Soft & Scrumptious Rolls!

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You could be just 90 minutes away from these crazy delicious rolls in your very own kitchen.

Wait! You can do it!

Before you turn away, thinking bread is not your thing and that you don’t have the skills to tackle this, please know I taught 4, 11 year old rambunctious boys to make these rolls a couple years ago! True! They are that easy! So make today the day! You can do this!!

These friends of my son were astonished at how easy it is to make these rolls! It was a summer day and the boys had been to my house often enough and feasted on these rolls gushing over their deliciousness. (Made only better by Strawberry Freezer Jam!) I thought I would demystify bread making for them and help them become heroes in their home! We made the rolls together, and then they went home and made them for their families! If you keep a decently stocked pantry you probably already have the few ingredients, the only wild cards for a small pantry are yeast and dry milk-which are easy to buy.

Wait til you smell them! I’ve always loved how homemade goods radiate a scrumptious aroma while baking. It’s medicinal! It just speaks of comfort and for a few minutes everything can feel at peace in the world. Picture the faces of your family when they walk into your home and are greeted with that aroma. Mmm–hmmm! It just intones beautiful phrases like: “you are loved” and “Welcome home to yumminess!”

Well this recipe is a great place to start for newbies to bread making and anyone who just loves delicious bread: Easy-Peasy-8-ingredient-90-minutes til you’re done rolls. (This includes the one hour rising time–yep–easy!) I’ve been making rolls for years, and this is still my go-to recipe.

My friend shared this recipe with me a million years ago, (maybe 16). She got it out of her automatic bread maker guide several years before that. (Anyone still have one?) Now I share this goodness with you. For me it was easier to see them being made for a few minutes while we chatted, so I knew what to imitate. I will try to recreate that cozy tutoring for you.

Ideally you have a Bosch Mixer or a Kitchen Aid, but do not fear if you must knead by hand, you can also do that, it is sticky, but worth the effort! A big ol wooden spoon is good for tackling this. My college age kiddos have made this dough by hand many times. We have gifted these rolls to neighbors, teachers, soccer coaches and etc. Almost always people shortly thereafter ask for the recipe. Yep, they are that yummy.

Each Batch makes about 12 rolls, or one cookie sheet full of fresh bread. I often make a double batch, so we can have rolls with our dinner and then the kids & hubby can take the remaining rolls in their lunches the next day. When company comes, I generally make a triple batch and so on. This recipe is super adaptable. 🙂

Okay if you are adept at recipes and making bread, here’s the recipe. For those of you who would prefer a few more instructions, I have added those below the recipe. Good Luck! I can smell them already! Mmmmm!

Would you like to see this same roll recipe make amazing fry bread? Check it out! 🙂

Here’s a little extra help if you are new to making bread or rolls:

Step 1: Activating the yeast. Start with a medium to large sized bowl, (maybe 5 qt.+) Pour 1 cup barely warm water into the bowl, then dump 1 tablespoon yeast into the water, so the yeast can start doing it’s magic! Also add the 1/4 cup sugar. Sugar helps the yeast to start activating and expanding. (There is some debate out there on sugar and yeast, but for this recipe let’s just embrace the sugar helping the yeast along–yea!) You actually have time to run and check on the kids or send off a couple text messages while the yeast is doing it’s thing. 2-4 minutes.

Ok! You are doing fine! Don’t overthink this!

Step 2: Mix up the ingredients! Collect all the rest of your ingredients and add them to the water, sugar and yeast. That’s right, the 1/4 cup dry milk, 1/4 cup butter (if mixing by hand slightly melted butter is better), 1 egg, 3 level cups of flour and 1/2 Tablespoon of salt. If you are working with a Bosch or a Kitchen Aid, put all those ingredients in, add the lid or the splash guard and set it to mixing on low to medium. Let it mix and knead for around 10 minutes allowing the gluten to form. (The protein in grain that becomes the elasticity of the dough). If you are mixing by hand-get busy, this can be a mini work-out. Hand kneaders first mix the ingredients to form a dough and then knead, knead, knead, so the the gluten can form. (You can use the wooden spoon inside the bowl, or your clean hands!)

Step 3: Kneading the dough! This is a sticky dough, but it still should be able to pull away from the bowl! So the trick is to add enough flour but not so much that the rolls become stodgy. (Super thick and hard to rise). You can go gang busters with the 3 level cups of flour, and sometimes on a rainy day, I might add a couple tablespoons more of flour to compensate for the moisture in the air. I determine this by how the dough is pulling from the sides of the bowl. The good news is, you have enough leeway that there is little chance for mistake. Even the mistakes are fairly tasty! Keep kneading!

Step 4: Shape the Rolls! Okay the dough has been mixed for 10 minutes by machine or hand. It’s looking good–smooth and combined, but sticky enough to make soft rolls. Now with your cookie sheets on the counter close by, add a silpat to each cookie sheet, or spray the pan with cooking spray so the rolls won’t stick. I also sometimes spray my hands because I’m about to wrangle the dough. With your hands buttered or sprayed grab a hand full of dough–yep, just go for it. Roll it in your hands making a somewhat spherical shape, a round ball the size of a medium to large lime. The size can vary on these rolls, just try to make them somewhat uniform size to each other for even cooking. (Don’t overthink it! It’s not about perfection!) Place your rolled dough on the cookie sheet. Sweet! Do it again, grab some dough, roll it into a ball and place it on the cookie sheet. Leave a bit of space for rising around each ball, (kind of like cookie spacing).

Step 5: Let the Dough Rise! After you have all the rolls rolled into their round shape you need to cover them so the dough does not dry out while it is rising. You have a couple options here. For years I sprayed cooking spray on plastic wrap and then covered the rolls. This works great. Nowadays, I simply instead use a large cotton tea towel (not terry cloth, just smooth, light cotton) to cover the rolls. This is amazingly simple and also works great. You can dust the tea towel with a light coating of flour if the rolls feel especially sticky today. Now walk away. Set a reminder on your phone to come peek at them in an hour or so, or set your kitchen timer for 60 minutes. If it is summer and you live in a toasty place, you can let the rolls proof on the covered cookie sheets in the garage, the heat will help the rolls proof faster. Or if you are in a hurry and have a proof setting on your oven, then you can go that path as well. Lots of options. Regardless, you should be off the cooking clock for awhile while the rolls are approximately doubling in size.

Step 6: Bake those little balls of deliciousness. When your rolls have grown sufficiently that they are ready to be baked, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. They will continue to rise in the oven. These rolls bake quickly in about 10 minutes! Give them 2 minutes to cool, brush a little butter on top if you like and take a luscious bite! You will have 15 minutes of fame in your family today when they join you in this yumminess.

Congrats! Smell that goodness and pat yourself on the back for bringing some home baked love to the table today! Make sure to mark this recipe, so when your family clamors for more you know where to find it! 🙂