My great friend, Gayle Schaffer, makes the best yeast rolls ever. She's been visiting me from Virginia, and we decided to make these yeast rolls.
She told me she wanted to make them with me so that I could really get the feel for the process. And I'm so glad she was here, because it really is a process.
In the future, I will make this recipe a day ahead and reheat the rolls for my family holiday gatherings.
A six hour process.
You know it's going to be special when you deliberately spend
that long making it.
I also had to purchase a stand alone mixer,
which I've been wanting to buy for a long time.
Notice the hook connected to the mixer.
NOTE - First Gayle said, the kitchen needs to be very warm.
You don't want any drafts.
Ingredients
1 stick butter
2 cups whole milk
2 Packages Platinum Yeast by Red Star (the best) optional use Red Star Rapid Rise.
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
King Arthur's Bread Flour
Directions
Melt Milk and butter over medium heat until just warm.
Combine about 1/3 cup warm water (not hot) with the 2 yeast packets. Stir to dissolve.
Add yeast to warm milk and butter and set aside. No heat. It will look lumpy. Let the yeast foam up, about 20 minutes. With experience you can tell just by looking at it, when it's ready.
1 teaspoon salt, and 2 beaten eggs.
Add Warm butter, milk, and yeast to this mixture.
Using a stand alone mixer, with the bread hook, on a slow "2" speed, begin by adding 2 cups bread flour. Occasionally scrape the sides of the bowl. Increase mixer speed to a "3" speed. Continue adding flour 1 cup at a time. Approximately 5-7 cups total flour. We ran the mixer about 1 minute before adding additional flour.
Spread 1 cup flour on the counter and pour dough mixture out onto the flour, scraping the edges.
Do not wash this bowl. Butter all around the bowl, clear to the top. We'll use this bowl to let the dough rise.
Knead the dough adding a bit more flour, 1/2 to 1 cup, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Kneading hints - After pouring out on the counter, pull in a little flour when it gets sticky. Using the palm of your hand, knead this approximately 100 times. About 10 minutes. You'll feel it drawing up and becoming more elastic. Knead another 30 times. Dough should be very elastic by then. We did not use all the dough on the counter. Do not clean up the flour on the counter. We will continue to use it later.
Put dough in the buttered bowl. Roll it around the bowl a little to butter the dough, and cover with a tea towel. Set aside to rise, in your warm kitchen. Depending on the conditions inside, and even outside your house, will determine how long the dough takes to rise. It will take approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. to have the dough double in size. It took us every bit of 2 hours.
After the dough has doubled, it just fell out of the buttered bowl. Work the dough minimally again.
We divided the dough in half because we are going to make 2 kinds of rolls
Do not use anything on the baking pans. Not spray PAM or oil of any kind.
A Parkerhouse Roll - Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to desired thickness. Using a biscuit cutter or a thin rimmed glass, cut our a circle. Then stretch the dough just a little, fold it over once, and place on a light colored cookie sheet. We pinched the two sides together with a little flour, so they won't come apart while rising a second time. Now we will cover the rolls with a tea towel and set in a non-drafty area of the kitchen to let the rolls rise again. It will take another 1 or a little longer to double in size again.
Hot Rolls - We added the leftover dough from the cut out rolls to the second half of the dough, and kneaded gently again. We handled the dough delicately. Do not over work the dough. We are going to make balls with this dough, about a 2-inch round size. Don't press the dough together.
Using a light colored 9x13 pan, we placed the balls 3 across and 4 long. Cover with another tea towel, and allow to rise, doubled in size, about 1 hour. The same as the Parkerhouse rolls.
After the rolls have doubled again, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Do NOT use the Convection setting on your oven. Use the traditional oven setting.
Bake rolls approximately 12 minutes.
First picture here is before they rose. Second picture is out of the oven.
Gayle said to me a dozen times, "Do not open the oven door", as I watched them bake.
It smells SO GOOD in my kitchen!
ENJOY
Cinnamon Rolls
Roll out dough into a rectangle. Melt 1/2 to 3/4 of a stick of butter, and brush the inside of your dough. Mix Brown Sugar and Cinnamon in equal parts and sprinkle over melted butter.
Then Roll it up like a jelly roll, and pinch the dough together. Slice about 3/4 to 1 inch thick and place in a light colored 9x13 pan. Sprinkle left over cinnamon & sugar mixture evenly over top of rolls.
Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise until doubled in size.
Bake cinnamon rolls about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
No comments:
Post a Comment