Rolls

Whenever I eat soup, I must eat a carbohydrate with it. I don't know why, there is just something about dunking a big hunk of bread into a yummy soup that makes the meal complete. I was going to make some complex rolls last week but I just didn't have time to mix and let rise and separate and let rise. Lets be honest, some bread just takes all day. I went to Annie's Eats to try and find something a little simpler. I used the proportions from her recipe but didn't follow the steps and didn't make the garlic part. Basically, I just made up the rules as I went and they turned out pretty yummy! They were really light and airy and had a great taste. 

Ingredients

3 cups bread flour

1 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. instant yeast

1 ¼ tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

¼ cup milk

1 cup + 2 tbsp. lukewarm water

1. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast and salt) in a large bowl or stand mixer or in the bowl of a food processor. I snagged a food processor for a ridiculously good price last week (you wouldn't even believe me if I told you....) so I used my brand new kitchen toy. 

2. Add the olive oil, milk and water. 

3. Mix/knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. In a stand mixer, this could be about 8 minutes. In the food processor it was extremely fast and I probably took the dough out in about 2 minutes. Maybe this was a mistake but I liked the final results so I will do the same in the future. 

4. Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough in the bowl. Cover loosely with a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about an hour in a warm/draft free part of your kitchen. It should double in size. 

5. After an hour, divide the dough up into 8-10 equal sized pieces. I ended up with 8 but my rolls were pretty big. I attempted to tie the dough in knots like Annie but it was extremely soft and sticky still so I just kind of winged it and tied them once. They aren't as pretty and neat as hers but oh well. :) 

6. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes until the tops are slightly browned. I put mine on a Silpat so that there would  be no sticking. You could also line the sheet with parchment or just spray it with cooking spray. 

As you can see -- my rolls look nothing like Annie's but they were still good! I loved how light they were. I will definitely make them again and try to follow the rules about the knots a little bit better....