Hot Buns

Easy Homemade Rolls

I am giddy to announce my first ever guest blogger today! My good friend Marty from Marty Andry's Blogspot (who's culinary skills put mine to shame) will be sharing a tried and true family recipe that is a real stunner. I love having a guest blogger on because it gives you readers a chance to see a recipe that I wouldn't normally gravitate towards. This recipe comes just in time for Thanksgiving (I thought I would just be making Pillsbury Crescents...not anymore!). So without further ado, here's Marty:

Thank you, Girl from Scratch, for liking my food enough to give me a guest spot!

I love the recipes here because they don’t require a lot of special ingredients or a degree from a culinary school.

Today I’m offering the dinner roll recipe that has been in my family for years.  I learned to make bread from my grandma (still alive at 101!) who made bread every morning.  I used to think it was magic and that some people just can’t make bread. I don’t believe that anymore and this recipe will prove it.  It's easy, requires minimal ingredients and you don’t need any magic for this.  You don’t even need to knead it.  Here goes and I hope you enjoy my family recipe!

Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls

Cast of Characters: active dry yeast, warm water,  salt, eggs, sugar, oil, all-purpose flour.

Dissolve yeast in water and stir with a fork, add sugar, oil and beaten eggs. Mix. In another bowl, mix salt and flour, then combine everything in one bowl stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until everything is incorporated.

This recipe doesn’t call for kneading.  But the bread will have a better texture if you knead it a little after the dough is formed.  Knead it on a floured surface until it is smooth and elastic.

Generously grease a large bowl. Put the dough into the greased bowl and cover with cling wrap.

Let rise in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

Punch dough down to remove air bubbles.

Then cut into equal size pieces. Should be about 16.

A palm-sized ball makes the perfect roll!

Place on baking sheet with parchment paper and cover with cling wrap. (Tip: to keep cling wrap from sticking, spray with cooking spray.) Let them rise until doubled for about an hour.

This is what they look like when they are ready to bake.

This is what they look like when done! Try not to eat all of them when they are fresh and hot right out of the oven. (But do try one with a nice slab of butter!)

Recipe Ingredients and Measurements: 

2 packages active dry yeast

1 cup warm (not hot water)

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

3.5 cups all purpose flour

Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Notes:  This is the original recipe that everyone in my family uses.  However, 2 packages of yeast are too much.  I would do it the original way a couple of times until you have confidence that you can do it.  But after that, use only one package.  It's enough, and the flavor is better.  You can also decrease the sugar (or omit it) and use honey.

Thanks for having me *Girl From Scratch, and I hope all of you enjoy my family's rolls around your holiday table this season.

Cheers,

Marty

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So you can see that this recipe isn't difficult, but it's not exactly fast either. I can see myself making this on my next day off when I'm piddling around the house doing chores, laundry, emails and other things. When I ate these roll with Marty last weekend he sprinkled the tops with herbs de' provence, it was so good! Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, even fennel would also be nice additions. Let me know what you think about getting back to basics with this fantastic homemade bread recipe.