Brown Butter Sage Salted Honey Milk Buns
Upgrade your Thanksgiving dinner rolls with these Brown Butter Sage Salted Honey Milk Buns—an irresistibly soft, aromatic side dish that tastes like pure holiday comfort. Infused with warm sage, nutty browned butter, and a touch of honey, this easy recipe brings gourmet flavor to your holiday table and boosts your fall baking inspiration.
Ingredients you’ll need:
- all purpose flour
- whole milk
- active dry yeast
- granulated cane sugar
- salt
- butter
- sweetened condensed milk
- sage
- egg
- honey
- flaky salt
Can you Prep Milk Buns in Advance:
Yes, you can prep these milk buns in advance two different ways:
- After the first rise, shape the dinner rolls and place in the greased baking dish. Cover tightly with Saran Wrap then place in the fridge overnight. The next day, allow up to 2 hours for the dough to come to room temperature and rise until double in volume then continue recipe instructions as normal.
- Bake the milk buns and allow to completely cool before covering with aluminum foil to sit on the countertop overnight. Keep away from direct sunlight or heat. This is the easiest method and they will stay soft!
What to Serve with Milk Buns:
- Homemade Honey Butter + Jam
- Soups & Stews
- Leftovers make delicious sandwiches and sliders!
- You can also slice the leftovers into thick pieces to make French toast!
Bake with me!
Brown Butter Sage Salted Honey Milk Buns
Servings: 8
Ingredients
For the Milk Buns:
- 4 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
- 2 tbsp. Fresh Sage chopped + more for baking
- 1/2 cup Whole Milk
- 2 tbsp. Granulated Cane Sugar
- 2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
- 1/4 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 1 large Egg
- 1 tbsp. Honey
- 1 tsp. Fine Baking Salt
- 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- Flaky Salt for garnishing
For the Honey Butter:
- 1/2 cup 1 stick Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
- 1/3 cup Honey or to taste
- Salt to taste
Instructions
To Make the Milk Buns:
- In a saucepan over medium heat, add the butter. Once melted, add the freshly chopped sage. Stir until browned, brown specks will form at the bottom and it will smell nutty. Remove from heat to cool to room temperature.
- Heat up the milk just until warm to touch, about 30 seconds. If it’s too hot or steamy, let cool off until room temperature. If using a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, add to its bowl. Otherwise, add to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the sugar and active dry yeast to the warmed milk, lightly mix, then let sit for 5-10 minutes, until super foamy.
- Use a fine mesh strainer to remove the chopped sage, pour the brown butter into the mixing bowl. If desired, you can skip this step and just add both the brown butter and sage into the dough.
- Add the sweetened condensed milk, honey, egg, and salt. Mix until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Add 1 1/2 cups flour and knead until fully absorbed. Continue adding 1/2 cup flour, kneading for a few minutes afterwards, until a smooth and pliable dough. Depending on weather and type of flour used, you may need less.
- Transfer to a large bowl greased with olive oil. Cover with Saran Wrap, then set aside in a warm environment for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. I recommend wrapping tightly in Saran Wrap and placing in the oven to help it rise.
- TIP: During colder months, I recommend wrapping tightly with saran wrap and placing in the oven at 80-100F for 10 minutes, then turn OFF to finish rising.
- Punch out the air in the risen dough, then transfer onto a clean surface to divide into 8 equally-sized pieces.
- Roll into tight balls, then place in a 9" pie plate greased with softened butter. Cover once more with Saran Wrap to rise in a warm environment, such as the oven turned OFF with light ON, for 40-60 minutes, until doubled in size. Remove before preheating the oven.
- TIP: During colder months, I recommend wrapping tightly with saran wrap and placing in the oven at 80-100F for 10 minutes, then turn OFF to finish rising.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Brush the tops of the milk buns with extra whole milk. If desired, press a sage leaf onto each milk bun and sprinkle with flaky salt.
- Bake on the middle rack for 18-22 minutes, until the tops are deeply golden brown. Let cool at least 15 minutes before enjoying warm with the honey butter!
To Make the Honey Butter:
- Beat all ingredients in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. Place in a serving dish to enjoy.
I truly hope you all enjoy this treasured recipe that has nestled its way into our hearts here in the ABM kitchen! ’till next time… xxL
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
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Your recipe is incredible !!! I just saw that the amount of flour isn’t listed.
Just fixed that!! It’s 2 1/2 cups flour not milk LOL
I really want to try this recipe but you forgot to put the flour measurement!
Sorry about that! I have fixed it 🙂
Can you freeze the dough after the first ferment and shaping into balls?
Hi Anoop! After the first rising, shape the buns as normal and place in their baking dish to cover with Saran Wrap and store in the fridge overnight. The next day, allow an extra hour or so for them to come to room temperature and rise double in volume 🙂
Is it okay to double the recipe in one batch?
Absolutely! I tripled the recipe in a super large bowl for Friendsgiving lol
Hello! Excited to try this recipe! Can I substitute active dry yeast for instant yeast?
Hi Shekinah! It’s best to use active dry yeast as you want those two separate rising times to help build a soft, chewy dinner roll. However, you can substitute with instant yeast and just reduce the rising times. The key is to make sure each time they rise, they only rise to double in volume. Too much rising could weaken the gluten of the dough. Hope that makes sense 🙂
Hi, these sound amazing. I’ve cut back on sugar and make my own condensed milk using coconut cream but that might be strange with this recipe, can I substitute something else or skip the condensed milk.
Hi Roena! That’s so cool! I think coconut milk or cream would work as a good substitute for the condensed milk. It may provide a more coconut-y flavor though. If that’s not what you’re wanting, I would probably just omit the condense milk and then add up to 3 tbsp more milk gradually until the dough pulls away from the mixing bowl. Hope that helps some!
Hi there!
I’m pretty new to cooking so any advice is greatly appreciated. I did a test run of this recipe and my rolls came out pretty dense. I noticed too that it didn’t not rise well. I think the issue was with the step where you add the dry active yeast and cane sugar to the warm milk and wait for it to get foamy. For me it didn’t not do that but it did bubble. Additionally the store near me did not have fresh sage so I used dry sage leaves (not sure if that would be the issue as well). Honestly the flavor was great! Just was missing that fluffy-ness. Thanks!
Hi Anna! So typically, whenever I’m “activating” the yeast, if it doesn’t bloom well, then that could mean the yeast is expired. I actually had this happen to me the morning of Friendsgiving and had to start from scratch because of it! Lol … So my first thought would be to get new active dry yeast, and then to use the natural warmth of your oven with the light ON to help the rising 🙂
My dough came out really sticky and runny? Am I missing something. I doubled the recipe for reference
Hi Pamela! Hmm I’m not sure why it came out sticky. I have tripled this recipe in one bowl a few times this holiday season and haven’t run into this issue. However, if this happens, I always recommend just adding a few tablespoons of more flour at a time until a soft and pliable dough 😉 Hope that helps some! Sorry about the troubles!!
I tried recreating this recipe twice and it failed both times. The first I assumed my yeast wasn’t as alive as I thought and tossed the stiff dough to try again. The second batch i made sure my yeast was alive and active and felt great until I came back to unrisen dough after a 1 1/2 hour rise. I decided to follow through with the recipe anyways and it was a doughy blob out of the oven. Tasted the end product to see if it would be worth another attempt and it was way too sweet. Condensed milk and honey is truly overkill for rolls. The sage was fragrant but definitely not the prominent flavoring. I would use a trusted roll recipe and modify with the sage instead of this.
Made these for Thanksgiving and they were great! The dough did take a bit longer than 2 hours to rise so just a heads up for everyone.
Will 100% make again!
Hi Molly! I’m so happy you loved them! I added a little tip for during the winter months since it can take longer to rise, and that’s to put it in the oven at 100F (after tightly wrapping in Saran Wrap) for 10 minutes, then turning the oven OFF. This always helps during winter!
This worked exactly as written, thanks!