I love bread. All kinds of bread. Flat bread. Yeast bread. Quick bread. Toasted. Stale. All of it. Yum! My obsession with fresh, home-baked bread began over Thanksgiving. When we were assigning cooking duties I inquired about rolls.
Who was making the rolls? After we determined that somehow we’d overlooked the rolls my mom suggested we just make frozen store-bought ones. NO WAY! I wasn’t going to let that stand! So, I volunteered to make the rolls.
“Joni, those are so much work! Just let me do the frozen ones, after all, you’ve got a baby. You don’t have time to make rolls!”
After making it clear that I’d rather sacrifice a couple hours of sleep to make them from scratch than to eat frozen ones I think she got the point. I began searching the internet for a roll recipe that would work. I came across this Sweet Dinner Rolls recipe on Allrecipes and decided it was a good place to start. Unfortunately, it was written for use in a bread machine which I do not have (mine was part of the kitchen purging that happened when we moved). Knowing full well that people made bread long before bread machines I looked up the procedure for dinner rolls in the internet and came up with this:
SWEET DINNER ROLLS
1/2 cup warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F)
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/4 tsp sugar (for blooming the yeast)
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, divided
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tsp salt
Pour yeast and sugar into cup of warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes. You should notice a foam on top of the water after a few minutes and a pleasant bread smell. This indicates your yeast is alive and ready to help your bread rise.
While yeast is blooming put flour, sugar, one egg, butter, milk and salt in a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. If using stand mixer attach dough hook. Add yeast into the bowl and knead on medium slow or with your hands or sturdy spoon until the dough comes together. Dough should be slightly sticky. Turn out onto a clean countertop dusted with flour and knead with hands adding flour as needed for 6-8 minutes or until dough becomes slightly stiff and is no longer sticky.
Spray the mixing bowl with non-stick spray and place the dough ball in the bottom. Spray more non-stick spray on top of the dough, cover with a tea towel and place in a warm place to rise for one hour or until dough doubles in size.
Punch down dough and turn out onto counter. Knead lightly to redistribute bubbles. Divide into 16 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place into a greased 9” x 11” baking plan and spray with non-stick spray. Place in a warm place and allow to rise for a half hour.
Make an egg wash by beating the remaining egg with one tablespoon of water and brush on the rolls. Heat oven to 375 degrees F and bake rolls for 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
They turned out great. My family raved about them and I became the official holiday roll baker. And I’m totally okay with that! My roll success has led me on several other baking adventures.
Yesterday, I turned this recipe into a loaf by substituting half the all-purpose flour for bread flour. Once the dough finished its first rise I put it in a square cake pan and let it complete its second rise.
I brushed it with an egg wash and baked it until it was golden.
It makes a very nice and tender white bread perfect for sandwiches. Yum!
STORAGE
For long-term bread storage I wrap my bread in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator, straight in the crisper drawer. Yes, I know everyone says putting bread in the fridge makes it stale faster BUT with the drawer set on high humidity I’ve had good luck keeping the bread soft and mold-free. I’ve kept bread relatively fresh for 10 days using this method. Just a slight toast and it’s ready to go!
