Lion House Dinner Rolls

Last week Danell taught us how to make these delicious rolls and gave us some tips on working with yeast. Thanks Danell, it was great! Here's some of the tips and recipe she shared:

Don't those look yummy?!

When you buy a new package of yeast, test it first to be sure the yeast is still "alive" (kinda creepy huh?). Get very warm water (hot but still touchable) and sprinkle a little yeast and sugar on top. Stir gently and wait for it to froth like the pic above. If it doesn't don't bother spending hours trying to make bread, it won't work. Store your yeast in a container in the freezer and it will last forever. Danell (and many professional bakers) use SAF Instant yeast.

Danell uses dough enhancer to make her breads even better. Maybe someone can leave a comment to remind me the benefits of adding this. Sorry I guess I was more worried about the visual than the info.

When you knead your dough you'll keep adding flour and mixing until your dough starts to pull off the sides of the mixer and ball up a little but will still be moist and kind of sticky.

Lion House Dinner Rolls
2 cups warm water (110-115 F)
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk
2 Tbs active dry yeast
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
1/3 c butter, shortening, or margarine
1 egg
5-5 1/2 c all-purpose flour or bread flour
1/2 c butter, melted

In lrg bowl of an electric mixer, combine water and dry milk pwdr, stirring until milk dissolves. Add yeast, then sugar, salt, butter, egg, and 2 c of flour. Mix on low speed until ing are wet. Increase mixer speed to med and mix for 2 min. Add 2 c flour; mix on low speed until ing are wet, then for 2 min at med speed. (Dough will be getting stiff, and remaining flour may need to be mixed in by hand). Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix again until dough is soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff. (It is not necessary to use the entire amt of flour).
Scrape dough off sides of bowl and pour about one Tbs of weg oil; work oil all around sides of bowl. Turn dough over in bowl so it is covered with oil (this helps prevent dough from drying out). Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hour (Danell turms her oven on it's lowest setting long enough to get the oven warm and puts the dough in there). Sprinkle cutting board or counter with flour and place dough on floured board. Roll out and shape as desired. Place on greased or m=parchment-lined baking pans. Cover lightly with l=plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until rolls are doubled in size, about 1- 1 1/2 hours.
Bake at 375 F for 13-20 min or until browned. Brush with melted butter while hot. Serve with honey butter. Makes 1 1/2-3 doz.
Note: You can freeze shaped rolls for later use. Simply double the amount of yeast used when making dough. After the first rise, shape the rolls but do not rise again. Place the rolls on a baking sheet and immediately place in freezer. When dough is frozen solid, remove rolls and place in plastic bag, squeeze air out and seal. Rolls can be frozen for 3 weeks.

Please leave a comment with your own tips or e-mail me a recipe you'd like to share.