Dinner Rolls

In the past, my homemade dinner rolls have always turned out okay, but not very impressive. Like not good enough that I’d be confident sharing the recipe with other people. But today was a whole other story. These rolls were a-maz-ing. As you can see below, I divided the recipe’s instructions into 10 steps, but really it’s a very simple, easy recipe. I wish I could just cut open one of these rolls, spread some butter on there and feed you through the computer, but technology hasn’t advanced that way yet… so give the recipe a try and I hope you enjoy these delicious dinner rolls!

Dinner Rolls Recipe

Ingredients (yields about 24 rolls):

• 1 1/2 C. milk
• 1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1/2 C. granulated sugar
• 1 package (about 2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast
• 1/2 C. warm water
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 6 C. bread flour (plus more as needed. I probably used about 7 1/2 C. total)
• about 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• optional: a little salted butter to spread on top after the rolls come out of the oven and maybe a little more to spread in the middle of them while eating.

Instructions:

1. Place milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer (stir frequently with whisk so milk doesn’t burn). Stir in the cubes of butter and the sugar. Remove from heat and let cool a bit.
2. Combine warm water and yeast in a bowl. Stir and let sit for a few minutes until frothy. (You don’t want the water too hot or too cold. Mine was on the too-cold side so the yeast wasn’t reacting and getting frothy. The save? I set the bowl (glass bowl) right next to the burner I had just turned off (from warming the milk). It got nice and frothy in a couple minutes. Whew!)
3. Crack eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and beat lightly with a spoon. When the milk/butter/sugar mixture is cool enough to not scramble the eggs, pour it into the mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and stir everything together.
4. Stir in flour, one cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the bowl. Gently knead the dough, adding flour as needed so it’s not too sticky.
5. Lift the giant dough ball up and put about 1 Tbsp. olive oil in the bowl and rub it onto the edges of the bowl. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a clean dish cloth, and let rise for about 1 hour in a warm place (until size is about doubled).
6. Punch down dough. If there is extra oil on the dough, you can sprinkle a little more flour to absorb the liquid.
7. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. If you use foil, spray the foil with cooking spray. Place 24 dough balls on the baking sheet (try making the dough balls all about the same size so they cook evenly).                                          
8. Cover dough with the clean dish cloth again and let rise another hour or so in a warm place.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove dish cloth and bake rolls for 15-20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.                                            
10. Remove from oven and brush/spread a little salted butter on top.

We served these rolls with a salad and a yummy mixture of ground beef, onion, garlic, green bell pepper, a can of diced tomatoes, a little salt and some Italian Seasoning. It was a delicious meal! You can store the leftover rolls in a Ziploc freezer bag at room temperature. The next day we used them as sandwich rolls. Yum!

*Inspired by THIS recipe.