Bread

One day this fall, I decided to bake bread, yeast rolls to be exact. I was making turkey burger sliders and wanted some bread to use as buns. So I found this recipe from Taste of Home. Its very easy to make (slightly time-consuming though) and the results are great! I've made it with both unbleached, unbromated white flour and with whole wheat (King Arthur and Trader Joe's) flour. When I made it with the King Arthur whole wheat flour, I couldn't tell a difference in the dough from the white flour, and the rolls were light and roll-ish, not very dense at all. The dough was definitely a lot more dense with the Trader Joe's flour, and I almost didn't bake them because I was pretty sure they'd turn out to be very heavy and whole-grainish.  Surprise, surprise something good must have happened in the oven because they still turned out great! 

Ingredients: 

2 tablespoons Active Dry Yeast

1 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water

1/3 cup vegetable oil  (I use canola)

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

3 to 3.5 cups flour

First, warm the water (I do about 20ish seconds - until its warm but not so hot its uncomfortable to touch). And I'm a rule-follower, so I always do the full cup of water + 2 tablespoons.  Dissolve the yeast in the water (2 tablespoons = 2 packets; I use the Active Dry yeast in the packet with the red edges). 

Add the sugar and oil and then let it set for 5 minutes. 

It will start out looking like this: 

And will turn into this: 

Next, add the egg, salt, and flour. The recipe says 3 to 3.5 cups, I don't think I've used less than 3.5 cups. Basically add enough flour so the dough isn't too sticky; you don't want it to be sticking to the sides of the bowl and should be able to form it into a ball.

 Knead until the dough is smooth and easy to work with, a couple minutes or so. You may need to add more flour as you knead it, if it starts to stick.  Then, cover and let it rise about 30 minutes. This is where I vary from the written recipe. You'll come back to this: 

Now, form the rolls and place them onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper, either go without or bake them on a pizza stone - don't use tin foil whatever you do! I tried it, and it didn't turn out well :)   For dinner rolls, make them about the size of a large golf ball, you'll get about 24 of them. A dozen should fit on a standard size cookie sheet. You can also make them larger and  get 12 or so hamburger buns. 

Cover, and let them rise in a warm place for about 20 minutes. 

Then, bake them at 425. The first sheet usually takes 8 minutes in my oven, and the second sheet is about 1-2 minutes faster for whatever reason. I always check at 6 minutes and make sure they're not starting to get too brown on top. You can bake them plain or brush them with melted butter or egg white. I've done plain and with butter. 

Next step: Enjoy!