Source: The Food Network show “Boy Meets Grill”. The episode is “All American” and the host was Bobby Flay

Good Morning Baking Friends!

How’s your Disney home lives going this week? Are you sleeping with your Minnie blankets? Eating with your Mickey dishes and wearing your favorite Donald shirts? Yay Disney Days!

When I was thinking about today’s Sundae lessons recipe I knew I wanted to make some kind of bread. One, because I love fresh bread, who does not love that smell in the house? Two, I really want these Sundae Lessons recipes to be stapled recipes for your recipe collection. Not something super fancy that you might make once. I want them to be recipes you will want to make over and over again.

When deciding what sort of bread to make the idea of dinner rolls came to mind. Everyone loves a good dinner roll. I can honestly eat so many of them on special occasions. I add a truckload of butter and consume it with a huge smile. Those calories don’t scare me.

I came across these dinner rolls at random actually and decided to try them that same day. Now they are my go-to bun. They take a little bit of time to make but it’s well worth it.

You might have to make some adjustments based on the heat of your kitchen, altitude, and type of flour you use. I’ll mention those adjustments as we get there. Let’s get to some bun baking.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter (cut into piece plus more for brushing)
• 1/2 sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 large eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 6 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer. This took me a few minutes to do. You want to heat it until just before boiling.

2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the butter and sugar. Mix really well until everything is dissolved. You want to let it cool completely before continuing. This took way longer than I expected. I ended up putting it in the fridge to help it cool down faster. It really helped.

3. In a small bowl, place the yeast in the water. I mixed it up a bit. You want to wait until it becomes foamy. This takes about 5 minutes on average. Basically what happens is nothing for the first 4 minutes and then everything comes foaming to the surface pretty quickly.

4. In a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine the yeast mixture into the milk mixture that has cooled. Stir well. Add the salt, eggs, and 3 cups of flour to the mixture and stir until the mixture become smooth. Please note mine never went completely smooth. It still had small bumps in it.

5. Slowly add the remaining flour 1/2 a cup at a time. You want to stir until the dough becomes a smooth ball. The term ball is something a lot of recipes say but it really means the dough pulls away from the sides of the ball and isn’t too sticky. This is the point where you might have to add more flour than the recipe says. It really depends on the baking environment. If after adding all the flour it’s still super sticky, add more flour. If before you add the remaining 3 cups it becomes tough, stop adding more flour and continue on to the next step.

6. On a lightly floured clean surface, remove the dough from the bowl and knead it by hand. The recipe says for five minutes but I think that’s way too long. It made my dough a little tough. I would say 2 -3 minutes is perfectly fine.

7. Lightly grease a bowl that is at least twice the size of the now kneaded dough. I used oil, you are just trying to make sure the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl in the next step.

8. Place the dough in the lightly greased bowl, and cover. I use plastic wrap. You want to place the bowl is a warm spot. I usually turn on my oven on very low and place the bowl on top of the oven. The heat from the oven gives the bowl just enough heat that it needs. Leave the dough until it doubles in size. I always think this part is neat. It should take about 60 to 70 minutes to happen. It always seems like magic to me.

9. On the lightly floured surface again, punch down the dough and shape it into the balls you want. When I made it the first time, I made 12 balls. They were a little bigger than I think dinner rolls should be. So next time I decided 16 rolls would be perfect. Place the ball on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. It’s perfectly ok for the rolls to be close together. That’s how they get the shape we need.

10. Cover the tray and let them sit for about 20 minutes in that warm environment again.

11. While they are sitting, preheat your over to 350F degrees F.

12. Bake them for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. At 20 minutes mine were the darkest they should be so I took them out. This part will depend on how your oven works normally. Brush them with melted butter before serving and enjoy them, everyone.

Happy Bun Baking Bakers!