Basic Dinner Rolls

I love bread. It’s one of my guiltiest pleasures in life. I often find myself eating a couple rolls before dinner, several with dinner and maybe sneaking a couple more after dinner. I’ve shown you guys a great French bread recipe and even a couple recipes for rolls, but this one just wins it all. They are buttery, soft, flaky, melt in your mouth, hide the basket so no one else gets any delicious.

Drooling yet?

I am. And planning on making these again soon.

One of my favorite parts of the recipe is that it can rise for up to two days in your fridge. I like being able to put dough in the fridge and forget about it for a little while. It’s a good quality to have in a dough.

And you can thank me now because I’m showing you this recipe just in time for Thanksgiving (for more Thanksgiving recipes, head over here). I know I’m not the only one that likes to take the Thanksgiving rolls and stuff them with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Or am I?

Basic Dinner Rolls
Adapted from Epicurious
Makes 24

Ingredients
1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
2 envelopes dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 large egg
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled
5 1/3 cups (about) all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into thin slices
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water (glaze)
Poppy seeds

Procedure

Place warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle yeast and 1/4 teaspoon sugar over and stir to blend. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture is slightly foamy, about 8 minutes.

Whisk milk, 1 egg, salt and remaining 1/3 cup sugar into yeast mixture. Add melted butter and whisk until smooth. Add 1 cup flour and mix until smooth. Combine 4 cups flour and 1 cup chilled butter in processor. Using on/off turns, process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add to yeast mixture and stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Knead in bowl until smooth dough forms, adding more flour if dough is sticky, about 5 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough overnight. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Butter twenty-four 1/3-cup nonstick muffin cups. Turn dough out onto floured surface; knead briefly until smooth and elastic, about 3 minutes. Divide dough into 24 equal portions. If desired, divide each of those into three and place three small balls of dough into each muffin tin. Cover rolls with kitchen towel. Let rise in warm draft-free area until rolls are puffed and doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Position 1 rack in center and 1 rack in top third of oven; preheat to 350°F. Brush rolls gently with egg glaze. Sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake until rolls are golden brown, switching top and bottom baking sheets halfway through baking, about 25 minutes. Transfer pans to rack and cool rolls 5 minutes. Remove rolls from pans and cool on racks. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Wrap in aluminum foil and freeze. If desired, rewarm thawed wrapped rolls in 350°F oven about 10 minutes.)