Brown and serve rolls are a mainstay in many households, being served with a variety of comfort foods. However, there is often confusion on whether they can be frozen both before or after being baked.
You can freeze homemade or store-bought brown and serve rolls before or after cooking. They will remain at peak quality for up to 3 months. Store-bought rolls can be frozen in the plastic bag that they come in. Homemade brown and serve rolls should be placed in an airtight container or ziplock bag before being frozen.
To help you plan ahead, we’ve compiled a few frequently asked questions about storing brown and serve rolls. Read on for some helpful tips about storing them, freezing them, defrosting them, cooking them, and more!
How to Store Unbaked Brown and Serve Rolls
There are multiple ways to store unbaked dinner rolls. Store-bought rolls are pre-baked and can last for a short time on your shelves. For homemade dinner rolls, it’s always best to store unbaked dough away in the freezer.
Only leave unbaked dough in the fridge if you intend to bake it the same day. Otherwise, it may go bad due to there being uncooked eggs or even losing the right consistency to roll and portion for baking.
What Is the Best Way to Freeze Brown and Serve Rolls?
Brown and serve rolls are best when frozen in their original packaging. Homemade rolls do well in freezer bags, saran-wrapped baking sheets, and tin foil encasings.
Ensure the area you go to store your rolls in is dry before doing so, and prevent anything else from weighing down on the dough. You don’t want your dough to be flattened when it is still in its pudgy consistency; if it does, it could freeze in that shape, and when you go to bake it, your rolls will not rise properly.
How Long Do Rolls Last in the Freezer?
Dinner rolls can last anywhere from 1-3 months in the freezer. If they were partially baked, like store-bought dinner rolls, then they’ll last longer and maintain freshness for months. Otherwise, you should bake frozen dinner rolls within 2-3 weeks to enjoy them at their best quality.
However, make sure not to leave your brown and serve rolls in the freezer for too long or past their expiry date; they can become freezer-burnt and taste off after baking.
Does Freezing Bread Ruin It?
The reason bread left out on the counter goes bad is that bread dries out much quicker at room temperature. Bread maintains moisture for exponentially longer when frozen. So instead of ruining it, freezing bread helps persevere its quality and improves overall shelf-life.
Now that we know the tips and tricks to freeze brown and serve rolls, let’s take a look at how you can defrost them.
How Do You Defrost Frozen Rolls Quickly?
You can defrost frozen rolls out on the counter without losing too much moisture. As the dough defrosts, all the water will remain within the bag or packaging you stored it in. This is why you must store your dinner rolls with airtight packing when freezing.
If you have a microwave that has a defrost option, you can stick the frozen rolls in there, press that button, and start to speed up the defrosting process. This is a great option if you have a last-minute dinner planned with your significant other, friends, or family.
How Long Do Brown and Serve Rolls Last?
Brown and serve rolls will last up to one week outside at room temperature.
Remember that it’s always better to freeze dinner rolls if you don’t intend to eat them soon. Also, you should never refrigerate your dinner rolls because they’ll go stale much quicker than at room temperature.
How to Cook Frozen Dinner Rolls
You can cook frozen dinner rolls in two different ways. This depends on whether you baked your rolls before freezing them and if you’re short on time. Raw dinner rolls, for example, require time to thaw and proof before baking.
Here are a few different ways to prepare frozen dinner rolls.
How to Cook Frozen Raw Dinner Rolls
Dinner rolls frozen raw will need to thaw and proof before baking. When prepping, transfer the frozen rolls over to a baking tray with plastic wrap and ample space to rise. After a day in the fridge, they’re ready to be cooked in the oven at 375 °F for 18-25 minutes.
How to Cook Frozen Baked Dinner Rolls
Pre-baked rolls will need less time to thaw and brown than raw rolls. You can opt to let them thaw out overnight on the counter before sticking them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300°F. Or, if you’re strapped for time, you can bake them straight from the freezer for 20-25 minutes at 300°F.
How Do You Keep Brown and Serve Rolls Warm?
The best technique to keep your brown and serve rolls warm involves uncooked rice. First, bake your rolls as you usually would and place them in a bowl or container over a tablecloth. Then, heat a cloth sack filled with rice in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and place it under the rolls.
Additionally, if your oven has a warming drawer, you can keep the hot, freshly-baked rolls in there, so they stay at serving temperature.
How Long Are Rolls Good for in the Fridge?
Brown and serve rolls will last from five to seven days in the fridge. After that, they go stale and decline in quality, which is why it’s wiser to freeze rolls than refrigerate them. Also, you can refresh any rolls that have been in the fridge for less than five days in the oven.
Final Thoughts
Having brown and serve rolls in your freezer is a necessity if you frequently host dinner parties or family gatherings. I hope this article has answered all of your questions regarding proper storage.
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For more, don’t miss How to Fix Runny Stuffing (And Prevent It).
Anne James has a wealth of experience in a wide array of interests and is an expert in quilting, cooking, gardening, camping, mixing drinks (worked as a professional bartender), and making jelly.
Anne has a professional canning business, has been featured in the local newspaper as well as on the Hershey website, and has been her family canner for decades. Anyone growing up in the South knows that there is always a person in the family who has knowledge of the “old ways,” and this is exactly what Anne is.
With over 55 years of experience in these endeavors, she brings a level of hands-on knowledge that is hard to surpass. Amazingly, she doesn’t need to reference many resources due to her vast wealth of experience. She IS the source.
Anne wants nothing more than to pass on her extensive knowledge to the next generations, whether that be family or anyone visiting her website, her YouTube channel, or preservingsweetness.com.