Dinner Rolls to Die For
Here's a dynamite recipe for dinner rolls to go with dinner on Thanksgiving.
Some people think that making bread is difficult. It isn't, really. This recipe proves it. You are going to have mashed potatoes for thanksgiving, right? It just so happens that this is the first step to making your bread special. Boil up a batch of potatoes with the skins on. The recipe will work if you peel your potatoes, but will not be quite as tasty. Save the water the potatoes were boiled in. This will be the liquid you add to your bread mix. Have a thermometer handy, as you will need it to determine the temperature of the potato water. Follow the directions below to make this wonderful bread.
Ingredients
6 cups of all purpose flour or unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (This is optional. If you choose to use only while flour, add 1 cup to the above 6 cups).
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening
2 tablespoons of mashed potato without skin
2 packages regular or quick-acting active dry yeast
2 1/4 cups of potato water (120 to 130 degrees. This temperature is very important! Too much heat will kill the yeast and too little heat and the bread won't rise properly).
1/4-cup poppy or sesame seeds.
Mix 3 cups of the all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of the wheat flour with the sugar, salt, shortening, mashed potato and yeast in a large 4 quart or larger bowl. Add the warm potato water (use thermometer to check temperature) and beat on low speed, scraping the bowl frequently for one minute. Change mixer to medium speed and beat for one minute. Scrape the bowl frequently until all flour is mixed in. Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time while mixing. Start with the remaining wheat flour then add the white flour. When the dough is easy to handle, lightly flour your cutting board or other work surface and turn dough onto it. Knead until the dough is elastic- about ten minutes. Put into a greased 2 1/2 quart bowl. Turn greased side up and cover with a clean towel. Put in a warm place (not too warm!) and let rise until dough doubles its size. This takes about 40 to 60 minutes. Touch the dough. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready.
Punch the dough down and divide into halves. Let it rest for five minutes. Flatten each half with your hands or with a rolling pin. At this point you have a choice. You can either make all the dough into rolls; all of it into loaves or you can make one loaf and one batch of rolls. To make the loaves, flatten dough into a rectangle approximately 18x9 inches. Fold the 9-inch sides crosswise into thirds. Overlap the sides. Roll it up tightly toward you beginning with the open end. Pinch the sides together to make a seal. Do the same with the ends and put the loaf into an 8 1/2x 4 1/2x 4-1/2 inch greased loaf pan. I like to use glass pans, as they seem to work better. Brush with melted butter or margarine. Cover with clean towel and place back in warm place to rise for 40 minutes to an hour. To make rolls, flatten out the dough on lightly floured surface until it is about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick. Put a small amount of flour in a small bowl and choose a juice glass or shot glass (depending on the size of rolls you want) to stamp out the rolls. Dip glass into flour then stamp out rolls frequently dipping glass into flour to keep rolls from sticking inside glass. Place rolls into greased baking pan about 1/2 inch apart. Brush tops with butter or margarine. Cover with a clean towel and let rise for 40 minutes to an hour. Just before baking, dab a little melted butter on the tops of the rolls and loaves and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Gently press the seeds into the rolls.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place loaves on the low rack so that the tops are in the center of the oven. Bake until tops are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. The rolls and loaves are done when they sound hollow when tapped with the flat side of a butter knife. Remove loaves from pan and cool on wire rack. Remove rolls from pan and serve while still warm. Wrap them in a clean towel to keep them warm throughout the meal.