Dinner Rolls

There's something about yeast that fears me. When it hears me speak of cinnamon buns, homemade bread, or anything else requiring its life, it shivers in its little baggy saying "Please not me! Please not me!" I think it fears a life wasted on bread that turns out like cinder blocks. Oh believe me, I think word has gotten around in the yeast community that I'm a "yeast killer". And thus, they perform even more poorly for me than they would have if they knew they would be baked into something beautiful.

In order to become a better housewife, and put yeast's fears at ease, I signed up for a bread baking class through church. Knowing that a sweet old lady would walk me through the process made me excited, even giddy. If a lady has been working the bread world for longer than I've been alive, I have a lot to learn from her. She gave us some great secrets, let me feel the dough to see what consistency it'd be, and even let us try some samples she'd made. I'd never seen rolls so light. EVER. They were fluffy and amazing. I knew this sister had to be an angel from Heaven.

So I got home, excited, motivated, and encouraged. I started going. And Going. And, I think we got it.

Not quite and fluffy as Mary's, but I'll take it as a first attempt. I practically accosted her in Relief Society today, saying "They didn't turn out quite so fluffy, what did I do?!" To which she sweetly replied, "Try more yeast. And have patience deary, you probably didn't let the dough rise long enough. It takes a while". This lady has known me 24 hours and already knows how impatient I am. Smart girl!
I rolled them into crescent shapes, although you can do them in several different ways. However you do your dinner rolls.
It yields about a dozen rolls, but you can double, triple, or quadruple the recipe to fit your hungry family's needs. We downed these within 12 hours. Yeah. Locke loved them the most though.

Here's the scoop:

Ingredients:

1/2 c hot water

1/4 c butter, softened

1 egg

2 c bread flour, mixed w/ 2 1/2 T powdered milk

2 T sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. yeast

Mix dry ingredients together (I asked her today, because her recipe was unclear, but you can mix ALL dry ingredients [yeast, sugar, salt, everything] together).

Sift & mix together with fork to lighten it. Mix together wet ingredients, and add flour mixture (I put about a 1/2 cup at a time into my mixer).

Pour onto floured surface, knead lightly adding just enough flour to make it not too sticky (here's where my issue came to pass. I was always adding WAY too much flour. As in, the dough wasn't sticky at all, had already absorbed to where it wouldn't take anymore flour, etc. This has the consistency of a "wrinkly elbow" as I once heard. It's still pretty sticky, but not to where it'll gum up your fingers). Knead into a ball, and let rise to double. Then punch it down, and allow it to rise again.

Pour onto floured surface, knead for a few minutes. Roll out into a circle (think pizza), about a 1/4" thick. Cut into 12 pieces (like a pizza pie!), then roll into crescent rolls(from big side to small side).

Place on cookie sheet and let rise for a while. I think this was also a fatal mistake. I should have let them rise for a little while.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Some tips I learned at the class:

-You want to keep your dough warm, unless you're refrigerating it. If you do refrigerate it, let it come to room temp before working with it. It makes it easier.

-Patience, child. I'm awful at patience. I need to work on that.

-Sometimes you just need a little more yeast. And love.

-Don't over flour. I do this. All. The. Time. I need to stop. And have a leap of faith.

-Dough enhancer is really great, especially for bread. I gotta get some of this.

-Bread flour is not the same as regular flour. It's worth the investment.

Try it out! You won't be disappointed. As Mary said yesterday, it's all about practice practice practice! If a yeast hater like me can do it, anyone can!