Soft Yeast Rolls

First, let me welcome you to the newly designed page! With the help of a good friend, I now have a customized header and redesigned page!! I am so excited and I hope you all like it too!!

Christmas is nearly a week gone now, but my clothes are still feeling the stretch from all the good food!! January 1st will be here in a couple of days, and thus begins the 2012 Resolutions craze. I will fall into the "need to lose the holiday pounds" group, along with a few other short-term and long-term goals that I'm setting for myself. More to come on those later :)

I go to my mom's every year for Christmas, and I always bring a couple of items in contribution to our feast. This year I decided to try my hand at making rolls from scratch. I've never attempted this before, but when I saw this recipe on Jessica's blog, Sunny Side Up in San Diego., they looked too good not to try!! I'll have to admit that I think I flubbed them up a little. My brothers said they were good, but they seemed a little dense to me. And Jessica's definitely didn't look that way, so I'm quite sure I did something wrong. Oh well, there has to be a first time for everything, right? I'll try again another time, and make sure I do all the steps correctly :) I'm going to guess it had something to do with the rising of the dough.

Soft Yeast Rolls

Source: Sunny Side Up in San Diego

Ingredients

• 4-1/2 tsp (2 packets) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
• 2 cups warm milk (110° to 115°)
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 7 to 7-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 2 tsp honey

Preparation

1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes, until it starts get foamy and the water looks milky. Add the milk, butter, eggs, sugar, and salt and turn the mixer on low to combine. Add 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth.
2. Remove the paddle and replace it with a dough hook. Add 4 more cups of flour and let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes. The dough should become smooth and elastic and just slightly tacky to the touch. Add up to 1/2 cup more of flour if the dough is too sticky. Move the dough to an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Towards the end of rising, butter two 9x13 pans. After the dough has risen, punch it down in the center and turn out on a floured surface, knead it by hand for a minute or so. Cut the dough into 24 even pieces and place in the prepared 9x13 pans. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a small bowl and stir in the honey. Brush the tops of the rolls.
4. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5. Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.