“crescent”
20 recipes vs 153Recipes with “crescent” in the title: more butter (23% vs 14%).
“crescent” (20)the rest (153)middle half of all
Butterrecipes with crescent in the title 23% vs the rest 14%
Dinner Rolls Lab
Dinner Rolls: what 249 recipes agree on
Soft yeast rolls: milk, butter, sugar, egg and yeast per 100 g of flour.
249 recipes from 101 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
249
from 101 sites
Typical flour
500 g
about 4 cups
Oven
375°F
190°C · median of 216
Bake time
19 min
most 14 to 24 min
The typical batch of dinner rolls
The median of all 249 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 500 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 500 gabout 4 cups |
| LiquidMost recipes use 260 to 340 g | 305 gabout 1 1/4 cups |
| ButterMost recipes use 50 to 100 g | 70 gabout 1/3 cup |
| SugarMost recipes use 34 to 65 g | 50 gabout 1/4 cup |
| EggMost recipes use 10 to 85 g | 50 gabout 1 large egg |
| YeastMost recipes use 7 to 11 g | 8 g |
| SaltMost recipes use 6 to 9 g | 8 g |
Bake375°F (190°C) for about 19 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Liquid
median 61% · most 52 to 68%
Mostly milk, which makes the soft, tender crumb dinner rolls are known for.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 40 to 98%
Butter
median 14% · most 10 to 20%
Butter makes the rolls rich and pull-apart soft.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 3 to 40%
Sugar
median 10% · most 6.7 to 13%
Sugar or honey, more than in a sandwich loaf; Hawaiian-style rolls sit at the top.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 2.1 to 24%
Egg
median 10% · most 2 to 17%
An egg enriches the dough and gives a golden crumb.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 0 to 40% · 24% use none
Yeast
median 1.6% · most 1.3 to 2.2%
Quick recipes use a lot of yeast for a one-hour roll.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0 to 5.5% · 2% use none
Salt
median 1.5% · most 1.2 to 1.8%
Around 1.5 to 2% of the flour.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 0.6 to 3%
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Egg. The middle half of recipes use 2 to 17% of the flour weight in egg, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 8.6 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Butter. The middle half of recipes use 10 to 20% of the flour weight in butter, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 2.0 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on liquid and salt: liquid 52 to 68%, salt 1.2 to 1.8% for the middle half.
Around the world
242 of the recipes come in 5 languages with enough of each to compare: English 173, French 39, Italian 10, Portuguese 10, Spanish 10.
- Italian recipes use about half as much yeast as English ones (0.9% against 1.8% of the flour weight).
- Spanish recipes use about half as much sugar as English ones (4.8% against 10% of the flour weight) and 33% less yeast (1.2% against 1.8%).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “soft” (15) or “homemade” (14) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
“Parker House”
23 recipes vs 150Recipes with “Parker House” in the title: more butter (21% vs 14%).
“Parker House” (23)the rest (150)middle half of all
Butterrecipes with Parker House in the title 21% vs the rest 14%
The most-reviewed recipes
49 dinner roll recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 200, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (49)the rest (200)middle half of all
Liquidthe most-reviewed recipes 63% vs the rest 60%
Butterthe most-reviewed recipes 13% vs the rest 14%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 9.7% vs the rest 10%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 8.9% vs the rest 11%
Yeastthe most-reviewed recipes 1.7% vs the rest 1.6%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.4% vs the rest 1.5%
Most reviewed
- Healthy Multigrain Dinner Rolls Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 3,048 ratings
- 30 Minute Dinner Rolls · spendwithpennies.com4.9 from 2,040 ratings
- Whole Grain and Oat Buns Recipe (Healthy Dinner Rolls) · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 1,630 ratings
- Herbed Dinner Rolls Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 1,597 ratings
- Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.8 from 1,075 ratings
Oven temperature and time
216 of 249 recipes state an oven temperature, and 40% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The middle half bake at 350 to 400°F. The other 33 do not say.
- 350°F88 recipes
- 375°F62 recipes
- 400°F51 recipes
- 425°F9 recipes
- 355°F3 recipes
- 325°F1 recipe
237 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 19 minutes and the middle half bake 14 to 24 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes, with 30 of the 212 recipes that state both.
≥425°F 220400°F 205375°F 190≤350°F 1751020304050
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Homemade Dinner Roll Recipe · feelgoodfoodie.netliquid 56% · butter 12%
- Dinner Rolls · bettycrocker.comliquid 52% · butter 12%
- Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe · sallysbakingaddiction.comliquid 63% · butter 14%
- Old-School Dinner Rolls · smittenkitchen.comliquid 52% · butter 17%
- Panecillos caseros para bocadillos: los más tiernos y esponjosos · directoalpaladar.comliquid 65% · butter 21%
Most liquid
- Receita de Pão de leite rápido · comidaereceitas.com.brliquid 98% · butter 22%
- Healthy Multigrain Dinner Rolls Recipe · archanaskitchen.comliquid 95% · butter 11%
- Dinner rolls easy recipe · amourdecuisine.frliquid 93% · butter 13%
Least liquid
- Pains au lait au Cook expert · cuisineaz.comliquid 40% · butter 24%
- pain au lait / petits pains au lait moelleux fait maison · amourdecuisine.frliquid 40% · butter 25%
- Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls · handletheheat.comliquid 41% · butter 9.5%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- Title WordsWhat recipes whose titles say fudgy, healthy or small batch do differently from the rest, and which words change nothing.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 12tasteofhome.com
- 8cuisineaz.com
- 8melskitchencafe.com
- 7cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr
- 7kingarthurbaking.com
- 7marmiton.org
- 6ptitchef.com
- 6receiteria.com.br
- 5bettycrocker.com
- 5directoalpaladar.com
- 5foodnetwork.com
- 5handletheheat.com
In 7 languages: English 173, French 39, Spanish 10, Portuguese 10, Italian 10, German 5, Dutch 2. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 101 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
97% of the 2,095 ingredient lines got a weight. 29% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 281 were left out: 176 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (liquid 77, butter 31, sugar 23, yeast 23, salt 21, egg 1), 50 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 30 with a title that names a different dish, 16 duplicates of other pages, 3 made from a boxed mix, 3 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 2 too many lines without an amount, and 1 a listing page, not a recipe page.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.