In Knead of Dough...

This past year I have been thinking back to my childhood and remembering the wonderful rolls my mother used to make. Mom never told us when she was going to make rolls or bread, we would just come home from school to find the dining room table filled with her wonderful rolls and loaves of bread. It was usually the first warm, sunny day in April. She would have soft butter and homemade strawberry jam waiting for us to slather on the rolls. All this left me and my siblings sighing as though we had gone to heaven.

My Mother was from Kentucky, and was a great Southern cook. I learned to cook a lot of recipes from my mom by hanging out in the kitchen when I was growing up, but one thing I never learned to make was my mother's rolls. The reason for this is because my mother only made bread dough when I was at school. Maybe she thought rising dough was too delicate a matter, and didn't want kids underfoot. Really, I am not sure and I never seriously thought about it until recently. I think perhaps this has something to do with my fear of baking with yeast, I was never instructed how to do it properly.

In my quest to to replicate that wonderful flavor, I've tried to use frozen dough, and even bought a bread machine, but they both were lacking that homemade taste and texture. Along with the yeasty flavor, my mother's rolls and bread had more of a yellow color and a salty taste, which was lacking in the white breads I've tasted.

As luck would have it, a few weeks ago I came across a recipe for "Mom's Rolls" while browsing For the Love of Cooking blog. I wondered if these rolls could be similar to the rolls my mother made. After reading the recipe, I wasted no time trying it out.

What I like most about the recipe is that it is made in the bread machine using the dough cycle, then allowed to rise on a cookie sheet, and finally is baked in the oven. I knew I could do that, so here is my "Mom's Roll" success story...

My first try : )

Mom's Dinner Rolls

Adapted from: For the Love of Cooking

1 cup of water

2 tbsp of butter, softened

1 egg (hold under warm water before breaking it)

3 1/4 cup of bread flour

1/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tsp regular active dry yeast

Place all dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Select the dough cycle and press start. Once the bread machine stops (it was one and a half hours on my machine).

(I added this step from my bread machine directions as the dough was too sticky coming out of the breadmachine.)
Lightly sprinkle all-purpose flour onto a pastry mat or board. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, remove dough from the bread pan and place on lightly floured surface. Knead by hand 2-3 times* to release the air.

Grease a cookie sheet. Divide dough into 15 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Brush with butter** then cover with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place 30 to 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

* For more of a bread-like texture to use as buns, knead for about a minute to get the air out of the dough.
** I sprayed the 2nd and 3rd batch I made with cooking spray before rising, and brushed with butter right after they came out of the oven.


This is my try at this recipe and the stages just before they go in the oven

This is the first batch of rolls I made. In the left picture the rolls have dimples because I had to pop the big air bubbles that formed when I didn't knead the dough. For the 2nd and 3rd batch I made, I kneaded the dough as stated above and didn't have that problem.

Well if you are wondering if these rolls are just like my mom's, not exactly, but I love them anyway. These rolls are really delicious and make a nice all-purpose roll. I use them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They don't have preservatives, so toasting or grilling them after a few days keeps 'ems soft when making a sandwich. These rolls can be frozen and taken out before needed to keep them fresh for a longer period of time. They also make great mini panini sandwiches when they are a day or two old.

I hope this recipe inspires those of you who have a bread machine gathering dust on a shelf.  Give this recipe a try, you won't regret it...really!