Buttery Dinner Rolls

DELICIOUS BUTTER DINNER ROLLS

Adapted from:  How Does She

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups of warm water
• about 9-10 cups of 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.  Cutting the butter into small pieces will help it melt faster.  There will probably be some little cubes of butter floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.

Add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be TOO HOT to just dump the yeast straight in. (It would kill the yeast)  To cool it down, add 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon of salt, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes.

PREPARE THE YEAST:

Meanwhile, in a measuring cup dissolve 2 Tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 Tablespoon of sugar.  Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly.

You can stir in 1-2 cups of flour to the milk/butter mixture to cool it down even further.  Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling before adding the yeast mixture!

Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of total flour.  I would recommend only adding 2 cups at a time and stirring in between.  These rolls turn out so much better when they are mixed by hand.  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 if needed.  Be sure not to add too much flour.  Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Leave it in a warm place and let rise until dough has doubled in size.

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 then lift them up and feel the weight of each ball.  Try to make them even, but they don’t have to be perfect.  Using one ball of dough at a time; roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter about 1/4″ thick.  Once it is rolled out spread the top with soft butter from edge to edge.  You will use about 2 Tablespoons per circle of dough….or more.

Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.  Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces.  You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.  Roll each triangle starting with the wide end.  Tuck the tail of the triangle underneath the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet.  Using a large cookie sheet, you will place 3 rolls across and I place 7 rolls down.  Next time, I will probably only place 6 rows down, since they hold there shape better.

Note:  The original recipe says to place 3 rows across and 8 rows down.  You would have a total of 24 rolls per pan.  You could also use this method if you like.  I used 2 large cookie sheets and one half sheet. You should have a total of 48 rolls.

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 until double in size.

Note:  If you are in a Big hurry, you can pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees……TURN THE OVEN OFF . . . then place the rolls into the warm oven to rise.  Make sure you have them covered with clean towels while they are in the oven.  You don’t want the dough to dry out!  It doesn’t take long, using this method.   You must make sure to pre-heat the oven to the lowest temperature possible then turn the oven OFF, before placing the rolls inside the warm oven….covered!

Once the rolls are double in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven till they are golden brown.  Make sure the bottom of the roll is lightly browned as well as the top.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on the first pan to get the right time for the second pan.

While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls, or use a pastry brush.

EAT – YUM!