Mix the crap out of it…

Roll recipe from Taylor Clan a.k.a A Musing Mother I’ll play a game and you see if you can follow along. It’s called “If I Really Had to Use a Recipe and Instructions.” Here it goes. Dump in a scant T of yeast into large bowl Decide how sugary you want it. Yeast eats sugar so it rises better. I usually add between 2 -6 T. How many rolls do you want? Let’s go for about 15. Add 2 and 1/2 cups of water. Watch it “proof.” It will form bubbles for about 5 to 10 minutes. Add a cup or two of flour and mix in with a wooden spoon. Mix the crap out of it. Now add about a teaspoon of salt and another cup or two of flour. Mix the crap out of it again. If it’s looking sticky but like you can almost handle it (but not quite), add about a little oil to it. Eyeball it. I usually pour in between 2 T. to 1/4 cup. For every cup of water, plan on adding about 2 and 1/4 cups of flour. If you’re using a bread mixer, if it’s a little sticky, no biggie. If you you aren’t, get your hands in there and start pushing it, away from you, rolling it, rolling it back, adding flour, getting all floury. Make sure it’s still tacky but not sticking to your hands with vigor. Mine is still pretty sticky but it’s not necessary. If your dough is looking stringy and web-like, the yeast and gluten are working. Technique time: Clean out your bowl, spray with Pam, put your blob of dough into bowl and cover with sprayed plastic wrap. Let rise until it’s 2 and half times its original size.. Punch it down. Second rise is optional. The way Julia describes the rolling is interesting. I’ve tried it and it works and comes out pretty. I usually squeeze off a piece of roll dough like you’d choke a chicken (if you are so inclined), then set it on my other hand and scoop the underside towards me until I have a nice little ball. Then I roll it out until it’s oblong and put it on sprayed pan. Slice the top about a quarter inch across. This gives the roll room to grow without splitting the bottom sides. Let rise until almost double. Turn on oven 450 degrees. Spray your rolls with water. Put old gross pan on bottom rack and let it heat up at the same time. Once it’s heated, throw in a bowl full of ice cubes into the gross pan and put in rolls. The ice cubes add steam and make the rolls crisp on the outside. I also spray the rolls every three minutes for the first 9 minutes. After 15-18 minutes, the rolls will be dark gold color. Let them cool for a half hour and you have very chewy rolls on the inside and crisp on the outside. Plan B – Follow Betty Crocker’s cookbook recipe….