Honey Oat Sweet Rolls Recipe

This honey oat sweet rolls recipe is one of my favorite homemade breads so far. This bread uses simple, whole ingredients with a tasty “secret” ingredient that really adds the sweetness to these buns. These buns also don’t call for any eggs, perfect for those with egg allergies. Oh, and did I mention there’s no processed sugars in this recipe?? All the sweetness comes from the natural sugars found in the honey and our super secret ingredient 😅

This recipe was inspired by my honey oat sandwich bread recipe and my family’s love of Hawaiian King Rolls. The combination of the two created these sweet honey oat rolls that we all love, and I hope you all like it, too 🙂

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I’ll never share a link to anything that I don’t personally use and love 🙂 Read my full disclosure here.

Ingredients for Honey Oat Sweet Rolls

I know by now you are dying to know what the super top secret ingredient is. So, without further ado you’ll need:

• Apple juice – this really brings out the sweetness without having to go overboard with the addition of honey. Use organic if you can, at the very least make sure the only ingredient in your apple juice is apples.
• Yeast – dry active yeast is what I’ll use here, but you can use instant yeast if that’s what you have or prefer to use. In the case of instant yeast, simply combine all the wet ingredients first then the dry ingredients. Mix it all up and voila, your dough is ready.
• Honey – you can also use maple syrup if that’s what you have or if you’d like to feed this bread to a baby under the age of one. Honey is not safe to consume for baby’s under 1 year old. Some even say 2 years to be extra safe. For a festive fall version of this recipe, sub the honey with molasses, it’s delicious!
• Butter – is bread really bread without butter???
• Salt – we use Redmond’s Real Salt. It’s absolutely delicious and packed with minerals our bodies need for proper health. In any case, use an unrefined mineral salt.
• All purpose flour – use organic unbleached flour for this recipe and any other calling for all purpose. You and your family deserve unbleached flour. And by making your breads yourself you offset the cost of choosing a higher quality flour for your family. This recipe would also be great with whole wheat or a blend of your favorite flours.
• Yogurt – this gives just the slightest hint of a tang to your bread, softens it and helps the oats break down so they are more digestible.
• Oats – old fashioned or rolled oats. Again, if you can afford it, organic is going to be the best option. Oats especially are sprayed ridiculous amounts of glyphosate. Not just to keep bugs off the plants or kill weeds, but also to speed up drying so more oats can be produced during the season.

How to make honey oat dinner rolls

The first thing we need to do is soak the oats. In a small bowl mix together the oats and yogurt, allow them to sit for a least 30 minutes if not overnight. This soak allows the oats to break down making them easier on your stomach. If you don’t have issues with oats, like bloating, then a thirty minute soak is sufficient. If soaking the oats overnight, place the oats in the fridge and return them to room temperature when ready to make the dough.

Now, with the oats soaked, it’s time to get on with making our dough. Mix together apple juice and honey. You’ll need to warm this mixture up to about 110F. This can be done in the microwave or over the stove depending on your preferences. Here, I used a small stainless steel bowl on medium heat on the stove.

Once the apple juice mixture has warmed, stir in the yeast. Let that sit for about five minutes or until the yeast has bloomed. Then add in melted butter, salt, and the soaked oats. Mix this up until the oats are no longer lumpy. Finally add in your flour, starting with half the flour called for, then adding 1/2 cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl.

Let the dough rise for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size. Lightly flour a clean work surface and turn out the dough. Gently knead it into a neat ball then proceed to dividing the dough into 24 pieces. Each piece will weigh around 65-70g. However, there’s no need to be precise. Here’s how I go about dividing my dough without pulling out the kitchen scale.

Start by dividing your dough ball in half. Shape each half into a ball again, then divide it into quarters. Having a good bench knife makes this work super easy. It also helps with the clean up later.

Take each quarter and roll it into a log. Cut each log into three sections. That’s your bun size right their. As your going along, you’ll notice if one piece is noticeably larger than another. Simply reallocate dough as needed to get duns that are more or less equal in size.

Shape each piece into a ball and place in a greased baking dish. To get classic dinner roll buns, place your dough balls fairly close together with gaps only between the rows. If you’d like your buns to be wider instead of taller, space them out more.

Let these rise for another 30 minutes to an hour in a warm spot. Perhaps your stove top if the oven is already preheating. At this point they will be touching on all sides.

Heat the oven to 385F and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown with an internal temperature of 190F.

These honey oat sweet rolls taste amazing straight out of the oven. However, the sweetness really starts to shine once the rolls have cooled down a bit. Either way these are so tasty you’ll love them hot or cold. They make great sandwiches for chicken salad or leftover roast chicken, or turkey. Ahem… these are definitely gracing our Thanksgiving table.

Well, that’s it! I hope you all love this recipe and if you’ve tried it let me know what you think!!

Happy Baking 😊