Delicious Whenever Rolls

If you look at my food posts thus far, you notice one wonderful similarity.  Carbohydrates.  Starch + Me = HEAVENLY TIMES.  Sorry, but tis true.

Normally, I'm just lazy when it comes to "making" bread and I'll use the bread machine to either mix up dough or allow it to do all of the work.  It does wonders, and I'm satisfied with that.  Yet, when I saw this on Pinterest yesterday, I knew I had to try my hand at these scrumptious pieces of art.

This is the cast (plus salt. He was somehow missing when the picture was taken.). 

Oh, and that silly piece of paper will be explained later.

First off, measure 1 1/2 cups of milk in a microwavable dish.  Add 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter (oh yeah!).  Scald that real good.  My microwave has been messed with by my dear toddler so much that I haven't the slightest clue what power level it's on.  So a good 3 minutes did the trick.

In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups warm water, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 2 tablespoons of active yeast.  As opposed to non-active yeast.  Derr.  Allow it to do its bubbly thing for awhile. 

Meanwhile, to cool your milk/butter/sugar mixture down so it won't kill your yeast, add 1-2 cups of flour (I did only one) and 1 egg with a tablespoon of salt to the bowl.  The milk mixture needs to be warm, not boiling.

*THERE'S THAT SALT.  He gets his moment of fame after all.*

Once everyone involved is happy with the temps of both mixtures, combine them.  Oooo, bubblies, bubblies.  I love them.

Learn from my mistakes.  Since this recipe makes approximately 532 dinner rolls, go find yourself a gargantuan bowl.  Get your spankstick wooden spoon out and start adding in the flour by 2 cups at a time.  In the end, you will have added 9-10 cups (including that which was already added to the milk mixture).  Don't add too much flour.  Never a good result.  And don't go lazy on me.  Mix by hand.  You and everyone else that consumes these will thank me later.

Once you've emptied a near full bag of flour into your bowl, you will notice it gets tough to stir - sticky.  You might need to use your hands (OH, BOY!!) to add the rest of the flour in.  It kneads it.  It's fun.  It's messy.  So why not?  

Once the mixing is mastered, smooth dough and cover with plastic wrap.  I always spray my plastic wrap with butter spray so it doesn't stick as much.  If you'll take a moment to notice the huge spot of buttery spray, that would be due to my little helper.  He was having too much fun to heed my "stop," immediately.  That spot was extra easy to get off.  :)

Let it double in size or whatever this is.  I had to get in there hastily.  My yeast was having some good times - did not take long to get this big.

Divide dough into 4 sections.  I thought it funny that the original recipe said to lift each one and see if they all weigh the same.  Uhh yeah, I didn't do that.  Pretty sure I'm good enough just to look at the blobs to see if they're equal.  Decent job on my part, eh?  

Roll that goodness out.  Look at those precious little hands.  Pictures to cherish.

Each section should yield 12 rolls.

Once it's all rolled out, butter the whole dough surface.  Approximately 2 tablespoons of butter will be used on each circle.

It's a tad easier if you cut the dough into 4 pieces initially...then each section gets divided into 3 pieces.  Once you're done, you will have scads of rolls.  A total of 48.

Remember that piece of paper with the awful handwriting on it?  Wellll, the original "Pinner" had found this cute Thanksgiving idea where she wrote down things she was thankful for and then made "fortune rolls" by inserting these papers into each roll.  I'm a thankful individual.  But, I'll be lots more thankful when I can lose those last few pounds that will NOT leave my body.  SOOO, I did this instead. :)  If you noticed on my sheet, I did include several "Freebies" along with other variable means of torture.  So not every time I eat a roll do I need to drop it like's it hot and start exercising.  

I will not disclose how many rolls I have eaten in the past 24 hours.  But, I have done an extensive amount of exercise to make up for my sinful deeds.  I mean, I did HAVE to keep eating the rolls in order to find my "Freebies."  :) 

Ok, back to the recipe.  Where were we???  Yah, roll those rolls up and let them raise.  Or rise.  Whatever.

BEAUTIFULness.

 Fresh out of the oven.  Do you know what's worse than waiting for buttery rolls to cool down so you can taste them?  NOTHING.  Hence, the burn marks on the roof of my mouth and tongue.  Oh, but it was worth it.  SOO worth it. 

Grab some more butter and rub it all over the hot mess.  

Each member of my household has said they were really yummy.  Mr. B said they were the best ever.  At least, I think he did.  Let's go with it! :)

Now, who wants to just eat these at dinner?  Not me nor anyone else with a brain.  Or a healthy stomach.  So we have them whenever we get the chance.  Like today.  For lunch.  Dab some egg salad on there with some crunchy leaf lettuce and you've got yourself another winner.

Thanks, Lara.

Star Rating: ★★★★★

RECIPE: Delicious Buttery Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of milk

3/4 cup + 1 T sugar

1 egg

1 T salt

2 T yeast

2 cups of warm water

About 9-10 cups of all-purpose flour

At least 1 cup of butter

Directions:

Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of butter in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes.  

Add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be too hot to just dump the yeast straight in.  To cool it down, add 1 egg and 1 T of salt and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes.  Meanwhile, in a measuring cup, dissolve 2 T of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 T of sugar.  Let it sit for a couple of minutes until bubbly.  You can stir in 1-2 cups of flour to the milk/butter mixture to cool it down further.  Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling and add the yeast mixture.

Using a fork or a wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour.  Recommend doing 2 cups at a time.  At the end, the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir.  You can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour as needed.  Be sure not to add to much flour.  Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Leave it in a warm place and let it rise.

Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking.  Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls.  Eyeball the sizes.  Using one ball of dough at a time, roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter.  Once it's rolled out, spread the top with soft butter from edge to edge.  You will use about 2 T per circle of dough.

Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.  Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces.  You should get 12 pieces out of each circle - a total of 48 rolls.  Roll each triangle starting with the wide end.  Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on a buttered cookie sheet.  You will make 3 rows, with 8 rolls per row.  This will give you 24 rolls per pan.  Two balls of dough will fit 1 pan.  

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place the pans of rolls in a warm place (on top of the oven if possible) to let them rise.  Once they are touching and full in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven until they are golden brown.  About 10-15 minutes.  

While they are still hot, run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.

ENJOY!

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