.comfort food is good for the soul.

Yesterday it was so dark and rainy and yucky. When it gets like that, I crave comfort food. One of my favorite comfort foods is pot roast so I thought I would make that for dinner! When I was at the store picking up a few items for this week's meals, I spotted Rhodes rolls in the freezer section. I knew I wanted rolls with dinner but didn't think I had enough time to make them myself. Well, it was going to take 3-5 hours just for those thing! I decided to make my own.

I have this cookbook...bought it about 16 years ago. I was working as a receptionist and this girl came in selling books/cookbooks. It looked pretty good and it has been one of my absolute FAVORITES! I'd link you to where you can buy it online, but it's no longer in publication. Anyway, there'sa roll recipe in it that I've been curious to try. They're Oatmeal Molasses rolls. Interesting, huh? I thought so too! Here's the recipe:

In a bowl, put 2 cups oats (I used quick oats) and 1/4 cup butter. Pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water on top of them and set aside until the butter is melted.

In a mixing bowl, put 1/2 cup warm water and 2 pkgs yeast (4 1/2 tsp). Let proof 10 minutes. Add the oat/butter mixture along with 1 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 cups bread flour, 1/3 cup molasses, and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Mix using a dough hook. Add more flour until dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides and bottom of bowl. Dump out onto floured surface and knead in more flour, stopping when dough is no longer tacky.



Spray your mixing bowl with Pam and put the dough in and let rise until double. The dough was pretty sticky after that rise and I needed to knead in a little more flour before shaping into small balls. The aroma was wonderful! Pull dough apart and work into balls. Put in a sprayed bread pan. Do this until the dough is all balled up. Cover pans until double in size.





Preheat oven to 375* and bake risen rolls for 20-25 minutes or until nice and golden brown on top.

After sampling more than I really needed to, I have to say they were AMAZING. They are really moist and a little sweet from the brown sugar. Very tasty. Jim gives them 2 thumbs up!