Texas Roadhouse Rolls (Copycat Recipe With Cinnamon Honey Butter)

Everyone talks about the steaks at Texas Roadhouse, but be honest: the basket of warm rolls with cinnamon honey butter is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. They land on the table before you’ve even opened the menu, and somehow the basket is empty three minutes later.

(And no roll is complete without the tub of whipped cinnamon butter: my Texas Roadhouse cinnamon honey butter copycat is the five-minute companion to this recipe.)

The good news is that these are not complicated rolls. It’s a simple sweet yeast dough, shaped into squares instead of rounds, brushed with butter while they’re hot. The cinnamon honey butter takes four ingredients and about ninety seconds. What makes them taste like the restaurant is a handful of small decisions, and I’ll walk you through each one.

What Makes These Rolls Different

Three things separate a Texas Roadhouse roll from a standard dinner roll.

First, the dough is noticeably sweet. There’s a full third of a cup of sugar in one batch, which is more than most dinner roll recipes use. That sweetness is the signature, so don’t cut it back.

Second, the shape. They’re squares, not rounds. The dough gets rolled flat, folded over on itself, and cut into squares with no rounding or shaping. The fold gives you that seam in the middle where the roll wants to pull apart.

Third, butter on top, twice. Once when they come out of the oven, and again about five minutes later once the first coat has soaked in. The second coat is the one you can still see and taste when they hit the table, and skipping it is the most common reason a copycat batch tastes close but not right.

Ingredients

For the rolls (makes 12):

• 1 cup whole milk, warmed to about 110°F
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled, plus more for brushing
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fine salt

For the cinnamon honey butter:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Here’s my one strong opinion for this recipe: use all-purpose flour, not bread flour. Bread flour builds more gluten and gives you a chewier, breadier roll. A Texas Roadhouse roll should tear apart soft, almost like a cotton ball, and all-purpose keeps it that way.

How To Make The Rolls

1. Warm the milk to about 110°F. It should feel like warm bath water, not hot. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the sugar and the yeast, and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes until it looks foamy on top. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead and it’s better to find out now than two hours from now.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the foamy milk mixture with the remaining sugar, the egg, and the melted butter.
3. Add 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt. Mix until it comes together into a shaggy dough, then knead for 8 to 10 minutes, adding more flour a tablespoon at a time only if the dough is genuinely sticking to everything. The dough should end up smooth and soft, still slightly tacky. A stand mixer with a dough hook does this in about 6 minutes on low.
4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover it, and let it rise somewhere warm for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until doubled.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Fold it in half, top to bottom, and roll gently over it once so the layers stick together. You should have a slab about 3/4 inch thick.
6. Cut the slab into 12 squares with a sharp knife or a bench scraper. No rounding, no shaping. Set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a little space between each.
7. Cover loosely and let them rise again for 30 to 45 minutes, until puffy.
8. Bake at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.
9. Brush the hot rolls with melted butter. Wait five minutes, then brush them again.

The Cinnamon Honey Butter

Beat the softened butter with a hand mixer or a fork until it’s creamy, then add the powdered sugar, honey, and cinnamon and beat until the whole thing is light and fluffy. That’s the entire job.

Two notes that matter. Use salted butter here even if you baked with unsalted; the salt keeps the sweetness from going flat. And powdered sugar, not granulated, because granulated stays gritty no matter how long you whip it.

The butter keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks, but it spreads best at room temperature, so pull it out before the rolls go in the oven.

Make Ahead, Storage, And Freezing

The dough can be made a day ahead: shape the squares, put the tray in the fridge overnight covered, and let them sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour before baking.

Baked rolls keep 2 to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature. Rewarm them for 10 seconds in the microwave, or 5 minutes in a 300°F oven, and brush with a little fresh butter to bring them back.

They also freeze well once baked and cooled. Freeze in a bag for up to 3 months and thaw at room temperature. I’d freeze the rolls plain and make the cinnamon butter fresh; whipped butter loses its texture in the freezer.

FAQ

Can I make the dough in a bread machine?
Yes, and it’s the easiest route. Load the milk, sugar, egg, melted butter, flour, and salt with the yeast on top, run the dough cycle on your bread machine, and pick the recipe back up at the rolling and folding step.

Why did my rolls come out dense?
Usually one of three things: the milk was too hot and killed the yeast, the yeast was old, or too much flour got worked in during kneading. The dough should stay soft and slightly tacky. Dense rolls can also mean the second rise was cut short, so wait until they look puffy before baking.

What is Texas Roadhouse butter made of?
Butter, powdered sugar, honey, and cinnamon, whipped together. Some copycat discussions insist the restaurant uses margarine, but real salted butter tastes better and whips just as light.

What temperature should rolls be baked at?
350°F works for these because the sweet dough browns quickly. Leaner breads bake hotter; I’ve covered the full breakdown in my guide to bread baking temperatures.

Serving

These belong next to anything off the grill, chili, soup, or a holiday table. And if you’re building a copycat dinner night, they’re very good alongside my Olive Garden creamy mushroom sauce over pasta, with a batch of Cheesecake Factory brown bread to round out the bread basket.