Homemade Rolls

While we were on keto (and we’re starting again in January), I didn’t bake bread and even in early November when we started doing keto weekdays only, I wasn’t baking bread. For Thanksgiving, I baked homemade rolls and Vince loved them and hasn’t stopped asking for more since Thanksgiving. OK . . Thanksgiving was less than two weeks ago but I promised him I would make the rolls yesterday.

This is one of the best and easiest roll recipes I’ve ever made.

They are so good to slice in half, spread a little soft butter on each cut side, plop them down in a sizzling hot skillet and toast them. Then use them in a sandwich.

These rolls never go to waste at our house. Please excuse the cruddy looking pan. My nicer pan already had something in it. The pan is clean . . just needs to be cleaned up a little better.

Soft Yeast Rolls

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. instant acting yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 c. milk
1 tsp. salt
1 egg, whipped with a fork
4-1/2 cups flour
Cold butter for the tops

Directions:

• Sprinkle active dry yeast (NOT instant yeast) in 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve yeast.
• Pour milk into a small saucepan and heat til milk is scalded. Do not allow to boil. Add butter, sugar and salt. Stir until sugar/salt are dissolved.
• Pour milk mixture into a large bowl and let milk cool to about 110 degrees.
• Once the milk has cooled, add yeast mixture, egg and stir well.
• Mix the instant yeast with 3-1/2 cups flour. Stir into liquid mixture. It will be sticky and wet.
• Add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time until dough is the consistency to be hand kneaded. I usually add less than 1/2 cup more flour, making the total amount of flour added in almost 4 cups. If I add too much flour, I add just a bit of warm water – usually a tablespoon or two. It will be fine.
• Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Shape dough into a ball.
• Place dough in a well oiled bowl. I pour a bit of olive oil into a bowl, place the dough in the bowl, then flip the ball to get it all greased up.
• Cover the bowl (I cover with a plate) and let rise until doubled. The amount of time this takes totally depends on the temp in your kitchen. If my kitchen is in the 70 – 75 degree range, it takes about 1-1/2 hours.
• Punch dough down, knead a few times.
• Here’s where I get a bit anal. I know that 66 grams of dough makes a roll we like. Yesterday’s dough was 1140 grams so I got 17 rolls that were each close to 66 grams.
• Line either a 9 x 13 baking pan or a cookie sheet with buttered parchment paper and place the rolls on the parchment paper.
• Loosely cover (I use oiled plastic wrap). Leave room for the rolls to rise.
• Once they’ve risen to the appropriate size, make at 375 degrees til the tops are getting brown.
• I take them out of the oven, run a stick of cold butter over the tops, then put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes. If you have convection on your oven, use that but if not, just let them bake a few minutes and the tops will get nice and brown.