These Bread Machine Sweetened Condensed Milk Dinner Rolls are the softest, fluffiest rolls I have ever had!
Apparently soft a fluffy is a hallmark of Asian rolls but these will be a hit at any table.
When I first served them I didn’t mention that I was using a new recipe. Eyes lit up around the table and my husband asked right away what was different.
These rolls are soft and moist. They are not overtly sweet – just really tasty.
My Mom used to make homemade dinner rolls for our holiday meals so I equate them with special occasions.
Having said that -these are so easy using a bread machine. You only spend about 10 minutes hands on in total. The bread machine dough cycle takes about an hour and a half for the first rise and the second rise takes about 35 minutes. Baking is another 25 and some time to cool.
So the time spans about 3 hours and 10 minutes so you have to be around but you are not actively involved for much of the time.
So I started with a 300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk which is a bit more than a cup.
These buns were so good that I sent the rest of them home with my dinner guest as a treat. Since I had sweetened condensed milk left over I made another batch the next day to enjoy again and freeze!
I also scoured around to see what I had on hand to use up more of the sweetened condensed milk and ended up making these Lemon Custard Tarts. The filling is no bake- you just beat it! It doesn’t get any easier than that!!

I had frozen tart shells on hand so I blind baked them and fill them with custard when they had cooled. I still had custard left over so I poured it into little pudding cups. Add a fresh raspberry or other fruit and you have a tasty, easy dessert.

Bread Machine Sweetened Condensed Milk Dinner Rolls
Equipment
- Bread Machine
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsps unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 140 ml whole milk 1/2 cup plus extra for brushing top of rolls
- 80 grams sweetened condensed milk 1/4 cup
- 300 grams all purpose flour 2 1/2 cups
- 30 grams sugar 2 1/2 Tbsps
- 5 grams salt 1 tsp
- 7 grams fast rising yeast 2 teaspoons
Instructions
- Melt butter in microwave. Warm milk in microwave-about 1 minute on medium.
- Whisk melted butter, egg, milk and sweetened condensed milk together until well mixed.
- Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix well.
- Add ingredients to your bread machine in order suggested by manufacturer. Mine is liquids, dry ingredients and yeast on top.
- Set bread machine to dough cycle. (See notes below for manual kneading/rise).
- Prepare a baking pan about 8 X 8" or 9 X 9" with parchment paper on the bottom and slightly up the sides. Alternatively oil baking dish slightly.
- Lightly oil your work surface and your hands. When the dough cycle is finished remove dough to work surface and punch it down. Fold it over on itself and form a fat log.
- Divide dough into 3 equal portions and then divided each third into 3 more equal portions.
- Shape the dough by stretching the top surface into a round smooth top. Twist and tuck the ends into the bottom of the dough ball. Transfer the dough to the baking pan spaced evenly apart in 3 X 3 rows. Cover the baking pan with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise for about 35 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Brush the tops of the rolls with milk. Place a sheet of parchment paper lightly over the top of the buns.
- Bake the rolls for about 20 minute. Remove parchment paper and bake rolls 5 minutes more. You can test for doneness with an instant read thermometer. Middle roll should read 190°.
- Remove from oven and allow rolls to cool for 5-10 minutes. Remove rolls from the pan and allow to cool further. When warm or room temperature pull or cut rolls apart.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Rolls are best the day they are made but will keep another day in an airtight container at room temperature. If you want to keep them longer than the 2nd day freeze in an airtight bag.
- Allow frozen rolls to thaw at room temperature and warm slightly in microwave if desired just before serving.
Notes
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, including the yeast.
- Mix the wet ingredients (except the butter.)
- Using a stand mixer with a dough hook on low or wooden spoon- add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until consistently wet. This will only take a minute or two with a mixer and a bit longer by hand. Take a spatula and ensure all the dry flour on the sides of the bowl gets incorporated.
- Increase the mixer speed to med/low and add the butter bit by bit in cubes until it is smoothly incorporated and the dough is smooth. This will take a couple more minutes with the mixer and a bit longer by hand. The dough will be sticky and moist.
- Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl. Work it another minute or so by hand by stretching it into a ball, tucking the bottom edges in. Repeat this a few times and then position the dough seam side down. Cover and allow dough to double. This will take 1-2 hours depending on how warm your kitchen is.
- When ready, punch the dough down and divide it into 9 individual pieces. Pinch the bottoms of each piece so you have a smooth round top and place each piece into the prepared, greased baking dish, seam side down.
- Cover baking dish and allow rolls another 35 minutes or so to rise again.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F.
- Allow rolls to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
Nutrition

Can I double the recipe in my breadmaker? It makes a 2lb loaf of bread
I think you could. You are taking the dough out after the first rise so it might hit the lid but I think it would be ok.
Always shy away from recopies where the order of ingredients doesn’t match the verbiage. Worse, directions for the dough without a picture. Pass!
Good point. I corrected the order of ingredients listed. I too find that frustrating so happy to improve. Can’t help with the dough photo at this point. Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Carolyn. Could you take these rolls once they are shaped and freeze them then when you want one, two, etc take them out of the freezer and let them sit overnight on your counter (for the extra rise) and bake them then?
Hi Judy. In theory you could so as you say but I have never had good luck with that approach. I find my rolls or bread doesn’t get as light and fluffy this way. The risk I think would be in over proofing the second time. If the dough thaws within a few hours and then has a few more hours to rise the buns might over proof. I have not tried it with these rolls but my instinct would be to thaw the dough overnight in the fridge and then allow a half hour or so to come to room temperature and another 35 minutes to proof. (Covered the whole time.)
If you decide to try it please let me know who it works out!
Can I make these if I don’t own a bread machine?
Thanks!
Hi Lisa. I updated the instructions to explain how to make the rolls without a bread machine.
Can you do bread loaves with this recipe?
I have never tried it but a couple of things come to mind. Dough for buns is softer than bread because of the additional ingredients. I suspect the loaf would not rise as well as a normal loaf. I am just going by bread has fairly visible air pockets and buns are much finer. You could try it but you would also have to increase the bake time to be more like time for a loaf of bread. If you try it let us know how it turns out!