Ignore The Soup

We've already talked about the soup. Look past that to see the roll. The comment these got was "these are dessert!" These rolls are so good. SO good! Light and fluffy, even two days later!

In fact, they're called "World's Best Dinner Rolls." I wouldn't disagree. I was inspired by the recipe here, from Our Best Bites. They really have superb recipes over there. Stop by, you won't be sorry.

I only made a couple of changes, which I'll point out as I go.

World's Best Dinner Rolls

2 cups whole milk (I didn't have that, so I mixed 1 cup half and half with one cup 1% milk)

1/2 cup plus 1 T. sugar, divided

1/3 cup (5 1/3 T.) butter

2 tsp Kosher salt

2 pkg. active dry yeast (I used 4 tsp instant yeast)

2/3 cup warm water (105-155°F)

8-9 cups flour (I used about 7 1/2 cups)

3 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup canned pumpkin (that's my own addition)

Dissolve yeast and 1 T. sugar in a medium-sized bowl with the 2/3 cup warm water. Set aside. Melt the butter in the microwave. Measure out the milk and put that right into your standing mixer bowl (those are fancy words for Kitchen Aid bowl, at least in my house). Add the melted butter to the milk to warm up the milk and cool down the butter. Now add the 1/2 cup sugar and the salt.

We're ready to start adding the flour (yes, I know the yeast mixture is still sitting in time-out). Start with three cups of flour. Beat on low for 30 seconds. If you have one of these...

you won't have to stop and scrape the bowl, otherwise, stop and scrape at this point.

Now add the yeast mixture (which should be bubbly and frothy and happy by now. If it's not- you're in trouble, and you shouldn't even keep going until you get happy yeast). Beat on high for 3 minutes.
Add the beaten eggs. They say over at Our Best Bites that the reason you beat the eggs first, rather than just cracking them into the mixture is to ensure an *even* dough. We certainly don't want an *odd* dough, so just hit those cracked eggs with a fork for a minute and beat them up.
Switch out the paddle for the dough hook at this point (did you know that if you're using the dough hook you shouldn't put the speed higher than 2?). Stir in as much flour as you need to make a soft dough. Don't add too much flour or your rolls will end up heavy and dense. I don't know anyone who wants to be heavy or dense. So just add enough flour to make the dough soft and a little bit sticky when you touch it with your fingers (my high-altitude book says less flour at high altitudes).
Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and put it in a warm place. I'll usually turn my oven on for about 45 seconds and then turn it off again, and then put the dough in there. Let it rise for an hour.
Punch down the dough. Lightly flour your work surface and scoop the dough out of the bowl. Spray two 9x13 pans with Pam. Divide the dough in half (you may have to add a little flour to it at this point so you can handle it more easily, but go easy with it! Roll out one half and cut that into 12 equal pieces. A pizza cutter works pretty well for this job. Shape each piece of dough into a ball and place it in the prepared pan. Then do the second half and place it in the second pan.
Cover it again with the kitchen towel and let it rise for another 30 minutes. If you have a double oven, you can put the rolls back in the oven that's still kind of warm. Otherwise, just let them rise on the counter.
In 15 minutes, start pre-heating your oven (the OTHER oven) to 375°F.
Bake the rolls for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops are nicely brown (Cheryl, I won't do the Brown joke this time).
When they're done, take them out and rub some butter over the tops of the rolls. I use my silicon pastry brush and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter for this job. Pop the rolls out of their pan or they will start to sweat. After all, they've just spent at least 15 minutes in the oven. Wouldn't you sweat too?
I used that little bit of pumpkin in my rolls, but honestly, I couldn't taste it at all. I don't know if it helped to make the rolls any more moist or not, but I'm betting they're just as good without the pumpkin as they were with it.
Don't be afraid of this recipe. These rolls are worth making. Trust me.