Hawaiian Rolls

Yesterday for dinner we had BBQ pulled pork on homemade Hawaiian Rolls.  I found the recipe for the rolls at I HEART eating.  Head over there for a printable version of the recipe, and instructions.

Here are the ingredients I used:

• 1 cup pineapple juice (plus 1/2 cup water - use 1 1/2 cup pineapple juice if you have it)
• 4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (original recipe calls for active dry)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar divided
• 1/2 cup margarine use butter if you don't have a dairy allergy at room temperature, plus extra for brushing rolls
• 2 large eggs
• 5 to 6 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt 

The first step said to grease two 9" by 13" pans and set them aside.  This seemed fine, but then because of the rise times, they were sitting there taking up space in my kitchen for quite a while.  I think next time I would wait until closer to when I transfer the rolls to the pans to grease them up.

To start making the rolls, I needed pineapple juice.  This isn't something we typically stock in our pantry, and there is a winter storm outside making it inconvenient to get to the store just now, so I drained a can of pineapple tidbits that we had on hand for pizzas. I added a bit of water to make the full 1 1/2 cups, but I definitely got more juice than I expected that way.

I microwaved the pineapple juice to get it up to a warm temp. I overshot 105 slightly, but it cooled down quickly while I was getting the other ingredients in the bowl.

2 Tablespoons of the sugar. (I realized later that since I was using instant yeast, all the sugar could have gone in at once, since I didn't need to proof the yeast).

4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.

At this point I added the rest of the sugar, the eggs, and the vanilla extract. I forgot about the margarine, but you will want to add yours at this point.

I stirred it up.

Then added 3 cups of the flour.

And the teaspoon of salt.

I mixed it

And then began to slowly add flour to get the dough to clear the sides of the bowl.

I kneaded it in the mixer for one minute on low as instructed.  I covered it with plastic wrap and was going to let it rise.  In the meantime, I began to clean the kitchen up and noticed the margarine sitting on the counter.

Oh dear.  As when I dropped an entire egg into the bowl while making Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies... "this step is optional."

I plopped the margarine in on top of the dough, and began to mix it.

I have no idea how much flour I ended up using, because before I was done I was just grabbing handfuls of the stuff and throwing it in the mixing bowl.

Eventually it was once again what appeared to be the desired consistency, so I covered the bowl and left it to rise.  When I came back, I used my new bench scraper to divide the dough into roughly even pieces, by forming the dough into circles, and cutting it like a pizza.

I rolled the dough into balls and placed 12 in each prepared pan.

I covered them up with one of my new flour sack towels, and let them rise again.

When the rise time was done, they went into the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Here is a sneak peak at what the rest of dinner was.

When they came out, I neglected to brush them with butter, so they don't have the typical Hawaiian roll sheen.

Nonetheless, they were tasty.  They were not as light as I had hoped, but I was the only one that seemed the least bit bothered by this.  Also, it may have been owing to the extra kneading when I inadvertently omitted the fat from the dough and had to re-work it.  I was pleased they turned out at all, considering.

I would certainly use this recipe again.  Let me know if you give it a try!

No Knead Rolls

It has been coming on for a while now. The cloudy days and cooler nights have me thinking of baking. Today, I couldn't help myself. We just had to have homemade rolls with dinner.

So I looked up a no knead recipe. One of the top no knead roll recipes was from Oprah. Since it didn't have any milk in it, I gave it a try.

These first couple pictures are of my dough as it is rising. I used a plastic ice cream container left-over from our last milkshake party, and poked a couple holes in the top to allow it to breath while the yeasties were doing their rising thing.


Here are the rolls after I punched them down and formed them:

I had warmed the oven slightly (by baking brownies and then opening the door up to let it cool some) so that they would rise well.

Here they are after they have been buttered and are browning.

They turned out nice and brown on top.

My husband asked if this was a new recipe, because they were not as dense as the dinner rolls I typically make. Then he got himself a second light and fluffy roll to slather good jam on. I call that success.

What are you baking?

Yummy Rolls

Tonight I made dinner rolls, by the book. The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book that is. ("New" being a relative term, as this book's copyright is from before I was born.)

In any case, on page 70 I found a straight-forward recipe. Here is how I followed it (in the case of substitutions that I made, the original ingredient is shown in parenthesis):

• 4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (one package active dry yeast)
• 1 cup soy milk (milk)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup margarine
• 2 teaspoons sea salt (1 teaspoon table salt)
• 2 eggs (1 extra egg for egg wash just before baking)

It is getting late... so I am going to make this short. If any of you do not have access to this cookbook or another with a good recipe for dinner rolls, let me know in the comments and I will revise this post to include the directions for mixing, rising, forming and baking these rolls.

Page 71 showed me how to shape the rolls. I chose the Cloverleaf and Rossette shapes. I was pleased with how they turned out. The rosettes (shown above) were made to freeze. They will be "brown and serve" rolls for another day.