Overnight Yeast Rolls

Mix up a batch of homemade overnight yeast rolls dough in the afternoon and let it rise while you sleep. They’ll be ready to bake fresh when you wake up in the morning!

These overnight yeast rolls were a tradition of my Mom’s.

They were her special occasion homemade yeast rolls, and we always rejoiced when she made them!

This yeast rolls recipe is a bit unusual in that they are made in the afternoon, set on the counter to rise overnight, and then baked in the morning. There’s nothing quite like the smell of fresh rolls in the morning!

How to make this Overnight Yeast Rolls Recipe

Ingredients needed:

• 4 cups boiling water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 4 beaten eggs
• 1 pkg. yeast (I use Fleishmann’s Traditional in the jar for this one.  I package equals 2 and 1/4 tsp.)
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water, sweetened
• 12 cups flour (or more)

Step 1: Make the yeast roll dough

 To make the yeast roll dough, boil water and sugar for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add butter and salt.  Cool to lukewarm. 

Then add eggs and yeast dissolved in sweetened water (1 teaspoon sugar).  Add enough flour to make a really firm dough.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is stiff and smooth. If you don’t add enough flour, you will find that the buns will rise too much, with consequent loss of flavour and texture.

Step 2: Place the dough in a buttered bowl, cover and let rise until double.

On the day I made these buns, I mixed them at 2:00 in the afternoon. Since it is an intentionally slow rising bun dough, it wasn’t doubled in size until 5:30 in the evening.

Step 3: Once the dough is doubled, punch it down and let it rise again

Step 4: Once dough has risen to double in size again, form into buns.

In the example you see pictured, I formed the buns at 9 pm. (Note the poor flash pictures as it was totally dark outside!)

This recipe makes 6 dozen dinner buns, so I cut the dough into 6 sections.  You can, of course, make it all into dinner buns, but I like to switch it up a bit.  This time I made crescent rolls, cinnamon braid, mini caramel rolls, dinner buns, and (twice as big) sandwich buns. 

Step 5: Once the buns are all formed you set them out on the counter and tuck them in for the night by covering them with towels.

Here they are all covered up for the night:

When you go to bed at night they will look about this size:

And in the morning, they will look like this:

Step 6: In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake each pan of buns for about 15 minutes.

Keep a close eye out while baking, as baking times may differ based on the size and type of buns.

The part I love the best?  Being FINISHED before 8:30 a.m.!!

For details on how to roll out the buns and the yeast cinnamon roll recipe, click here.

For more yeast roll recipes, you may want to check out:

• These Bread Machine Dinner Rolls are Easy to Make!
• Cast Iron Skillet Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Topping

For more recipes and ideas for your home:

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Comfort Food Dinner Ideas Just for You!

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