Monday, November 12, 2007

Homemade Delicious Frugal Rolls

I've promised this recipe for a while. It consistently makes the lightest, fluffiest rolls imaginable. They're extremely cheap to make. My family loves them. And they have absolutely no redeeming nutritional value. At all.

Start with 1 ½ cups (minus 2 Tablespoons) water


Add 2 Tablespoons of milk to the water (this is what makes it really soft).


Next, add 2 Tablespoons of real butter to the water/milk.


Microwave to just knock chill off. I do it for 45 seconds. Your time may vary depending on the strength of your microwave. Then put it in the bottom of your breadmaker.**


Then add 4 cups of bread flour. I buy mine by the 25# sacks at Sam's for just over $5. I've learned in making bread that it's important to measure accurately. You need the type of measuring cups that you can scrape off the top. It's what makes the bread consistent.


Just dump the flour on top of the wet ingredients.


Sprinkle about 2 Tablespoons of powdered milk on top of the flour.
Sprinkle 2½ Tablespoons of white sugar on top of the flour.
Sprinkle 1½ teaspoons of salt on top of the flour.


This is a big bag of yeast. I buy them in the bulk 2-pack containers at Sam's. Once I open one of the vacuum sealed bags, I pour it into a ziplock bag and freeze it. I use the yeast directly from the freezer. It takes me months and months to use 1 full bag and it still works fine at the very end. Please don't pay full price for those little packets. It's makes the price insane.


Make an indentation in the dry mixture and pour 2½ teaspoons of yeast into it.


Put the pan in the breadmaker and press the dough cycle.


It takes my dough cycle about an hour and a half. As it's getting ready to beep that it's done with the dough cycle, line a pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.


Then once the dough cycle is done, I pull out the wad of dough and put it on a zeroed out scale. Mine consistently is right at 1000 grams.


I cut off appr. 50*** grams of dough at a time and shape it into a roll. The reason I weigh it is because I'm not at all good with eyeballing it. And they will cook inconsistently if they're not close to the same size. This recipe makes a really big pan full. If this process looks tedious, let me assure you that I can now get it from big dough ball to "rolls ready to rise" in about 5-6 minutes, including clean up time.


Cover the rolls with a towel or a couple of paper towels and rise them for one hour. The absolute best place to rise rolls, imho, is in the oven with just the light on. This is an electric oven of course. After an hour, they've doubled in size.


Pull them out of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Bake for appr. 10 minutes. Immediately remove to a cooking rack so the bottoms don't get soggy.


Can ya smell them? :)


**If your breadmaker instructs you to put the dry ingredients in first, then do it. My breadmaker instructions say to put the wet ingredients in first.

***This makes traditional dinner roll size rolls. This is also a good white hamburger bun recipe, but the size of the rolls needs to be doubled.

15 comments:

Andrea Maddiex said...

I am SOOOO LOVING this recipe! This is great, I was just looking for a good hamburger roll recipe. Perfect! Thank You!! :)

Anonymous said...

Mmmmm yummy! I'am going to do this for sure! Only I don't have a scale like that, just a postal scale that measures in pounds and ounces. So how many rolls do you end up with?

Carrie J said...

Excellent tutorial. It must have taken awhile to make all the pictures. I will definitely try the recipe because they look delicious.

My name is Michelle. said...

Andrea, if you make them, let me know how they turn out!

Beth, thank you! And any scale should do. This scale also measures in pounds and ounces, but I just can't remember if I've ever used it to measure the rolls! Most people could eyeball it pretty easy. It's just not my thing. This recipe makes 19-20 dinner sized (and we're in the South, dinner sized is fist sized ;) rolls or about 10 hamburger buns.

Carrie, thank you! Please let me know if you make them and how they turn out for you. :)

Andrea Maddiex said...

Michelle, I sent you a comment about a problem I had on the rolls but blogger messed up as it was sent. Please let me know if you got it because I will resend it if you didn't. I needed some help!

My name is Michelle. said...

Andrea, I didn't get it! Please resend it.

Andrea Maddiex said...

Hello!
Ok, hopefully this one will go through.
I attempted the rolls last night for dinner. I followed the instructions to a tee, but when I dumped the dough out of the bread machine it came out a soggy mess! I have NO IDEA what happened. I did notice lumps in the dough that looked like the yeast did not blend properly. I noticed in the pics that your bread machine has two paddles. What size loaf does it make? Mine makes a 1 and a half pound loaf (largest). None of the recipes in my bread machine book ever use more than about 3 cups of flour. Could it be my machine is too small? I was soooo disappointed because these rolls are beautiful and this is such an easy recipe. Do you have any ideas how to fix this? Have you ever mixed them by hand? I really want to try these!
Blessings,
Andrea

My name is Michelle. said...

Andrea, I'm so sorry it didn't work. My machine makes a 2# loaf, but I wouldn't think that would make much difference as long as you weren't actually baking it in the machine, but using the machine for the kneading process? I really can't say for sure though.

I suppose you could scale the recipe down, maybe cut it in half? And try a one pound loaf size?

I have never made it by hand, though I'm sure it's possible.

How long did your machine take to knead? And you're sure the yeast was good? Also, if you're at a higher altitude, it might help to put another quarter cup of flour?

I'm really just guessing here. Please let me know if you try it again and how it works out. And again, I'm sorry. What a mess.

If anyone else has any ideas on this I'd love to hear them. I've never had anything at all like this happen when making this recipe.

Andrea Maddiex said...

Hey Michelle,
I will try these tips. My machine takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to go thru the kneading process.
Yes, I know the yeast is good because (1) I had just purchased it, and (2) I made up a loaf of bread to serve with dinner right after the roll mess and it came out beautifully.
I think I will try cutting the recipe in half first and see what a difference that makes.
I will let you know what happens!
Blessings,
Andrea

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,

I love reading your blog and I always especially enjoy tutorials. Do you know if you can freeze and/or refrigerate these roles (probably before baking)?

Thanks,
Barb J.
www.homesteadblogger.com/findingcontentment

My name is Michelle. said...

Barb, thank you! And you know, I really have no idea if they will freeze as I've never tried it. I've thought about it recently and wondered the same thing myself. It would certainly be handy to have them all ready to rise in the freezer. I'll try to remember to freeze a couple the next time I make a batch and let you know how they turn out!

Anonymous said...

Hi!
This looks like a great recipe.. I was just wondering if you could tell me what I would have to change since I don't have a bread maker and I don't know what the bread maker does that first hour and a half... So what do I need to do with the dough?
Thank you!

My name is Michelle. said...

Amanda, I'm a little ashamed to say that I have *never* made bread by hand before. So in all honesty, I have no idea. I know that my machine takes about 1 ½ hours to get the bread to the right dough consistency for the final rising. I actually have some that I just put in, I'll watch it and then tell you in a later comment what the machine does and for how long. Though I can't at all say if that will be helpful. Thank you for your kind works. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle-
I just wanted to let you know that I went ahead and tried the roll recipe by hand. It was wonderful! I used warm water and added the yeast to that first then continued with the rest of the ingredients. I beat in as much flour as I could then stirred and kneaded the rest in. After kneading, I covered it and let it rest about 15 minutes and then made the rolls. The rolls received rave reviews at my parents house tonight!!
Thank you!

My name is Michelle. said...

Amanda, thank you for letting me know! Sounds like you know how to do it by hand. LOL You've certainly got me beat. I watched the bread machine and it kneaded for appr. 20 minutes, rested for an hour, kneaded for 1 minute and rested for about 10. Then beeped at me to get them out. But I have no idea what the temp is inside the machine...I assume it heats up a little to a more rising environment?

I'm so glad that worked for you! And thank you for the nice words.

:)