Homemade Rolls

Another food that is often store-bought instead of homemade are rolls. For some reason a lot of people find bread making difficult and time consuming. While this recipe does take a decent amount of prep, a lot of the time is spent just letting the rolls rise, and you can be working on other recipes while you wait.

The only problem I had with this recipe is I just could not get the rolls to cook through when they were all bunched up together in the pan. I ended up having to separate the rolls and cover them (so they wouldn't get too brown) and finish cooking them in batches. This took a significant amount of time but the rolls turned out perfectly, and I had tons of compliments on them at Thanksgiving. My sister requested I bring these for our Christmas party, too.

Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm milk

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons salt

7 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed (I used a bit more)

1/2 cup butter, melted (omitted - use this if you're going to brush the tops with butter after cooking and serve immediately)

Directions:
Pour milk into a large mixing bowl, and sprinkle yeast over the surface. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Beat in the sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup butter, and salt; blend thoroughly. Gradually stir in the flour to make a soft dough. Cover bowl, and set in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.Punch down the dough, cover the bowl, and allow to rise again. Repeat this step two more times.

Break off 2 to 3 inch size pieces of dough, roll lightly into round shape, and place in prepared baking dish, edges touching. Repeat to make 36 dough balls (**I only got 29 rolls**). Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake rolls in preheated oven until tops turn golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.