How To Reheat Dinner Rolls So They're Warm and Fluffy (2024)

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Meghan Splawn

Meghan Splawn

Meghan was the Food Editor for Kitchn's Skills content. She's a master of everyday baking, family cooking, and harnessing good light. Meghan approaches food with an eye towards budgeting — both time and money — and having fun. Meghan has a baking and pastry degree, and spent the first 10 years of her career as part of Alton Brown's culinary team. She co-hosts a weekly podcast about food and family called Didn't I Just Feed You.

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updated Dec 18, 2023

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How To Reheat Dinner Rolls So They're Warm and Fluffy (1)

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How To Reheat Dinner Rolls So They're Warm and Fluffy (2)

You know the joy of tearing apart a dinner roll to have tufts of steam pour out of it, because it’s still warm from the oven? You can enjoy that same feeling every day until the rolls run out with three simple methods for reheating leftover dinner rolls, whether they’re store-bought or homemade.

Quick Overview

How To Reheat Dinner Rolls

  • The best method for reheating dinner rolls is in the oven. To reheat dinner rolls in the oven, preheat it to 350°F. Place the rolls in a baking dish or on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter. Bake until warm, 7 to 10 minutes.
  • Alternatively, you can reheat dinner rolls in the microwave or slow cooker. To reheat dinner rolls in the microwave, arrange rolls on a microwave-safe plate. Cover the rolls with a slightly damp, clean kitchen towel. Microwave the rolls until just warmed through, 30 to 45 seconds.
  • To reheat the dinner rolls in a slow cooker, cover the top of the slow cooker with a second damp, clean tea towel. Cover and heat on the low setting until warm, about 30 minutes.

The Best Method for Reheating Dinner Rolls: The Oven

Our favorite rule for reheating leftovers applies here (reheat the food in the way it was prepared), so into the oven your rolls should go for reheating. One caveat, though — warm your rolls in a baking dish, not on a baking pan. Placing rolls snugly together in a baking dish leaves the sides of the rolls soft, while separating them and heating on a baking sheet will result in a slightly crisper outside crust.

Our Favorite Method: The Slow Cooker

The slow cooker is a brilliant way to keep rolls warm for serving or as a means for reheating the rolls the next day if you need to bake them before a big holiday. Bonus: Warming store-bought dinner rolls in the slow cooker makes them feel more like homemade. The slow cooker isn’t the fastest method, taking at least 30 minutes depending on the number of rolls, but we’re calling it our favorite method for its multi-use capabilities.

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How To Reheat Dinner Rolls: The Best, Simplest Method (Image credit: Maria Midoes)

Comments

How To Reheat Dinner Rolls: The Best, Simplest Method

Bake your dinner rolls in advance and use one of these three methods to reheat them for dinner the next day.

Nutritional Info

Ingredients

  • Leftover dinner rolls
  • Optional toppings: melted butter, coarse salt

For microwave method:

  • Microwave-safe plate
  • 2 clean kitchen towels

For oven method:

  • Pastry brush

  • Small bowl

  • Baking dish or baking sheet

For slow cooker method:

  • 2 kitchen towels

  • Slow cooker

Instructions

  1. Reheat dinner rolls in the microwave. Arrange rolls on a microwave-safe plate. Cover the rolls with a slightly damp, clean kitchen towel. Wrap the entire plate in a dry tea towel. Microwave until just warmed through, 30 to 45 seconds. The rolls should not be piping hot, or they will turn tough and chewy as they cool.

  2. Reheat dinner rolls in the oven. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F. Place rolls in a baking dish or arrange on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt, if desired. Bake until warm, 7 to 10 minutes.

  3. Reheat dinner rolls in the slow cooker. Lay a damp, clean kitchen towel on the bottom of the slow cooker insert. Arrange the rolls on the cloth. Cover the top of the slow cooker with a second damp, clean tea towel. Cover and heat on the LOW setting until warm, about 30 minutes. After heating, you can turn the slow cooker to the WARM setting and keep the rolls soft and warm until the top towel is dry, about 2 hours. Do not heat the rolls on HIGH — the edges touching the insert may burn and the rolls will become tough.

Filed in:

Bread

Cooking Methods

easy

How To

Side Dish

Slow Cooker

How To Reheat Dinner Rolls So They're Warm and Fluffy (2024)

FAQs

How To Reheat Dinner Rolls So They're Warm and Fluffy? ›

Reheat dinner rolls in the oven. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F. Place rolls in a baking dish or arrange on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt, if desired. Bake until warm, 7 to 10 minutes.

How do you keep rolls warm and moist? ›

Place warmed heat source in bread basket: If using rice or pie weights, lay them as flat as possible in their paper or foil wrapper at the bottom of the bread basket. Cover the heat source with a clean cloth napkin or dish towel. Add the rolls and then fold the corners of the fabric over the rolls to cover.

Why are my yeast rolls not fluffy? ›

If your dinner rolls aren't fluffy it could be because of one of two reasons. Either, you added too much flour or you possibly used all bread flour. Alternately, not giving your dinner rolls enough time to proof and get puffy before baking could yield dense rolls.

How do you reheat bread without it getting hard? ›

Wrap the loaf of bread in aluminum foil. This is to keep the outside of the crust from burning and turning hard. It traps moisture so that the loaf does not dry out while baking. You can also brush the surface of the bread with a bit of water if you are concerned about the bread becoming hard.

How do you soften cold rolls? ›

Dip the rolls in filtered water quickly and wipe off excess water. Put the rolls in a microwave safe tray and cover with a wet paper towel. Let sit for a minute before enjoying.

How do you revive dinner rolls? ›

The best method for reheating dinner rolls is in the oven. To reheat dinner rolls in the oven, preheat it to 350°F. Place the rolls in a baking dish or on a baking sheet, brush with melted butter. Bake until warm, 7 to 10 minutes.

How do you soften hamburger rolls? ›

Try steaming your burger buns on the stove.

Steaming store-bought buns can make them more tender and plump up stale buns by adding moisture. "Hot-dog stands steam their buns because it makes them taste good. You can do the same at home in just a few minutes," Alto said.

How do restaurants keep rolls warm? ›

Warming drawers.

These drawers serve the same purpose as a warming oven, but they take up less space. You might install a warming drawer in the prep area to keep food warm before service, for example; it's a great way to offer hot, moist bread or rolls.

How do you keep rolls fresh and soft? ›

Paper bags are more breathable than plastic, which is great for brioche rolls, soft buns, and other breads with added fat. But too much air will make the bread go stale quickly. Consider keeping these bags airtight as best you can. Then there's the bread box: it balances moisture and air circulation.

How to reheat Texas Roadhouse rolls? ›

Wondering how to reheat Texas Roadhouse rolls that are already baked? Pop them back into the oven at a lower temperature, closer to 300 – 325°F, until warmed through the center. You may want to brush on a bit more butter and broil for just a few minutes to get the same texture on the top!

How to reheat homemade dinner rolls? ›

Didn't eat all of your rolls at dinner tonight? No problem. Warm rolls are always the best and your leftovers don't have to be eaten cold! Simply wrap rolls in foil and place in a 350º oven for 5-7 minutes.

Why are my rolls dense and not fluffy? ›

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

Why did my dinner rolls turn out dense? ›

Make sure the shaped bread doesn't rise too long before baking – it should only double in size. If it rises too much, the dough will collapse on itself during baking and the bread will have a dense, coarse or dry texture.

Why are my soft rolls hard? ›

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

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