Grandma's Soft Dinner Rolls

 - American Recipe

Directions:

- Mix all the ingredients (except for the butter) for 6 minutes on low. 

- Increase the mixture speed to medium and allow that to mix for 6 minutes. 

- Add the butter, then mix it on medium for 3 minutes more. 

- Do a gluten window test by ripping a small handful of dough off and then lightly pulling from the center and out in a sort of circular motion until you are able to stretch the dough enough so that it makes a transparent window in your fingers (see picuture for reference or follow this link to read more about it). 

- If the dough will not stretch very thin before it breaks, allow it to mix on medium speed for 2-3 more minutes. If it does pass the window test, it is ready to rest. 

- In a warm place, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the bread to rise for 30-60 minutes (all dependent on how warm it is) until the dough is close to double in size. 

- Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and cut it into the desired portions and shapes you want.

     - For a bread roll: 80 g and rolled into a tight ball shape (click for video).

     - For a loaf: use the entire portion and shape into a tightly folded sausage that fits into the size of your bread pan (click for video) or shape it into a tight ball (click for video). 

- Place the dough in an oiled pan (the rolls fit into a 9x9 dish). 

- Cover with plastic and allow to raise in a warm place again for 30-60 minutes or until close to doubled in size. 

- While the dough is raising, preheat your oven to 375 *F (190 *C). 

- If desired, also place a large aluminum pan in the bottom of your oven while it preheats as to form a shine on the top crust when you add water to the heated pan. 

- After placing the dough in the oven to bake, add a cup of water to the alumium pan and then close the door. The steam from this pan will create a shiny crust on your bread, but it is not necessary for flavor. 

- Bake the dough for around 30 minutes for the loaf or 18 minutes for the rolls. The bread/rolls are done with then are evenly golden brown on top. 

- After baking, if you chose not to use the aluminum pan with water, brush the tops of the rolls/bread with salted butter and allow it to cool slightly before eating. 

Notes:

- This recipe is converted from metric so that is why the measurments are so weird. I have individually measured all the ingredient cup measurments to know exactly how much each weighs (since looking online gives you a lot of different answers). 

- Ideally, when allowing your dough to raise those two times, the temperature would be at around 95 *F (35 *C) and then it will take closer to 30 minutes for the dough to double in size. 

- For best results, cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap. This is becuase, if the wrap is sealed tightly, it will create humidity in the bowl while the dough raises and help it raise faster. You can also use a damp cloth or just a regular dry cloth, but then your dough might dry out a little and form a kind of dry crust on top. It is okay that it forms a crust, but just not ideal. 

- This bread can a also be baked in a dutch oven with the lid on for the first 25 minutes to create that nice shiny crust as well. But then it is more important to check to see if the bread is actually baked through by flipping it out of the pot and tapping on the bottom to hear a hollow sound similar to tapping on a window. If it does not make that kind of sound, it needs to bake for longer. 

- I like to make rolls from this recipe that are 80 g a piece, but you can also make them smaller or larger. Just be aware of the time when you do that. The larger the rolls, the more time they will need in order to not be raw in the middle. 

- If you desire, you can also freeze the dough in the roll sizes (tossed in flour and wrapped in plastic wrap) for up to 2 months. 

- This roll recipe is also great to make other things like single serving pizzas or fry bread. 

- In a air tight container, the rolls/bread last for up to 3 days at room temperature, 10 days in the fridge, or 3 months in the freezer. 

*This photo shows what a window test looks like to check the gluten development in your dough.