Baking bread from scratch can be a little scary. You have to get the yeast right temp and the dough right consistency and then you have to trust that it will all raise and look just right. Confusing right? Well this past weekend I tried this recipe that is supposed to be like the Texas Roadhouse rolls. It wasn’t so bad for a first try. The best part though…the honey cinnamon spread. You might want to try the rolls out just for that!
The first step for making any yeast bread is you have to get the water the right temp. Most packages of yeast will tell you it has to be 120-140 degrees. Now, you can get out the candy thermometer and measure, or you can do like I did here and microwave the tap water for 30 seconds. It turned out the same for me. Proofing the yeast means you mix together the water, sugar and yeast and then let it rise until it doubles. It probably more than doubled by the time I was done, but I did know that my yeast was working! During this time I also scaled my milk…that means you cook it on high ‘til you start to see a few bubbles like it may boil anytime, and then you take it out and let it cool for awhile. You can speed that up by putting it in a different container so that it’s not sitting in the hot pan. I waited about 15 minutes to let it cool and it worked well!
Meanwhile you mix up your other ingredients with just enough flour to make it like a pancake mix. For me this was about 3 cups. Let that sit a bit to bubble up a little too.
Then, start to add more flour, about 1 cup at a time until you get a nice dough that flops around and twists on the dough hook. You could knead it, but seriously, with those nice mixers out now days, why! I just kneaded it for 3 minutes with my wonderful mixer and it looked beautiful!
Granted, the down side is that adding flour at a high speed with the dough hook is that it makes a huge mess. Maybe turn it down a little until the flour is mixed well before you get to those higher kneading speeds. Other tip is to make sure you lock it down and hold on to it, else it may jump off your counter!
Then you let that dough raise until it’s doubled in size or more, takes over an hour. Hardest thing here is getting a nice warm environment. I usually set mine on the stove, and since it is summer it works good. In the winter this can be a little tricky and I sometimes have to turn the oven on below to keep it warm since I have a ton of windows in my kitchen.
When it is raised, you have to make a bun. Can be tricky, but here you can see I stuffed a bunch of dough in my hand and forced it out between my thumb and index finger to a little bigger than a golf ball size. Then, pinch it off. I had to divide my dough into about 5 lumps here.
Next comes letting the bread raise and bake, the best part! The come out beautiful, make sure you put a little butter on top to make it extra good.
Then comes the butter. My daughter had to help me with that, she thought it looked good. As you can see from her fingers in the bowl, it was!
Enjoy! Here’s the recipes for you! Hope you have fun…just make sure to clear a few hours to work on this. The time will be well worth it!
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
6-8 cups flour
2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 whole eggs
2 tsp salt
Activate yeast in warm water with a tsp. of sugar.
While yeast is activating, scald milk and cool to lukewarm.
Once yeast has doubled in volume, add yeast, sugar, and milk to a large bowl and enough flour to make a medium batter. (medium batter is about the consistency of pancake batter). Beat thoroughly. Let stand alone until light and fluffy.
Add melted butter (which has been cooled), eggs, and salt. Beat well. Add enough flour to make flour to form soft dough.
Sprinkle small amount of flour on counter and set down on it to rest. Meanwhile, clean out the bowl and grease clean surface down with crisco. Place dough in bowl and flip over to grease the top as well. Knead dough until smooth and satiny.
Cover and let rise in a warm area until double in size.
Once double in size punch down. Turn out on floured board. Divide into portions for shaping and let rest for 10 minutes.
Once dough has raised, shape dough into desired forms. Place on greased baking sheets and let rise until doubled.
Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.
HONEY CINNAMON BUTTER
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. cinnamon
Blend all ingredients together at room temperature.
Spread on rolls
No comments:
Post a Comment