Soft, fluffy, and slightly sweet, these copycat Texas Roadhouse rolls are begging to be added to your dinner menu. Pair them with cinnamon honey butter for the perfect finish!
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Several years ago, I set out to make a homemade version of Texas Roadhouse rolls. I immediately knew that I wanted to adapt one of my great-grandmother’s yeast roll recipes for the project.
I didn’t anticipate that it would take me 4 tries because I kept forgetting to add the water to the recipe.
If you ever need a reminder that us recipe developers have off days, just hold onto the fact that it took me a full week of messing up this recipe to figure out what I was doing wrong.
Spoiler alert! Don’t leave the water out of this recipe. It won’t work.
But, as it turned out, it was all worth it in the long run. On the day I finally got it right, Alex came home from work, popped a warm roll into his mouth and asked, “Are these Texas Roadhouse rolls?!”
Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls
If you’ve never been to Texas Roadhouse before, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is with their yeast rolls.
Aside from the fact that Texas Roadhouse rolls are cut into squares or rectangles, they are light, fluffy, and sweet.
Yes, sweet! Not dessert-level sweet, but they have a distinctly sweet flavor to them.
The secret to those rolls and this recipe? Honey.
The rolls themselves have a whopped ½ cup of honey (which is a lot of sweetener as far as dinner rolls go), and they are served with the restaurant’s famous cinnamon honey butter.
I mean, sure – you can eat Texas Roadhouse rolls without the cinnamon honey butter and they’ll be delicious. You could opt to serve the rolls with jam, or instant pot persimmon butter. They’ll be delightful, in fact.
But if you really want to take things over the edge and bring home the Texas Roadhouse experience (sans the peanuts and country music), you’re going to need to slather those warm rolls in the delight that is cinnamon honey butter.
In fact, I’m pretty certain I don’t want any other type of butter in my life ever again.
Serve these rolls alongside everything from tortellini and white bean soup to baked chicken thighs. Or, of course, with your favorite steak dinner!
How to Make Texas Roadhouse Rolls
Don’t be intimidated by the ideas of making yeast rolls. This recipe uses instant yeast, which makes things just a smidge easier.
Texas Roadhouse rolls are made with an enriched dough, which means that the dough has eggs, milk, butter and sugar (or, in this case, honey) in it.
There’s a lot of sciencey stuff that changes when these ingredients are added to a yeast dough, but the most important one for you to know is that they can sometimes increase the rising time.
You’ll need around an hour for the first rise and 30 minutes for the second, even if using a “faster rising” yeast. Just make sure you budget yourself enough time and you’ll be golden.
Ingredients you’ll need
If you do a lot of baking, you probably have everything you need for these rolls already on hand.
You’ll need:
- 2 1/2 cups bread flour
- 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (2 envelopes)
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted (optional)
This recipe uses a combination of bread flour and all-purpose flour. Bread flour gives baked goods more structure and chew than all-purpose flour.
To make these rolls like the ones you’d get at the restaurant, we want them to have a little bit of structure but still be soft and fluffy in the middle. Using a combination of the two flours helps us achieve that balance.
Make sure you’re using instant yeast in this recipe. Sometimes it will be branded as “quick rise” or “rapid rise” yeast.
You don’t want active dry yeast for these rolls. Save that for recipes like paska or pan de muerto.
Making this recipe
To make these Texas Roadhouse rolls, start by whisking together 2 cups of the bread flour with the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Then add the water, milk, honey, and butter to a saucepan. Heat this mixture over medium heat just until it is warm. Don’t worry if the butter doesn’t completely melt.
Using the dough hook attachment, run the mixer on low speed and pour the milk mixture into the bowl. Mix for 2 minutes, until well combined.
Add the remaining bread flour, salt, and eggs to the bowl. Mix on low until well combined.
Now, with the mixer on medium speed, add the all-purpose flour 1 cup at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl; cover the dough lightly with a clean tea towel and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
Once the dough has doubled, turn it out gently onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it into a large rectangle about ½-inch thick.
To make these copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls truly like the originals, they need to be shaped into rectangles or squares, unlike other rolls like my Fluffy No-Knead Refrigerator Rolls.
To do this, use a dough blade or a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 24 squares.
Place the squares onto buttered baking sheets about 1.5 inches apart and let them rise for 30 more minutes. You want the rolls to be puffy.
While the rolls rise, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Bake the Texas Roadhouse rolls for 15-18 minutes, until they are golden. Brush them with the melted butter as soon as you take them out of the oven and serve them warm with cinnamon honey butter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Texas Roadhouse Rolls
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups bread flour
- 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast 2 envelopes
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons salted butter melted (optional)
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Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, whisk together 2 cups of the bread flour and the yeast.2 1/2 cups bread flour, 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- In a saucepan, combine the water, milk, honey and butter. Heat over medium heat just until warm – butter does not need to be completely melted.1 1/4 cups water, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup honey, 1/3 cup unsalted butter
- With the mixer running on low, pour the milk mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer. Beat for 2 minutes until well combined.
- Add the remaining bread flour, salt and the eggs. Mix on low speed until well combined.1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt, 2 large eggs
- Add the all-purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.3 cups all-purpose flour
- Place dough on a well-floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- Place dough in a lightly-greased bowl, cover lightly with a clean tea towel and place in a warm place to rise. Let rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Gently turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a large rectangle 1/2-inch thick. Use a dough blade, knife or pizza cutter to cut dough into 24 squares. Place rolls onto buttered baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Cover lightly with a tea towel and let rise for about 30 minutes or until puffy.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F.
- Bake rolls for 15-18 minutes, until golden. Brush with melted butter upon removing from the oven. Serve warm with Cinnamon Honey Butter.2 tablespoons salted butter
Notes
Nutrition
About Stephie
Stephie is the creator of Stephie Cooks, a food blog that focuses on creating memories around the food we share, with family recipes at the site’s heart. Stephie lives in Central Illinois with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of cats and dogs. When she’s not in the kitchen or at her computer writing, you can usually find her curled up with a book or working on one of her many grandma-esque hobbies. Learn more >
DELISHHHHHH
Haha!! My feelings exactly! Thank you so much for sharing!
Interesting recipe, following these instructions though I had to nearly double the amount of flour- 2 1/2 cups was NOT sufficent for the amount of liquids going in…. otherwise turned out fantastic!
After I read your comment, I re-read the recipe. I see that there is another 3 cups of flour listed at the end of the ingredients. Now it all makes sense.
Not sure if you are still checking this site, but can you use active dry yeast instead of instant? I’m guessing you’d have to proof the yeast in the water first and wait a little longer on the rise. Thoughts?
Hi Sean – I had a baby early this year and am dreadfully behind on comments! You are exactly right on how you’d adapt to use active dry yeast. Thanks for reading!
how many rolls does this make?
Hi there! It makes 24 rolls. Hope this helps!