Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls.
Let me tell you about something I excel at.
This something involves food.
Obviously.
I have no other identities.
Unless you count shoes and spending money.
[But it’s not like there’s anything else in life.]
So here it is. I am really, really fabulously great at taking the *best* part of a dish and hogging it all to myself. For instance: muffin tops, crunchy, burned and bubbly cheese on macaroni, the crusty topping on my mom’s signature potato chip casserole, the caramely topping on sweet potato casserole, all of the candied cookie pieces in ice cream, the entire graham cracker crust of a cheesecake, the maraschino cherry in a manhattan (okay… the best part here is debatable), the toasty, butter almonds that come in green beans, and the bacon out of, well… everything.
The second best thing I’m good at is leaving the junky part where I found it. Muffins on the counter? Now they have no top. Mac and cheese in the fridge? No more crunch left for you! Chubby Hubby in the freezer? It’s plain old chocolate now. Manhattan’s during happy hour? Alright… you’ve got me there. The jig is up.
I also put empty containers back in the fridge and throw my wrappers on the table when the garbage can is closer.
I’m
a
brat.
Every time a holiday rolled around, I not only looked forward to stealing the terrific tops off of everyone’s favorite treats, but I reallllly looked forward to these incredibly flakey, buttery cloverleaf rolls that my grandma would get from a local Shop and Save.
How sick is this: the minute I spied the rolls, I would count them, count the number of guests, and figure out how I would be able to stack two or three on my plate without looking like a completely selfish twit. I also said a quick little prayer hoping that most party goers would choose the underrated, firmer poppyseed roll nestled in the corner of the basket. I may have even hyped up the poppyseed rolls. This is no lie. I LOVED THOSE ROLLS!
You could taste the butter with every bite. Plus, I figured I deserved to have more than one because I skipped over all the vegetables. Riddle me that.
I guessed they would be impossible to make. Like… totally mind-blowing and day-consuming. I mean, how do you get yeasted bread to look like a clover?
Well. Guess what? I was wrong. Again. Thank goodness.
Sooooo simple. I’d like to add even more “o’s” to that “so” but I also want you to keep reading and not want to punch me in the face. Last week, I made these with half whole wheat flour and served them as a dunker with sweet potato soup. But I must admit – they are best when made with only all-purpose flour. Just do it! They are a must must must make. Actually, I almost believe they are foolproof? You don’t have to do anything special (except look cute…. which uh, you totally do today!) to make ’em look gorgeous, which is why I showed you that hideous mess on a cutting board that I call the second picture of this post. Make dough, rolls into balls, shove into muffin tins, shove into mouth.
Oh… but not before dousing each roll with melted butter six or seven times. What? You think I’m joking?
Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 1/2 cups warm milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour, or more if needed
- melted butter for brushing
Instructions
- In the bowl of your electric mixer (with an attached dough hook), combine warm water, yeast, olive oil and 1 tablespoon honey and mix with a spoon. Let sit until foamy, about 10-15 minutes. Add warm milk, remaining honey, egg and butter, and mix on low speed until just combined, then add in 2 cups of flour and salt. Mix on low speed, gradually increasing to medium as flour becomes incorporated. Slowly add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, stopping at 5 cups. Knead the dough on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, then check to see if the dough is sticky. If it is too sticky, add a bit more flour and knead until it becomes smooth, but you want some stick to it. Remove dough from the bowl and form into a ball with your hands, covering with a bit more flour until it is no longer sticking to your hands.
- Brush a large bowl with melted butter. Add dough to the bowl, turning once or twice to cover in butter. Place a towel over top and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours. Punch dough down, then transfer to a floured workspace. Tear small pieces of dough off the larger piece, and roll into balls slightly larger than one inch wide. You will end up with about 90 dough balls. Brush a muffin tin with melted butter, then add 3 dough balls to each tin. Cover and let rise again, in a warm spot, for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush the tops of each clover with a hefty glug of melted butter. Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until tops are just golden brown. Remove from over and brush tops with melted butter again, repeating the brushing another few times as the rolls cool. Remove from the tins and serve.
- The muffins are best when eaten on the same day they were baked, however if you’d like to make them the day before, make sure to let them cool completely and store in an air-tight container.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
They’re so fluffy I’m gonna die!
206 Comments on “Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls.”
I know these rolls!!! Thanksgiving every year in my house growing up. Now I do Thanksgiving with Keith’s family every year and his mom makes homemade challah rolls….oh lord I die!
clearly there are not enough chunks in the ice cream or there would be some left for someone else
Ooooh, I love how pretty these are!!! They look just like my grandmother’s rolls…except these are actually homemade, haha.
Your rolls look absolutely perfect. I’d steal a plateful and not even feel guilty if someone didn’t get any!
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
i want chubby hubby for breakfast. with a side of cloverleaf rolls.
my “bread/rolls” slot on the thanksgiving menu was just filled!
Thank you for reading my mind! I told my mom I would make the rolls for Thanksgiving and was just about to start trying recipes! These look amazing :0)
My Aunt would always bring these for Thanksgiving! Ww are having a ‘Friendsgiving’ this year and I am so going to make these!
How fun!
Ummm why has no one else asked the most obvious question: Whaaaaat is potato chip casserole, where can I get some, and why can’t I find the recipe already????
P.s. I adore your blog. Seriously the first thing I do every day is check what new creation you’ve got posted. You are a hoot!
Hahaha. Thanks Kelly! I may post it… it’s this old school casserole made with frozen potato chunks, tons of cheddar cheese and potato chips.
Oh these look super yummy! I am drooling.
Oooh can’t wait to make these this Thanksgiving. The hot, buttery rolls are the best part in my book (drenched in gravy and turkey and potatoes of course!)
Of course… the best part is mopping up the leftover gravy with a 3rd or 4th roll.
We must have both had bread on our minds ….I love it. Your rolls are beautiful! Can’t wait to see you tomorrow!
Those rolls are perfect. There are two not-so-flattering phrases to refer to this habit/hobby of yours. I can say you are both of these, because I am too. 1.) gold digger 2.) food molester. I know, hard to hear.
BTW – that is my favorite movie line EVER!
These rolls look AMAZING, and I have to admit that I do half of those things you noted.. like stealing the muffin tops and wrappers on the table. And hey, I just figured out another use for your maple gingerbread butter- right here. I feel like I should be your marketing manager or something. ;)
Ah, you are SO right!
Oh, I’m definitely going to have to make these. My grandmother used to make them all the time when I was younger and I loved to pull them apart, section by section….and then of course drown each section in butter. YUM!
That’s what I love too – pulling them apart by sections!
holy cow! i am sitting at work and just read this. now all i can think about is making these. i need to go home….NOW!
Your posts are so timely – I’m going to make rolls this weekend and these look so yummy! They would be great with some herbs too and maybe a compound butter on top too! Thanks for sharing
I feel I owe you a confession after all of yours, so here goes: when my mom made homemade bread, and it was rising on the counter, I would “sneak” a piece of raw dough from the top to eat, causing that entire loaf to deflate. I always got in trouble for it, but I continued to do it every.single.time. There. I feel cleansed.
That is amazing.
Here is a question for you. Is there a roll or a dough that I can make on Thursday night and eat Saturday and still be good?
Please help a lady out. :)
Well, you could make a dough ahead of time, freeze (actually probably just keep in the fridge since it’s two days), then bake. Would that work?
That would work for sure. I wasn’t sure if the dough would keep. :) Thank you! :) I’m new to the baking side of cooking. :)
YUUUUMM!
AH! Looks so delicious!
mmm buttery carbs… my favorite! Oh and I loved the Despicable Me reference :) I hate that guy….
I love your post’s, they always make me smile. And these rolls look tasty. I would steal as many as I could too!
wow, these look soo yummy!
I’m a carboholic so these are right up my alley!
Also, I can’t believe you are so much like my husband! He drives me nuts when he does all those same things! too funny =D
I could eat all of these myself. Carbs and I go waaaay back.
Those rolls…Sooo fluffy!! I am absolutely a “selective eater” too. I make cheesecake just to eat the crust and pick out every single piece of dough from Cookie Dough ice-cream.
Did you say potato chip casserole??? I can’t even imagine… :)
These look like Pioneer Woman’s No-Knead Dinner Rolls that I am OBSESSED with, but with the addition of honey. I might need to try these and compare.
I need this rolls in my life. Like now. It looks so fluffy and I am afraid to bake it and then, resulting in having a larger than life waist. Huh!
These are so cute! I love bread! :)
Totally baking a batch of these rolls tonight as a trial run for Thanksgiving!! Thanks for the great recipe! Anyone have a good recipe for the Brocolli cheese casserole that people are mentioning?? That sounds amazing too!
I’ll try to find one!
yum yum yum! I love homemade rolls.
I will sooooo be making these this weekend if I can figure out how since I don’t have a stand mixer. :( I could happily LIVE on yeast rolls but mom doesn’t use recipes so I never had a recipe til now! Thanks Jessica!!!!!!!!!!
You can definitely do it without a stand mixer! The original recipe linked above doesn’t use one!
Yum!! I’ve actually made this shape before, yours look amazing!
Bread makes the world a happier place – – and butter. Well, butter really is just foodie gold. These look like a soft pillow that I’m about to take a nap with :$ (in the most non-creepy way possible)
these look sooo good. i can almost smell them in my oven right now, but i’m too lazy to get up and make them.
i love that line from Despicable Me. hahahha
Yummy! these look So good :D xx
1. these look AMAZING, like i’m drooling a little bit and not ashamed to admit it amazing. 2. you are hysterical in the i laugh out loud inappropriately at my desk while reading your blog sort of way. 3. major motivation for a newbie blogger, so gracias :)
Thanks Cassie!
My husband would DIE for these!!
I’m so making these for Thanksgiving. These are great. They’re effing adorable. I’m in wuv!
i think these will be the first type of dinner bread i make. my grandma used to make them from scratch & i was the roll hoarder. actually, i would scarf down 1 or 2 while i was in the kitchen getting seconds with no one around then put another one on my plate. i love bread. if it didn’t make me as puffy as the rolls themselves, i would eat bread & only bread.
As long as the cherry in the Manhattan has thoroughly absorbed every.last.drop. of bourbon, it can be deemed the best part. I love me some rolls with huckleberry jam, mmmm!
I have been a reader of your blog for a while now and love it!! I have a lot of cooking experince but almost zero with bread making. It always seems so intimidating for some reason. But I feel like I could make these. I do have a few questions — in order to test the recipe out, I don’t really have a need for 30 rolls. Would it be ok to half the recipe? Or, could I just make one muffin tin’s worth and freeze the rest of the dough for later? If I did that, would I freeze it prior to letting it rise and then follow those steps at whatever time I let it thaw to make the rest? Thanks!!
this is beautiful.. you take such pretty pictures.
very nice job
I’ll take 42, please! :)
I really enjoy your blogs- almost as much as your recipes. They have that human- oh boy can I relateness- to them. Thanks for this recipe too… I always loved these rolls with honey butter on top. It’ll be fun to make them myself.
Cloverleafs are one of my all time favorite rolls–they remind me of holidays with my grandma!
They’re so sweet! The remind me of baby chubby thigh rolls – which is an awesome thing in my book. I think I’ll make them for thanksgiving and knock everyone’s socks off.
wow, I forgot how much I love these! and when fresh..forget! YUM . :)
Oh my goodness! I really want to make these for Thanksgiving.
seriously, bread is the best thing ever. If I had to live off of one carb of choice (rice, pasta…etc) It would be bread. SO GOOD. Im a sucker for Cosi bread.If you ever get a chance to go to that restaurant….go! and get the bread!! :)