Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls will be the star of any meal. They are feathery light, buttery, and soft. Perfect for sandwiches or an accompaniment to a roast. Easy to make without a mixer. They require no kneading and rise in your electric pressure cooker. Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
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I was going to wax poetic about food and nostalgic memories that are often invoked by it. About returning to my childhood, to the time of innocence when every taste, every flavour is so much more intense and bright. I was going to talk about dinners at the cottage with my grandparents, leisurely weekend breakfasts with my mom, the excitement of waiting for my favourite cake to be cut on my birthday.
I was going to talk about the smells and the time machine that they are. The smell of a pie baking in the oven transporting me momentarily to the long-forgetten time three decades ago. Or the sizzle of the onion hitting the foaming butter and reminding me of my wedding day. Or that intoxicating yeasty aroma of the most beautiful and soft bread that just came out of the oven and reminded me of all those failed attempts to make bread in my 20s.
I was going to write so much but then I realized that no matter how much I wanted to make this post into a story, there really was no story. Sometimes you just have to let the food speak for itself, take the centre stage, and let it shine. There will be plenty of stories, plenty more memories that I will eventually share. But today, the story is simple. It’s the story of delicious, amazing, and a little bit magical Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls.
I’ve been using my Instant Pot for the past four months and although I liked it a lot, I was not in love with this appliance. Until I made these Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls (three times) that is. Making dough is not this nifty electric pressure cooker’s main (or even secondary or tertiary) function, yet it is exactly what made me a true convert and a true lover of this appliance.
Advantages of making Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls
- It’s a true one-pot recipe. Meaning that I don’t have to use a separate pot to melt butter or a small bowl to microwave milk. Everything is done in one pot – Instant Pot.
- I don’t ever knead bread by hand. I know lots of people swear that it’s therapeutical but I don’t have the patience for it. I usually let my KitchenAid mixer do all the work. It’s not difficult at all but it requires time as the flour is usually added a little bit at a time and then the kneading takes another 10 or so minutes, thus making the whole process at least a quarter of an hour. With my method, everything is mixed together in the Instant Pot (or another Electric Pressure Cooker that has a yogurt function) with a spoon with no kneading and left alone.
- When working with yeast, you need to let the dough rise to develop all that beautiful (and currently excoriated) gluten. The process of letting the dough rise usually takes a couple of hours and it needs to be done in warm place. Dough made in Instant Pot only takes one hour to rise using a Yogurt function. (If your Instant Pot doesn’t have a Yogurt function and you would like to get another one, this is the exact model that I have. Alternatively, I have suggestions on how to let the dough rise without an Instant Pot below)
My favourite way to let the dough rise if you don’t have Instant Pot
You can most likely still use the recipe for these Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls even if you don’t have an Instant Pot or another electric pressure cooker. Just mix the dough with a spoon following the instructions, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise. It most likely will need more than one hour to rise, I would suggest leaving it be for at least a couple of hours. Then follow the rest of the instructions in the recipe to bake these delicious Dinner Rolls.
My favourite way to let the dough rise is to put the stopper into the sink drain and fill the sink with really hot water. Then put the plastic covered bowl with the dough into the sink. Make sure that water is at the level of the dough in the bowl. I usually refill the sink with hot water once or twice during the rising process.
NOTE: You can use this method if your Instant Pot does not have a Yogurt button. If you’d like to get one, this is the exact model that I have.
How much flour to use?
- 2+3/4 cups all-purpose flour will make perfect, soft, and delicious rolls. You can see the fluffy texture in the video. The rolls will also be very easy to form.
- 2+1/2 cups all-purpose flour will result in airy and feathery dinner rolls. They will be extremely light and delicious. The dough, however, will be a bit sticky, so forming the rolls will be a bit messy.
Try both versions and decide which one you like best. I prefer 2+3/4 cups of flour since the dough is a bit sturdier and the dinner rolls are easier to form.
Do you want more Instant Pot Recipes?
Join my Real Ingredients Instant Pot Recipes Facebook Group!!! It’s a fun and safe place to share your own Instant Pot recipes made with Real Ingredients.
Watch the VIDEO below to see how easy these Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls are to make. Watch until the end to see how perfect and feather light they are!!!
What kind of substitutions can you make when baking these Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls?
Remember, all these substitutions will change the recipe so the taste will be different from my original recipe.
- Maple Syrup
- You can use white or brown sugar instead of maple syrup.
- You can use honey.
- Can you omit any sweetener altogether? Yes and no. I would suggest adding at least half a teaspoon of sugar to the butter/milk mixture. Sugar helps the yeast develop and start working.
- Egg
- You can use 1 or 2 egg yolks instead of a whole egg. It’ll make the rolls taste a bit richer and more like brioche.
- You can omit the egg altogether. It’ll affect the taste a little bit but not much. No need to add any egg replacement or substitutions if you can’t have eggs.
- Half and half cream
- You can use 5% cream, 18% cream, or even 35% cream instead.
- If you don’t have any cream, you can use milk, however, cream not only adds flavour, it also has fat which affects the texture. So, using milk only will affect the texture of the rolls a little bit.
- Milk
- Can you use plant-based milk? I don’t know. I have never tried myself. I am going to guess that yes, but as I haven’t tried baking with any plant-based milks before I can’t promise results.
- You can use water instead of the milk (and cream). This will definitely affect the flavour and the texture of the rolls but it’ll still work.
- Butter
- Most likely you could use margarine or other non-dairy butter if you are trying to make these rolls vegan but I personally haven’t tried. The flavour may change though.
- Yeast
- Some readers reported that the flavour of these rolls is very yeasty. I don’t find it too yeasty at all. I have also served these to many different people who also claimed that these Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls tasted delicious. However, I have tried this recipe with just 1 tablespoon of yeast and it turned out fine. It had less yeasty flavour but I actually prefer them with 1.5 tablespoons as described in the recipe. So, just to recap, you can use just 1 tablespoon of yeast if you desire.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
A few readers said that the rolls were dense. They will not be dense if the yeast worked properly and the dough rose. You MUST make sure that when you add the yeast to the butter and milk mixture, it is NOT hot. If the mixture is too hot then it will kill the yeast, so it won’t work and all you end up with would be just liquid and flour, which would make for really dense rolls.
You MUST wait for the yeast to foam, it will take about 5 minutes. You can see how it looks in the video. If the yeast does not foam, then the rolls will not work.
This is NOT a recipe for beginner bakers. You need to know how to make bread and understand the science behind the ingredients. Depending on your location and the weather (altitude and humidity), you might even need to add more flour or less flour. I will be happy to troubleshoot the recipe with you if you contact me.
On a personal note, I know this recipe WORKS. As I tested it extensively. I’ve made it with regular KitchenAid mixer and kneading many times. And I made it in my Instant Pot without kneading also many times. The only time it did not work was when I killed the yeast by adding it into the milk/butter mixture which was too hot. I knew it wouldn’t work when the yeast did not foam.
Instant Pot No Knead Dinner Rolls will be the star of any meal. They are feathery light, buttery, and soft. Perfect for sandwiches or an accompaniment to a roast. Easy to make without a mixer. They require no kneading and rise in your electric pressure cooker.
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup half and half cream
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1.5 tablespoons instant yeast (see note)
- 1 large egg
- 2+ 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 tablespoons half and half cream for brushing the rolls
- vegetable oil for forming the rolls
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Turn your Instant Pot on and press sauté button.
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Add the butter and 1/4 cup milk to the pot and wait for the butter to melt. Turn the Instant Pot sauté function off once the butter starts to melt. The pot will still be hot so everything will melt and heat up nicely.
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Add the remaining 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 half and half cream to the pot and mix.
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IMPORTANT: At this point you might need to wait 2-3 minutes to cool the mixture if the pot got too hot. The butter and milk mixture needs to be warm but not hot, so test it with your finger. If it's too hot then the yeast won't work.
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Add the maple syrup, yeast and mix.
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Wait for about 5 minutes to make sure that the yeast foams.
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Add the egg and mix it in with a spoon or a spatula.
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Add the flour and salt and mix everything together just until flour disappears.
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Close the lid of your Instant Pot. Turn the valve to a sealing position.
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Press the Yogurt button and choose time of 1 hour. You need a model of Instant Pot that has this button. This is the one I use.
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After one hour take the Instant Pot lid off. The dough should have at least doubled in size. It will be light and spongy. Mix it with a dough scraper or your hands.
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Preheat the oven to 425F.
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While the oven is preheating, form the rolls.
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Line a 13x9" pan with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
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Lightly coat your hands in vegetable oil, it will help with the dough not sticking to your hands.
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Take a little bit of dough and flatten it slightly, now imagine you are wrapping something inside that dough by stretching all the edges around it like a balloon. This will form a nice ball with a "seam" at the bottom.
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Place the ball seam side down onto the prepared pan.
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Repeat with the rest of the dough making 12 Dinner Rolls. Alternatively, you could make 16 smaller Dinner Rolls.
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Cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel and leave for 30 minutes for the rolls to rise.
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After 30 minutes, brush the rolls with a little bit of half and half cream.
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Bake in the fully preheated oven for 15 minutes until the rolls get golden brown.
Some readers reported that these rolls taste too yeasty. I love the flavour of yeast in my baked goods so I find that they taste just absolutely delicious and perfect. However, if you prefer, you can use just 1 tablespoon of yeast instead of 1.5 tablespoons. I tried them with just 1 tablespoon and the dough worked just fine.
You could use either 2+3/4 cups of flour OR 2+1/2 cup flour. If you are using less flour, the dinner rolls will be lighter and airier, but the dough will be stickier, so it'll be more difficult to form the rolls.
IMPORTANT: Please read notes above the recipe to make sure you know how to get the yeast to work. It is NOT a recipe for beginner bakers.
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I don’t have the yogurt button. What can I do?
Unfortunately I don’t think you can use another function. At least I don’t know which one. In the post I provided suggestions on how to let the dough rise without the instant pot. It may take a bit longer than in IP though
I wanted to make these today but I don’t have a yogurt button on my IP or my mini IP there should be another button you can use? These look so good
If you read through the post I provided suggestions on what to do if you don’t have a yogurt button. Unfortunately I don’t think you can use your IP for the dough to rise. You’ll need to let the dough rise in a regular bowl instead
Can I use gluten free flour to make these rolls?
I don’t know unfortunately. I’ve never made bread with gluten-free flour so I don’t know how it would work. You could try and if the dough doesn’t rise then you can just roll it flat and make flatbreads or pizza. I’ve done that once when I killed they yeast because I added it to the butter/milk mixture that was too hot
There is just something about making/baking bread at home that is so rewarding. Either by hand (not very ofter) or using a machine….the aroma of baking bread is THE BEST. My baba (with her worn hands) made bread from scratch ALL the time. I swear those ladies were work horses. With the farm and ALL the kids….homemade everything to feed an army everyday!! Anyway….I can just smell these baking. I have a bread machine…I am going to experiment with it and see how these turn out.
Do these store well? For how long?
They won’t be as fluffy and airy the next day but they still store well. Definitely at least 2-3 days in an airtight container. Don’t know about longer since I usually finish them by then
Warm, homemade bread and rolls are so good! I love the way you used the Instant Pot for the dough! I definitely need to try it. And my kids always think the rolls are the best part of any holiday meal (and it’s sometimes the only thing they eat), so they are a necessity!
What? Rolls in the instant Pot?! No knead, too? You have made me so excited to try this out, and I adore warm rolls for brunch, so this may be made for tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration!
Followed the recipe to a T. The dough was very sticky, almost like there wasn’t enough flour. Total flop, threw the hold pan in the trash.
Did the dough rise in IP and double in size? It’s supposed to be sticky when forming the rolls, that’s why you coat your hands in oil.
I had the same thing happen. So sticky that couldn’t do anything with it.
I’m wondering if I switched the saute off too soon and it wasn’t warm enough for the yeast. It foamed and the dough raised, maybe not double though. I added flour while “forming balls” (never could form them correctly). They are on their second rise right now so we’ll see what comes out.
I have an 8Qt, so that may play a part in it not working well for me.
I doubt that 8qt would make a difference. Instant Pot is just a way of letting the dough rise easy and relatively fast. I’ve made this same recipe with my regular KitchenAid as well with the same proportions. The dough is supposed to be sticky, that’s what makes the rolls light. Less flour = lighter and airier texture of the rolls. Not sure how sticky is too sticky. It all depends on a person. Also humidity at home may play a role in the stickiness of the dough. Hopefully the rolls will work anyway for you
They turned out ok. Not as fluffy and a very yeasty flavor. I expected them to not be as fluffy since I added more flour. I also used honey instead and if I do it again I’ll add more for a sweeter taste. They weren’t bad and we used them to make little sandwiches tonight.
I live in Washington so we have a very wet climate. Mine after rising the first time didn’t look like yours. They were so sticky, there was no way to even drop the dough off my hands. So I’ll decrease the milk next time or add more flour.
Thanks for the recipe!
Wet climate may explain the stickiness of the dough since the flour wouldn’t be as dry and wouldn’t absorb the liquid as much. Do you ever make regular bread with a mixer? I would suggest using this same recipe with KitchenAid. Just add the flour while KitchenAid is kneading a bit by bit. Start with extra 1/8 cup and then add a bit more until the dough becomes the consistency of an earlobe (that’s the trick I learned). Then knead for 10 min in the mixer and let it rise like you normally would (I like keeping mine in a covered bowl in a sink full of hot water). This will let you know how much flour you actually need and then once you know the exact amount of flour for your climate you could use those proportions in your Instant Pot. As for the yeasty flavour – that’s how I like mine 🙂 you can decrease the amount of yeast to about 1 tablespoon
This was the texture of a focaccia bread. Rolls were flat. Had I known in advance I would have added spices as such.
They shouldn’t be flat. The dough rises a lot in IP. Did the dough rise after the first rise? If not, then it means the yeast didn’t work. Was the yeast foamy?
Made these the other day, they were so amazing!! Do read the recipe, read the notes about not having the milk/butter too hot. If you’re not sure if it’s too hot, take it out of the pot, and place it on the counter to cool a little. The instant pot element stays hot for a while once you turn it off from melting the butter. READ all the notes if you’re new to baking and I’m positive you’ll have success!! I’m making these again now for family dinner tonight, these buns were a hit at home 🙂
Omg – thank you so much for your comment!! I’ve been so sad today reading about other people saying how the recipe was bad. And I’ve made it so many time!! I’m so happy it worked for you!! When I made these yesterday I turned the sauté function off even before the butter finished melting. Then by the time I added the rest of the cold milk and cream it was the perfect warm temperature.
There is nothing like homemade bread and the aromas of making it at home. Making these soft and amazing rolls in the instant pot is genius! I will have to try this for sure. Love how delicious they look.
I laughed at your story conundrum. That’s how I feel sometimes. Thanks for the laugh and this recipe, I don’t have an instapot but I am living vicariously through yours.
These rolls looks so fluffy and yummy! I would seriously eat them for my dessert! And thank you so much for all the helpful substitution information – it seems like I’m always having to figure out how to substitute something or other!
I had to take the pot off the element for it to finally cool down enough to add yeast to milk. I made two mistakes after that. Dough did rise beutifully but it was so sticky it completely stuck to my hands so much that even though I coated my hands in veggie oil I still had to add flour just to deal with it. I also messed up by having the oven on too hot. I was doing too many things and had it at 475 and they were done a full 10 min before timer, but that made them too dense. I will try again with right temp but any tricks other than coating hands with veggie oil for dealing with the sticky flou?
Hmmm… I would suggest adding 1/4 cup extra flour to the the dough before the rise. Hopefully it will make the dough less sticky for you. Liquid to flour ratio is often tricky as it depends on the humidity also. The ratio in this recipe works for where I live and as I mentioned it even works with less flour but for you it might need more flour… so, I’d try with extra 1/4cup. I hope it works the next time
I couldn’t possibly be more of a beginner when it comes to cooking breads, and this turned out AMAZING! They were so good nobody believed *I* made them lol
I read and re-read the yeast instructions since the author stressed its importance, and the only change was swapping brown sugar for the syrup.
It’s the first time I’ve ever used the yogurt setting in two years. I didn’t even know my IP model had one.
THANK YOU!
Hooray!!! I’m so glad the recipe worked for you! I’ve been getting discouraged reading comments from other readers who said the recipe didn’t work. I even contemplated removing this post. But I’ve made the rolls so many times with great results. So, I’m extremely happy you liked them!!
So.. I don’t have an Instant Pot, but I do have a yogurt maker. Do you think I could let my dough rise for the same amount of time in the yogurt maker? (If you have no clue, that is totally fine LOL! I’ll just have to try it out!)
What a great alternate use for the yogurt function on the Instant Pot! The rolls look like they have such a great texture, and are so fluffy. Even better, they sound so easy to make. I’ve been loving exploring all the different uses for the IP and can’t wait to give this bread try!
Can you use bread flour in this recipe? I am trying the recipe today. Anxious to see how it tastes. Thanks
My guess would be yes but I personally haven’t tried using bread flour. Let me know if it works!
These dinner rolls look so light and fluffy! I don’t have an instant pot but I love the idea of making bread in there! Your recipe looks great!
You can make bread in an Instant Pot?! Trying this out!
I made these twice and both times it was a bust! They are super yeasty and taste very strange because of that. 😢
I’m sorry you didn’t like the flavour. Unfortunately everyone has different tastes. You can reduce the yeast to 1 tablespoon and it’ll still work. We just prefer this taste in my family