Grandma Lucy’s Famous Clover Rolls
on Apr 12, 2019, Updated Apr 29, 2024
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Grandma Lucy’s famous clover rolls are extra soft and fluffy, easy to shape, and a perfect recipe for little hands to help bake.
This recipe comes from my mother-in-law and is a long-time family favorite. The only thing I changed from her original recipe is using real butter instead of margarine. This is my go-to bread for Sunday dinners of roasted chicken to holiday dinners, and I like to make these rolls ahead to serve with meals on busy weeknights. These rolls make every meal special!
I love this recipe because it was one of the first yeast bread recipes I made that not only turned out light and fluffy but also looked great, too! Making clover rolls is pretty fool-proof, thanks to the help of a muffin tin. All you have to do is divide the dough evenly and roll it into balls. The shaping is so simple that this is a great recipe for kids to help make.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You don’t need a stand mixer to make the dough, which makes this a really accessible roll recipe.
- Serve these rolls during the week or scale up the recipe to make larger batches for family gatherings or holiday meals. The perfect bread for all meals!
- This recipe makes a dozen rolls, just the right amount for a weekday meal without too much fuss.
Recipe Ingredients
- Milk – 2% or whole milk works best
- Butter – I use real butter, but you can substitute margarine
- Sugar
- Active dry yeast
- Flour – all-purpose flour
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Clover Rolls
- Melt butter with milk, sugar, and salt on the stove. Mix with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and add flour a little at a time, stirring to combine.
- Knead and let rise until doubled.
- Divide the dough, roll into balls, and form the clover rolls. Let rise until doubled again.
- Bake until golden brown, and rub the tops of the rolls with butter.
Recipe FAQs
If your dough doesn’t rise, it could mean the room is too cold, you didn’t knead the dough enough, or your yeast is dead. Sometimes, using the wrong type of flour can also cause dough to not rise, but I’ve actually had pretty good luck using half all-purpose flour and half whole-grain in this recipe! If you’re experiencing issues with the dough rising, try troubleshooting it by kneading the dough more, checking the yeast’s package, or making the room warmer.
Perfect dough is one of the most difficult parts of baking bread, but don’t let that discourage you! If the dough is too sticky, generally that means not enough flour has been used. Similarly, if it’s too dry, that usually means there’s too much flour. To avoid over- or under-flouring your dough, be sure to add flour to the mixture one cup at a time until it reaches an ideal, stretchy consistency.
If your rolls stick around for a day or two, more power to you! Store them at room temperature in a breadbox or paper bag to cut down on moisture loss. These storage options also allow the outsides to remain pretty firm—there’s nothing worse than a soggy roll!
Expert Tips
- To avoid over- or under-flouring your dough, be sure to add flour to the mixture one cup at a time until it reaches an ideal, stretchy consistency.
- If you’re experiencing issues with the dough rising, try troubleshooting it by kneading the dough more, checking the yeast’s package, or making the room warmer.
- This recipe makes a smaller bath of a dozen rolls, so double or triple if you are feeding more mouths.
More Yummy Roll Recipes to Consider
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Grandma Lucy’s Famous Clover Rolls
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup milk, 2% or whole milk work best
- 1/4 cup butter, (4 tablespoons), cut into 4 pieces
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Additional butter for rubbing on the rolls
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, combine the milk, butter, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine.
- Heat over medium heat, just until the butter melts. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the warm water and yeast. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes.
- When the milk has cooled to less than 110 degrees F, add it to the water and yeast mixture. Stir to combine.
- Add the flour, one cup at a time, stirring well to combine after each addition, until no longer sticky.
- Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes.
- Place the dough back in the bowl, cover, and let rise for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease a 12-cup muffin tin well.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, and cut it into 12 pieces.
- Divide each of the 12 pieces into 3 smaller pieces. Roll the smaller pieces of dough into balls, and place three small pieces of dough into each muffin cup.
- Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the rolls are golden-brown on the top. Remove tin from the oven, and rub the tops of the hot rolls with a stick of butter.
- Let the rolls rest in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove the rolls from the muffin tin. Place them on a wire rack to cool.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- Margarine can be substituted for the butter in this recipe.
- I have had great luck using half all-purpose and half whole-wheat flour in this recipe.
- Store them at room temperature in a breadbox or paper bag to cut down on moisture loss.
- The shaping is so simple that this is a great recipe for kids to help make. Just divide the dough and shape into balls, placing three little balls in each muffin tin space.
Thank you for sharing. I plan on following this recipe next time I make dinner rolls. I have a recipe for Brown & Serve dinner rolls that I have been using for over 40 years. This one has the same ingredients and measurements but does call for 1 packet of yeast and not sure if that would come to 2 Tbsp. The directions are a little different but the directions on your recipe seemed a little easier. I always get 22 to 24 rolls from my recipe but the pictures of your rolls look bigger so I think that is why you only get 12.
I think you’ll really like the recipe Chris!
Made these today for our thanksgiving dinner. They were perfect and so easy to make!