Homemade Hawaiian Rolls are sweet and fluffy rolls that you can make at home and skip the grocery store! They have the same texture and flavor of store-bought rolls and you will be blown away by how delicious they are. The melt-in-your-mouth rolls are great on their own or perfect for burgers and sandwiches. I use them all the time for my slider sandwiches like my Cheeseburger Sliders and Ham and Cheese Sliders.

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Bowl of Homemade Hawaiian Rolls on White Towel
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Ingredients & Substitutions

Potato starch— Be sure to use potato starch (not potato flour). Potato flour includes flavor, fiber, and protein, while potato starch is pure flavorless starch. Starch helps keep rolls soft, moist, and fresh by absorbing liquid. Starch actually slows the process of bread going stale! It is perfect for soft dinner rolls. You can find Potato Starch here. If you don’t have potato starch on hand, you can substitute the following: corn starch; arrowroot powder; rice flour; or tapioca starch.

Pineapple Juice: Pineapple juice is added to homemade Hawaiian rolls to give them their distinct sweet and slightly tangy flavor. It also helps to tenderize the dough and adds moisture to the rolls, making them softer and fluffier.

Side View of Pan of Baked Hawaiian Dinner Rolls with Butter

How to Shape the Dough

After the dough has risen for a few hours, it’s time to shape the rolls and put them in a greased 9×13-inch pan. There are a couple of ways you can make your 16 rolls.

  • First, gently punch down the dough to deflate it. One strategy you could use is to gently roll the dough into a log on a clean surface.
  • Then, use a bench knife or stiff spatula to cut the log of dough into equal-sized pieces. If you have a kitchen scale, now would be a wonderful time to use it to get the rolls as similar in size and weight as possible. You could also continue to divide the dough in half, and in half again, etc., until you get 16 pieces.
  • To roll the pieces of dough, simply roll them in your hands, making sure you form a smooth top surface of each roll. Place the rolls into the greased pan and cover them with plastic wrap to allow them to rise for about an hour.

Process of Hawaiian Rolls with One Image of the Raw Dough and One of the Baked Rolls

How to Store Hawaiian Rolls

To store homemade Hawaiian rolls, allow them to cool completely and then place them in an airtight container or a resealable plastic bag. You can keep them at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want to keep them fresh for longer, you can store them in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Hand Picking Up Hawaiian Dinner Roll from Baking Pan

Can I Freeze Hawaiian Rolls?

Yes! To freeze homemade Hawaiian rolls, allow them to cool completely and then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Place the wrapped rolls in a resealable freezer bag and label the bag with the date. You can freeze the rolls for up to 2-3 months. To thaw the rolls, remove them from the freezer and let them come to room temperature for about 1-2 hours.

Hawaiian Dinner Rolls on White Plate with Rolls in Background

More Bread Recipes

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4.54 from 13 votes

Hawaiian Rolls

Prep Time 30 minutes
Resting time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 30 minutes
Homemade Hawaiian Rolls are sweet and fluffy rolls that you can make at home and skip the grocery store!

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon instant yeast
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • ยฝ cup (125 g) pineapple juice, canned
  • ยผ cup (ยฝ stick / 58 g) unsalted butter, softened
  • โ…“ cup (67 g) brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk, with white reserved
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons potato starch
  • 1 ยผ teaspoons kosher salt

Instructions

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the yeast, water, and pineapple juice. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
  • Add the butter, brown sugar, eggs, egg yolk (remembering to reserve the egg white), and vanilla, mixing until combined. (Some butter clumps are okay.)
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch, and salt.
  • Add the flour mixture to the yeast mixture, beating with the paddle attachment for about 3 minutes at medium-high speed. Scrape the dough into the center of the bowl.
  • Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 5 minutes at medium speed. If you notice the dough is too sticky, add a little flour.
  • Round the dough into a ball and place it into a greased bowl to rise (about 3 hours).
  • Spray a 9×13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  • Gently punch down on the risen dough to deflate it. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. (You can do this by continuing to divide the dough in half until you are down to 16 pieces. Or, roll the dough into a log and use a bench knife or stiff spatula to cut it into 16 pieces.)
  • Round each piece into a smooth ball and place it in the greased pan, evenly spaced.
  • Cover the rolls with a piece of greased plastic wrap and let them rise for an hour. They should be nice and puffy.
  • Preheat the oven to 350ยฐF when the rolls are just about done rising.
  • Add 1 tablespoon of water to the reserved egg white to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash over the tops of the rolls.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the rolls reach an internal temperature of 190ยฐF.
  • Remove the rolls from the oven and let them cool a bit before turning them out onto a wire rack.

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Meet Amanda Rettke

Amanda Rettke is the creator of I Am Baker, and the bestselling author of Surprise Inside Cakes: Amazing Cakes for Every Occasion โ€“ With a Little Something Extra Inside.Over the course of her 15+ year blogging adventure, she has been featured in and collaborated with the Food Network, New York Times, LA Times, Country Living Magazine, People Magazine, Epicurious, Brides, Romantic Homes, life:beautiful, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Mail, Star Tribune, The Globe and Mail, DailyCandy, YumSugar, The Knot, The Kitchn, and Parade, to name a few.

Reader Comments

  1. I am a big fan of your recipes! Can I make the recipe in dough form then cook it then finish cooking it in the oven the next day?

  2. The recipe shows that it makes 15 rolls in the ‘servings’ section, the instructions say to cut it into 16. Since a normal roll recipe makes a dozen, and that’s what fits a 9×13 pan better, that’s what I made. Now that they are cooled… time to make the sliders. ๐Ÿ˜€

    1. The first video shown is for the recipe. Then more videos play, for other recipes. If there is no video made for this particular recipe, other recipes will play. Hope that helps.

  3. Looks great! I have trouble finding the King’s Hawaiian bread wheels anymore! Can this be made into a wheel? I was thinking maybe use a cat iron skillet? I like to make spinach dip and put into the cut out middle.

  4. unfortunately this recipe did not work for me. initialy the dough was very loose and even adding 3 heaping spoons of flour did not help. i decided to give it a chance anyhow because the consistency of the dough normally improves with the first rise but if anything, it was worse.
    there was no way to form buns, the dough was like melted chocolate. i floured it and tried to fold it but you cannot fold soup.
    i ended up scrapping this goo into the loaf pan and simply baked it as a single loaf of bread so at least i did not waste the ingredients.
    so instead of buns i ended up with bread. it tastes ok but it’s not what i came here for.

  5. I made this recipe for the first time tonight, and they are very good! I did have to add a bit more flour, and the dough was still a bit sticky and took a very long time to rise. I let the first rise go for more than three hours, and the second rise took almost 2 hours to fluff up to the correct size. Also, I followed the recipe, exactly and baked it for 20 minutes, but I should have checked the temperature sooner because when I took them out of the oven they were beautifully brown, but they were 207ยฐ on the inside And a bit to dry. That did not stop my family from eating them, though! I will definitely try it again and I know I will have to reserve more time and begin earlier to make sure theyโ€™re finished for when I need them.

  6. These were a bit too sweet for us. Next time I made them, I cut back the brown sugar to 1.5 TBS and sliced the horizontally. I filled them with shaved ham and swiss cheese, put the tops back on, placed in a baking pan and brushed with melted garlic butter. I baked them at 350 for 10 mins and they made delicious ham sliders!

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