Crockpot dinner rolls: the best way to save oven space for Thanksgiving
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Crockpot dinner rolls are easy honey flavored dinner rolls you can make without an oven.
If you’ve cooked Thanksgiving dinner, you know the constant struggle it is to jockey all the dishes in the oven. I say this as someone with a double oven and a commercial toaster oven. It can very easily get overwhelming trying to move the cheese potatoes in for 10 minutes before moving it to a warm spot for another 15, and so on and so on, and Lord help if the turkey isn’t cooking on schedule. And that’s before your Mom shows up with 4 other sides that also have to be rotated in and out of the oven.
We’ve all been there, and I really wanted to give you a good solution for freeing up some oven space that would still give you delicious bread to eat with your Holiday meals.
Enter the crockpot. You don’t need to have any crazy timelines for these rolls. Once you’ve mixed up the dough, it only takes 10 minutes of resting time before you can ball up the rolls and start them cooking. If you’re running out of counter space, you can easily move these rolls into the garage on top of a deep freezer.
The point is that these rolls are here to make your life easier. Everyone loves fresh bread, but nobody wants to have to be waiting on rolls at Thanksgiving. Let’s game this out!
Crockpot Dinner Rolls
Why you need these rolls this Thanksgiving
- No oven needed!: You have too many things on Turkey Day that need to go in and out of the oven. In comes your slow cooker to the rescue.
- No rising time: We’ll use the slow cooker to quick proof the dough, and then you’re ready to shape and bake. These rolls are a huge time saver because of this.
- Buttery crunch: These rolls get drizzled with butter before baking. The butter in turn creates a buttery crunchy crust on the bottom of the rolls that is delicious in combination with the sweetness from the honey.
- Novelty factor x10: You remember how fun it was to bake on a lightbulb in an EZ Bake Oven? These rolls have a little sprinkle of that same spirit. Son #1 came downstairs while I was making these and asked, “Wait, you can BAKE IN A CROCKPOT?!” Why yes you can.
Ingredients for Crockpot Dinner Rolls
- All-purpose flour
- Yeast
- Milk
- Egg
- Salt
- Honey: adds sweetness and color to the bread.
- Butter
Tips for making the best slow cooker rolls
- Proof the rolls in the slow cooker: After you’ve made up the dough, place a towel inside the slow cooker. On top the towel, you can place the bowl you mixed the dough in. After a few minutes, the dough will have proofed a little. These rolls won’t be as flavorful as they would be if you let the dough rise completely (a tradeoff here for the time you save), but the warmth will relax the dough enough for you to be able to easily shape the rolls before baking.
- Use parchment paper: Slow cookers are much much deeper than regular baking pans. You do NOT want to be digging out a stuck roll from the bottom of a pan that’s heated all the way up. A piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the Crockpot, and you’ll be able to lift the rolls out without a hitch.
- Embrace the imperfection: Because the rolls are baking in a smaller space than normal, they will expand kind of oddly inside the available shape that they have. I actually weighed out all of my rolls on a gram scale to make sure they’re the same size, yet, you’d never know it looking at the rolls. They’re all just kind of wonky, and that’s okay. We all have days where we need shortcuts, and know that you can make something perfectly perfect with all the Ts crossed and the Is dotted with hearts another day.
Time hack your Thanksgiving and make your crockpot rolls ahead
If you want to make your time go even further, you absolutely can make your crockpot dinner rolls ahead of time. Here’s what to do:
- Bake: Bake as many batches as you have crockpots.
- Freeze: Take the parchment out of the slow cooker(s), and pack the rolls still in the parchment in a large plastic bag.
- Thaw: Set the rolls out on the counter the night before you want to serve them or at least a couple hours ahead.
- Warm: Wrap the rolls in the parchment inside a damp kitchen towel and place in your slow cooker on the warm setting for about 30 minutes. The rolls will be just as good as fresh.
Crockpot dinner rolls
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 rolls 1x
Description
Save your oven space for big things like the turkey or the ham for big holiday dinners by baking these simple honey laced dinner rolls in a slow cooker. You can get the mess out of the way pronto, and you’ll be rewarded with delicious soft rolls with a buttery bottom crust.
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter (113 mL)
- 1 cup whole milk (236 mL)
- 2 Tablespoons honey (42 g)
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 large egg
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (390 g)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Make the dough
- Plug in your slow cooker and set it to the warm setting.
- Melt the butter in a small pan. When the whole stick is melted, pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the butter into a small cup.
- Add the milk and honey to the pan, stirring until the honey is liquefied. Whisk in the yeast and let stand for 2 minutes just let the yeast dissolve.
- Pour the yeast mix into the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer). Crack in the egg and stir just to break the yolk.
Measure in the flour and salt. Use the dough hook attachment to stir everything together to create a shaggy dough. 
- Pop the dough hook attachment on the mixer and let the machine run on low for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
Proof the dough
- Fold up a kitchen towel and place it in the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the mixer bowl right on top of the towel and cover it with a towel. Let the dough proof inside the slow cooker for 10 minutes.
- Use a hot pad to pull the bowl out of the slow cooker after 10 minutes as the handle will be hot.
- Turn the slow cooker to the high heat setting.
Shape the rolls
- Sprinkle some flour on a work surface and divide the dough into 12 pieces. Lightly roll them into a ball.
- Brush some of the reserved butter on the bottom of the slow cooker, and then place a piece of parchment into the slow cooker. It will probably be a little bunched up, but that’s okay. Use hot pads to push the paper into the corners of the pan.
Bake the rolls
- Place the dough balls on top of the parchment. Once you have all 12 balls in place, drizzle the rest of the butter over the tops of the rolls.
- Bake the rolls for about 90 minutes until the tops spring back when you touch them.
If you have an instant read thermometer, the rolls will be at 200F when they are fully baked.
Notes
Scale up and freeze: Feel free to scale up the recipe for as many slow cookers as you have. When you’re done, take out the rolls in the parchment and place the rolls in a large plastic bag to freeze. Thaw the rolls on the counter the night before you want to serve them or at least a couple hours ahead. To reheat them, place the parchment package inside a damp kitchen towel and place the kitchen towel inside the slow cooker on warm for 30 minutes. They’ll taste just as good as fresh!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Category: Breads
- Method: Slow cooker
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 roll
- Calories: 213
- Sugar: 4 g
- Sodium: 162.1 mg
- Fat: 9.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 28 g
- Protein: 4.8 g
- Cholesterol: 37.8 mg
