Cloverleaf Buttery Herb Dinner Rolls

This recipe for cloverleaf buttery herb rolls could not get any easier! Using store bought frozen dinner rolls, we transform them into fancy cloverleaf rolls. Fresh rosemary, sage and thyme herbs makes these so special and festive.

Looking for more Thanksgiving recipes? Try my baked mashed potatoes, herb stuffing, pumpkin pie bars or sweet potato casserole.

This recipe was first published 11/13/2020.

Dinner rolls are one thing we can't skip during the holidays. At every Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, we always make these fluffy rolls. It's tradition.

The special cloverleaf shape is what makes these rolls special, visually they stand out. They are so sweet and old fashioned looking.

Cloverleaf rolls are a topic of conversation because of the shape.

The first time I ever had these was at my in-laws. My mother-in-law is seriously the queen of the rolls, she always makes them perfect. It took me years to master.

Your family will think you spent hours making these rolls, but they don't need to know our little secret (that it's just frozen dough balls). Buttery rolls are perfect served next to turkey, green bean casserole, loaded mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.

Jump to:

• Why You'll Love These Rolls
• Ingredients
• How To Make Cloverleaf Rolls
• FAQ
• Cloverleaf Buttery Herb Dinner Rolls

Why You'll Love These Rolls

• Frozen Dough: These rolls are made with frozen rhodes dinner rolls, which means time saver for you!
• Fresh Herbs: The fresh herbs and butter slathered overtop the rolls takes these rolls from boring to show stopper. Sage, rosemary and thyme are the perfect Thanksgiving herbs to use. If you are making stuffing, you'll probably already have them on hand.
• Fun: Let's face it, cloverleaf rolls are so much fun to eat. Who doesn't love pulling them apart?

Ingredients

It couldn't be any easier! Here's what you will need.

• Rhodes Frozen Dinner Rolls: You'll need a total of 18 frozen dough balls. Each of these gets cut in half, making 36 pieces and then 3 pieces go into each muffin well. That's to make 12 cloverleaf rolls. Obviously if you need to make more than 12 rolls you will need more frozen dough balls.
• Butter: Butter to slather on the top of the warm rolls.
• Fresh Rosemary, Thyme, Sage: 100% go for the fresh herbs. Dried herbs won't have the same fresh taste.

How To Make Cloverleaf Rolls

Bring to Room Temperature. The first step in making cloverleaf rolls from frozen dinner rolls is to let the frozen dough balls come to room temperature.

Generously spray a pan with nonstick oil and line some rolls up in it, not letting them touch.

Then cover them with plastic wrap. There's no need to spray the plastic wrap at this point because they won't be rising, we're just letting them de-thaw at this stage.

After 2 hours they should be thawed.

Grease the Muffin Tin. Generously spray a muffin tin with nonstick oil, getting both the inside of the muffin cups and the flat part.

Half the Dough Balls. One by one take a roll and using a knife cut it in half. Then use your hands to re-roll it into a ball, pinching any excess dough toward the bottom of the roll.

Fill the Tin. Set three of these newly formed balls into your oiled muffin tin.

Remember that 18 frozen dough balls makes 12 clover leaf rolls.

Rise. Once the pan is filled up spray a piece of plastic wrap very generously with nonstick cooking spray and cover the rolls (oiled side facing the rolls).

Let these rise until they have doubled, puffing up out of the brim of the pan.

Carefully remove the plastic wrap.

Now here's the part that's important, if you didn't spray enough cooking spray on to your plastic wrap it could snag your rolls and deflate them.

You don't want that, so keep that in mind.

Bake. Bake the rolls until puffed up and golden.

After they are out of the oven you can brush them with a mixture of softened butter and chopped up fresh rosemary, sage and thyme.

They are so pillowy soft in the middle.

Obviously you'll need to taste test one, or three. It's hard to keep everyone away from them before dinner!

FAQ