Dinner Rolls

This is my favorite roll recipe.  I had to quit making them for a while because I just eat too many when they are done.  Well, I have to try one before I serve them to anyone else, right?  And then I have to have a couple with dinner and before you know it, I am being rolled out of the dinning room.  I really should just call it the table area, dinning room is a stretch.

If you have a bread maker or a stand mixer, it really isn't too hard, just a little time consuming. 

My first bread maker was a West Bend. It made me fall in love with bread makers.  I got a new one for Christmas one year and gave the West Bend away, but this recipe, from the instruction manual, remains a favorite.  (It's slightly adapted.)  You can use this in your bread maker, or if you want a larger batch, you can use your stand mixer.  I guess if you are really adventurous you could just use your bare hands.

Dinner Rolls
Ingredients:
2 T milk then fill measuring cup with hot water* to 1 cup
3 T butter, melted
3 1/2 T sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour (I have used bread flour and all purpose, either one works well.)
1.5 tsp rapid rise yeast**
4 T butter (for drizzle before baking)

Directions:
Bread maker instructions:  Check your instruction manual because sometimes it might say to put the ingredients in differently.  But as a general rule, put all liquid ingredients into the pan with sugar, then put flour and salt in pan.  Make a well in the center, right over the mixing instrument, and add yeast.  Turn machine on to dough setting.

Mixer instructions:  Add wet ingredients to bowl, add yeast and sugar.  Let sit about 5 minutes or until yeast is dissolved and foamy.  Add 1 cup of flour and the salt and mix for 2-3 minutes w/ paddle attachment until smooth.  Change to dough hook and add remaining flour a little at a time until all incorporated.  Place in greased bowl and cover and let rest for about an hour or until double in size.

**You can used just active dry yeast if you don't have rapid rise.   Increase to 2 tsp.  If you are using a breadmaker, add liquid ingredients to pan with sugar and yeast, let sit 5 mintues until foamy, then add the rest of the ingredients and turn machine one.  For mixer, add water (w/ milk), butter and yeast to bowl, cover with sugar and let sit for 5 minutes until foamy then continue with recipe.  If yeast doesn't get "foamy" then their is either something wrong with the yeast or the water temperature was too hot.

Shaping:  When break maker is done, or dough has raised for an hour, dump out onto lightly floured surface and let rest for 15 minutes.  After that, roll dough out into a circle (about 14 inches).  Use a pizza cutter to cut into "pizza looking slices"

Once cut, start rolling from the wider end to the small end.  Place on greased baking sheet, cover with greased plastic wrap and let rest until double in size (about 1 hour).  They will look about like this after an hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 4 T of butter and drizzle over rolls.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

This makes about 12-16 rolls, depending on how many pizza slices you cut.  You can freeze left overs and reheat in oven for quick rolls!

*Let's talk water temperature.  Most bread recipes call for water/milk to be around 100-110 degrees, and I agree.  I just think water temperature is a hard thing to gauge.  It helps me when I think that a hot tub is about 100-104 degrees and that's the temperature you want the water/milk/butter to be after it has hit the cold mixing bowl/bread pan.