.dinner rolls.

Nothing's better than delicious homemade dinner rolls. I love the yeasty smell that wafts through my home while I'm making them. It makes me anxious to get them baked so I can pull one off and slather it with butter and chow down!



In a bowl, put 2 cups boiling water, 1/2 cup butter, and 1/2 cup sugar. Let the butter melt completely.









When this cools to where you can stick your finger in without burning yourself (about 120* F), add the yeast. 4 teaspoons of yeast to be precise. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes until the yeast gets all bubbly.









Add three eggs and 4 cups bread flour. Mix on medium speed. At this point, add 1 1/2 tsp salt and continue adding flour, one cup at a time until the dough starts pulling together and is no longer soft and sticky.













Pull from the bowl and knead on a floured counter until you have the desired texture. Spray the bowl you used with PAM and put the dough back in. Cover with a towel and let rise for an hour or until double in size.








When doubled, punch the dough down. Knead again for a minute.
















Pull pieces of dough and shape into a ball. You'll want to make them about the size of a large egg. You don't want them too big and you don't want them too small. You should easily fit 8 in a loaf pan.
















Once you finish balling up the dough. Put in sprayed bread pans and cover. Let them rise for about an hour or until the balls reach the top of the pan. Don't let them grow any bigger or else they will SPILL OVER when you bake them.

Preheat your oven to 400*. Put your pans in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 350* and let them finish cooking. Pull from oven when the tops are nice and golden brown.










Remove from the pans and let them cool on a baking rack. Don't let them cool in their pans because the steam will make them soggy on the bottoms.

This recipe makes 2 dozen rolls.

You can cut this recipe in half, or freeze the extra (freeze them right after you ball them and before the 2nd rising process).




Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_20frx5c7g7

.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!