the style of my Aunt Marie's rolls. Please give me credit here… Thanks!
BTW – You can view the original recipe at http://www.woodfiredkitchen.com/?p=1556. Happy Baking!
@Sortachef- thank you for refreshing my memory, I totally forgot about your recipe. I read it once again and although they look alike the ingredients and the directions are a little different. If you know me better you'd know I do give credit when credit has to be given. Please read once again both recipes. Thank you.
Congrats on the top 9, very well deserved. You always have the best baked goodies. It's an inspiration for me to bake more. The butter buns look like the perfect breakfast.
Love working with yeast and trying different breads and rolls. Will definitely try these.
Such beautiful buns! I have gotten into bread making recently, so I can't wait to try these! Love the photos to go with the recipe; takes some of the guesswork out of bread making.
Do you know if these turn out okay using hard white whole wheat? They look amazing and I can't wait to try them.
@ Tiffany – if using white whole wheat flour the buns will not turn out as fluffy as when using all purpose flour. Hope you'll like them
Hmmm…I bet these would be good with Nutella on them
Sorry I'm newly in love with Nutella. Hope it's as easy as you say because I'm going to try them!
The BEST buns EVER!!
US Masala
Over the weekend I was at a quilting retreat and had some of these buns. I was thinking I have to get this recipe and make these buns for my family. It was on my to do list. Lo and behold you posted them. Thank you. My buns are rising as I type. Cant wait. If they taste half as good as yours look, I am excited!
These look so wonderfully soft and delicious!
I'm glad you're enjoying be home! These buns look amazing. I have to say, I'd want the butter on top. Delicious!
This looked so lucious so today I have made them. They are now on their final rise and look beautiful. My fav part is not handling dough much at all.
So beautiful…like little clouds. You make baking look so easy!
Love these buns and the step by step. Just gorgeous!
These look so good, can't wait to try. We rarely buy store bought bread anymore. Homemade, the kitchen smells so good, is the only way to go!
Thanks for sharing!
These look downright irresistible!!! Nothing better than buttery, fluffy, rolls!
Well I finally made these and they were quite delish; however, for anyone that uses salted butter, go ahead and add at least most of the salt. I left it out and they were a bit bland. I think they would have been much better with the salt. Other than that, they were great!
I wish I had a couple of those right now!
Oh Roxana, you’re making me so hungry right now…l’d love to devour a few of these melt-in-your-mouth looking rolls!
Butter buns? Yes please! (I think I’d inhale the whole batch in one sitting!)
Hi- will these do well freezing them either before baking or after baking?
Hi Cameron,
I’ve never frozen yeast dough, I always bake the bread/rolls and after place them in the freezer to be enjoyed later.
My advice is to bake the buns first, but if you decide to freeze then unbanked, hope you’ll come and let me know how they turn out when you bake them
I have just put these together and waiting to pop them in the oven. I am wondering about the 4 tbs butter. Do you melt it then measure or measure 4 tbs solid butter then melt? Silly question, I know, I am just wondering if I followed the instructions correctly.
Thanks
Sandy.
Hi Sandy,
It’s not a silly question at all. I’ve never melted the butter and measured it in liquid state, always measured it while still solid. Honestly I don’t think there’s a difference between a tbsp melted butter and a tablespoon solid butter, but I’ll check it tomorrow. You made me curious
I pulled these out of the oven a few minutes ago…..I was so excited they looked perfect and taste fabulous. Even with my butter confusion, they were really easy to make. I was asked to make them again, Thanks for the great step by step instructions and the yeast tutorial.
Sandy
These look yummy…but mine came out more like biscuits. I am wondering if I made an error in my flour measuring. Would that cause them to be more dense and biscuit like?
Also, mine are with inside, not the yellow that yours is. Ideas?
4 cups of flour are 480 grams.
It all depends on the quantity and quality of the flour you used and also on the moisture/humidity in your kitchen. I tend to believe you added a little extra flour, but I can’t tell you for sure.
As for the color, mine are a cream color from the egg and milk, not exactly yellow
Thank you for your advice..but after 3 more tries..making various changes (ones you stated i your recipe)…I give up. I have no problem baking cakes, cookies, sweet breads like pumpkin and banana…but this one…well. I suck.
After several more tries…they still come out like biscuits. Crumbly and dry. (my son thinking they were biscuit liked them..BUT..they are suppose to be light fluffy rolls!)
I used Red Star Yeast – Original Quick Rise let it foam until it was frothy.
I used 4 cups evenly measured cups of (first try Pillsbury AP flour) (second and third try) White Lily lite flour.
I tried one egg, I tried two egg yolks, I tried water, I tried milk. I used salted butter with no salt (ick) I tried unsalted with salt. They dough rises.
Still…I get biscuits.
So sad. Would love to have been able to make these for my 4 teenagers.
I have a question – does the 1/4 cup milk/water that you mix with the yeast need to be at 110 degrees?
Hi Ambrey,
The water/milk you mix the yeast with has to be lukewarm which is about 105-110F.
Roxana
Quick question… I occassionally make bread, but rarely rolls. Do you need to punch down the dough? Or knead it? I don’t see that in your steps. These rolls look wonderful!
Hi Bobbi,
The mixer does all the kneading. If you don’t have a stand-mixer and use your hands to knead the dough, you’ll have to knead for about 7-10 minutes.
After the first rise and it’s time to divide the dough to make the rolls the dough will deflate automatically that’s why I didn’t specify to punch it down.
Hope that helps,
Roxana
Oh my!! Great recipe. I have made these twice. The recipe is a keeper! I have to tell you, I have three kids, and so I am a lazy baker!! I made the dough in my bread machine on dough cycle and then popped them into the pan for the second rise and then baked in the oven. The only thing I did differently is with my bread machine you just add rapid rise yeast dry right into the flour. Still came out perfect. I also take the leftovers the next day and make them into garlic rolls with crushed garlic, butter, and parmesean cheese!!! I pop them into the oven to get them nice and toasty. YUM!!
THESE WERE A TREAT NOT A TRICK TO MAKE FOR SURE! haha ….. I just made these today … I was a little hesitant as this was my 1st attempt at homemade buns from scratch but I hafta say they turned out pretty good
maybe not as soft as I thought they would/should be (they were nice & crusty on the outside and soft on the inside) the only suggestion I would make is you SHOULD DEFINITELY add an extra tsp or 2 of salt into the cup of lukewarm milk/water even if you used salted butter (for the melted portion) and maybe even add in some sugar because even though these were good they were a bit bland (for my and my family’s tastes at least) So next time i make these (which looks like it will be this weekend) I will do the adjustments! They were very easy to make and almost fool proof! Thanks for the recipe and step by step instructions w/ pictures! As an after dinner treat i enjoyed one with some strawberry rhubarb jam and then a little later another one with some peach preserves! YUMMM! Looking forward to trying some more of your recipes in the near future 
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
whoops! I just read over again how you described these should turn out and I guess they ARE supposed to have a nice buttery crust on the outside! haha So I guess they turned out better than I originally thought
Hey, can you make these without a stand mixer? They look really good and I want to try them but I don’t have a stand mixer.
Hi Macy,
Yes you can, you’ll have to do the kneading by hand
Best,
Roxana
No kneading for this butter buns? Thanks.
The mixer does all the kneading
Ok, these did not rise. The dough was extremely sticky as well and when I was mixing it, it kept going up to the top of the mixer. Am I able to just knead it by hand or would it be too sticky, how would you recommend keeping it from attaching itself to everything or from climbing up my mixer.
Thanks.
Hi Vicky,
You could add a little more flour, just until the dough is not sticky. The dough should be soft so the rolls stay light after baking
I went ahead and kneaded it by hand the rest of the way and they turned out great. The dough was literally going up the sides of the mixer, it was not easy to clean all those crevices out! I think next time I make these, I’ll just go ahead and knead it by hand and not worry about it.
User error showed that the dough hooks were in the wrong slots. I’m going to try again with the stand mixer instead of kneading by hand. I’m surprised I didn’t ruin my mixer.
I made these last night to go with a crockpot pork roast…they were so yummy. My only question: why are yours so much browner than mine? I put a generous amount of butter on them before and after baking. Regardless I will make these again. They were great!
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the comment, I’m glad to hear you loved them. As for the color, it may be just the photo and the light in my kitchen. It’s different every time I make them
I have a honey-butter dinner roll recipe that’s similar. I brush with honey-butter rather than butter and I’ve always used bread flour with it but I see you use AP with yours. They are so soft, puffy, & beautiful! Pinning!
Hi. This looks delicious. Can this be made with a bread machine? Thanks!
Hi Gwen,
I don’t have a bread machine, but I’m pretty sure the dough can be made in the bread machine, just like you’d make any other yeast dough. After the first rise, take the dough out, shape and bake in the oven.
Roxana
OMG I can’t wait to bake the Dinner rolls…I am so excited..Thanks so much.
Thinking of trying the recipe this weekend.
How much exactly is 1 packet of yeast?
Hi Diana,
1 envelope of dry yeast weights 7 grams
Happy baking,
Roxana
I made these tonight for Mother’s Day. The only change was I used King Arthur unbleached white whole wheat and I admit they came out with a cornbread consistency of corn bread and no flavor. Any thoughts?
Hi Bethany,
Whole wheat flour, even the white one, is not milled as fine as the all purpose or bread flour so the texture of the bread/rolls is going to be a little “corn bread like” just like you mentioned. Also, when baking entirely with whole wheat flour, you need to add more water/milk, or they will be too dense.
If you have more questions, ask away.
Roxana
I’ll give it a try! Thanks!
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