Rolls 101!

Rolls are one of my favorite things to make and to eat! There is nothing better than a warm roll right out of the oven smothered in homemade jam! I have had so many people tell me they were too scared to make rolls. I am here to ease your fears. With this recipe, you will bedazzle all of your friends and family. Once you see how easy it is, you will be volunteering to make rolls for your Thanksgiving feast! Here goes. . .

1 Tbs. yeast

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup warm water

Put these three ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir them until the sugar and yeast are dissolved. Let them sit for a few moments until they begin to foam. It should look something like this. See the bubbles?

1/2 cup (1 cube) melted butter (do not, I repeat do not use margarine)

1 cup milk

3 eggs

Crack eggs into a small bowl and mix together. In another small bowl, melt your butter in the microwave. Once it is melted, pour the milk into the bowl with the butter and mix them together. Then, pour the milk and butter mixture into the eggs and mix all three together. Pour this mixture into the foaming yeast and mix. Now it should look something like this.

3/4 tsp. salt 5 1/2 cups flour

Add the salt and the flour and mix all of the ingredients together until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Now it should look something like this.
The dough will be a little sticky. Take it out of the bowl and knead it for a few minutes until it forms a smooth ball. For those of you who don't really know how to knead, I will try to explain it as well as I can. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and shape it into a vertical blob as seen below. Form your hand into a fist and apply pressure to the bottom of the vertical blob.
Place your other hand at the top of the vertical blob and bring it towards you as if you are folding it. Remove your hand just before the dough folds down on top of it. Bring the dough forward until you have a horizontal blob. Rotate the dough so that it is vertical again and begin the process over. It becomes quick and natural after a few tries and then you won't even have to think about it. I hope those instructions make sense. I have never tried to explain the process of kneading to anyone! Kneading the dough helps to get some air moving into it and enables the yeast to start doing it's job. Once the dough is nice and smooth, shape it into a ball and place it into a bowl that you have sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover the bowl with a lid or some plastic wrap and set it on your counter. Allow the dough to sit for about three hours, or until it is double in size. Once the dough is double in size, dump it out onto your counter and roll it into a circle with a rolling pin. The dough should be about 1/4 inch in thickness. You don't want it to be too thick or your rolls will be huge! As you can see, it doesn't have to be a perfect circle!
Melt about 1/2 a cube of butter in the microwave and pour it onto your circle. Spread it over the whole circle with a pastry brush, or an unused paint brush, or a spoon, or whatever you have! Cut the circle like you would a pizza with a pizza cutter.I was able to cut 16 triangles out of my cirlce.Beginning at the wide end, roll each triangle up to form a crescent roll.
Place the rolls on a greased cookie sheet with the seemed side down. The ends can be touching a little bit, but leave about 1/2 inch between your rows. Let rise again until the rolls are double in size, about 2-3 hours. If you are in a hurry, you can always turn your oven on and put the rolls on top of the warm oven to help them rise faster.
Place in a 375 degree preheated oven and bake for 10-13 minutes until golden brown. Take out of the oven and brush the tops with some butter so they are nice and shiny and -Ta-Da, you have beautifully delicious rolls.
See how easy that was! The one negative thing about rolls is that you have to have time to let them rise twice. I make them almost every Sunday and let the dough rise while I am at church and then I just have to roll them out and let them rise once more before dinner. It is definitely worth the wait. If anyone tries making these for the first time, I want to hear about it! Good Luck!