Simple Bread Rolls

Step 1

Add Warm Water and Yeast to Bowl., mix well. (I usually switch my faucet water to hot and fill with that. If its burning you, its too hot. If its room temperature, girl it ain't hot enough)

Step 2

Add in, Sugar, Oil and Salt. Mix Well.

**I might add that mixing well does not mean rough. Call me crazy, but the quality of the bread you pull from the oven is directly affected by the quality of the stirring, mixing and kneading.

**Note: While I prefer Coconut Sugar for most of my baking, cane sugar , or any sugar will do. Even Honey or Maple Syrup can be substituted.

Step 3

Flour Time!

Slowly add in your flour, one cup at a time.

As your dough thickens and takes shape , you will switch from stirring to kneading.

**After adding about 3.5 cups of your flour, your dough should be reading to start "folding in"... Listen it's exactly what it sounds like; you take one edge of your dough and fold it in to the middle, flip it over, do it again. Sprinkling flour as you go, as the dough takes shape you will start gently kneading the dough. Only lightly sprinkling flour as needed.

Kneading: its like punching your dough, just VERY GENTLY. Its like smooshing down playdough, enjoy the fun!

Step 4

Your going to lightly oil a bowl (exactly what it sounds like. drizzle some oil into a bowl and using your hand or a little cloth (or paper towel) wipe it all around the inside of the bowl, well. Your going to place your ball of dough in here. (I like to place the ball of dough in the bowl, and then pick it up and flip it.. this allow the top of the dough to be just ever so slightly oiled to not stick to the bowl or towel.

Towel? yup, your going to want to cover that dough while its rising. I like to toss a towel over the top. You can also use a plastic wrap, or a lid if your using a bowl with a lid, or even a pot with a lid.

** you can lightly flour the underside of the towel so it doesn't stick, or place some parchment paper between the dough and the towel.

Let rise 1 Hour

** dough should have at least doubled in size.. if it has not, give it another 15-20 min. Not longer as you don't want it to over proof (essentially that means it's not going to bake as well )

Step 5

Gently punch the dough down in the middle.

To shape your dough: you can begin pulling apart equal parts of dough and shaping into a ball. depending on how large you want you rolls you can make about 12-16 rolls. **Remember they will expand still, so shape it smaller than the actual size you want.

Method 2: you can flour your counter, and roll out your dough about 1/2 thick. Using a cup (or a circle cookie cutter if you happen to have one) you can cut out circle shapes of dough.

Re roll out the excess dough and repeat.

**Method 2 gives you more consistent results in size and shape. Method one I find sometimes produces a higher rise in the dough

Place your rolls on baking sheets, a couple inches apart so they don't bake into each other.

*Grease your baking sheets, or use parchment paper

**I'm a big fan of parchment paper.

Let Rise 30-45min (Till nearly doubled in size)

Step 6

Pre Heat oven to 350F, and bake rolls for 20-26min. Start checking on them every couple min beginning around 18min. When the top is golden brown, those babies are ready!

Let them cool and enjoy!!

**NOTES: I'm a big fan of unbleached parchment paper. Its a cleaner product while still being very efficient and easy to work with in the kitchen

-in place of baking sheets, you can place your rolls closer together in an oven safe dish or Dutch oven - they will bake into each other giving you dinner rolls rather than separate rolls. Equally delicious, just depends what suits your fancy