Yeast Rolls

 I used to buy yeast rolls from our grocery store bakery all of the time.  And I miss them.  Terribly. They were easy and REALLY good.  However, with our food sensitive kid, just picking up prepared foods is not easy without a little research.  And I have not had time yet to research those.  So when I saw a recipe for "Lambert's Throwed Rolls".  I knew I had to try them.

Saturdays and Sundays are good "experiment" days since I have a little more time to cook/bake.  So last weekend, I pulled out my bread machine, added the ingredients, and turned on the dough cycle. (I often knead by hand but in this case, I wanted to take a nap REALLY bad :)

A little while later, I shaped into balls and put them in a muffin pan and baked them.

Then we tasted them.

Um, yum.

Just what I have been missing.

Even better, I had a few left over, so I froze them for future meals.

Tonight was the future for me.

It was "on your own night" and I wanted a roll to go with my meal.

So I took one out of the freezer, put it on some aluminum foil, and put it in the oven at around 250 to 300.

A few minutes later, I had a roll that was just as yummy as the first time I had one.

I will be making these again!  (And hopefully making enough to freeze future batches...)

Ingredients:
1 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (one envelope)- Note:  I just use instant

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup warm milk

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp salt

4 cups all purpose (or bread) flour

Directions (for bread machine):
Put the sugar, yeast, and warm water in the bread machine.  Stir together and let sit for about 5 minutes.

Add the milk, butter, sugar, and egg.  Then add about 3 1/2 cups flour and the salt on top.

Start the Dough cycle.

Check the dough after about 15 minutes. It is too sticky/wet, add more flour.

If you aren't using the bread machine, go ahead and put the sugar, yeast, and warm water in a bowl  Let it "rest" for about five minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients.

Knead for 5-10 minutes.

Shape into a ball.

Cover and let rise until doubled.

Meanwhile, grease a muffin pan.

Butter hands liberally.  DON'T miss this step.  Otherwise this will stick to your hands like crazy!  Roll the dough into 24 "balls".  Place two balls in each greased muffin tin "cup".  

Cover and let rise for about 45 minutes or until nearly doubled.

Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. (Cover with aluminum foil if they brown too quickly)

Serve with butter or honey.

Enjoy!

Homemade Hamburger Buns

One day on Pinterest, I found a recipe for homemade hamburger buns.

Homemade.

That thought had never crossed my mind.

But I checked the recipe out and it looked not too hard.

I have really been making an effort to use fresher products, make more of my own food (trying to cut out processed when possible), though I wouldn't say I am a zealot or anything.

So last week we were having hamburgers, and I thought, "I want to give this a try..."

I was a little nervous.  I am just learning some techniques for making bread.

The one thought I had was "Well, the grocery store is just down the road if I fail..."

But guess what?

I didn't!

In fact, they were pretty darn good.

I definitely will make them again.

Not every time.

In fact, we are having sloppy joe's this week, and I just bought some store bought buns. I just don't have the time to do anything else.

But when I can, I want to make these.

Warning though:  They are quite filling.  I think my husband only ate one burger because he felt so full with that bun...

Oh, I followed the original recipe very closely, but did add the sesame seed part at the very end after checking out a few other recipes.

Ingredients:
1 egg
7/8 cup milk
4 1/2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups flour (or bread flour...I just used plain all purpose)
1 tbsp yeast (rapid rise or bread machine yeast)
1 egg white
sesame seeds

Directions:
Put the egg, milk, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine.

Set the bread machine to the dough setting.

I think mine took 1 hour 20 minutes.

Remove from the machine and punch down.

Divide into 7-9 equal size portions.

Let rest for about 5 minutes.

Shape into balls then press down to make "patties".

Place the "patties" on a baking sheet.  Cover loosely with clear wrap.  Let them sit for about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Brush top of patties with a beaten egg white, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool a bit then slice in two.

Enjoy!

Reba