Adventures in Breadmaking Part II: Homemade Honey Rolls

     Because the weather has been rather cold and rainy lately, I've found myself feeling something akin to the winter blues, except in July. Maybe I'm just going a little stir crazy because it's time to go back to school, but either way, my weird mood gave me an interesting meal idea: Thanksgiving in July! So I dug down deep in my freezer and found a turkey breast, and then suddenly, spending 4 hours cooking a complete turkey dinner in the middle of summer sounded like a great idea! I can't share the turkey recipe here because honestly, I just followed the directions on the package and then did the same with my boxed stuffing mix. (Insert gasp here.)
     On most days, I cook dinner and sometimes dessert for my family, but I usually only take on one big project to post each day, so yesterday, the turkey was actually the easy part. Instead, my project of the day was a batch of honey rolls made completely from scratch. I often have trouble working with yeast, so I'm gradually working my way up to making actual bread. A few weeks ago, I posted my Naan recipe, which turned out to be a big hit, so even though I'm calling this "Breadmaking Part II" it's actually much easier than the Naan recipe. And let's remember how I raved about how easy that was. These dinner rolls are light and fluffy with the perfect touch of sweetness, and although it is a time-consuming recipe, it requires remarkably little effort. So try it out, because when it comes to bread recipes, if I can do it, anyone can do it.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 packet of quick-rise yeast
1 cup warm water, not hot
1/3 cup honey + 1 tablespoon for glaze
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon melted butter for glaze

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 and lightly grease an 8x8 baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, (use an electric stand mixer bowl if you have one) stir the yeast into 1 cup of warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes.
3. Beat in the egg, salt, and 1/3 cup of honey. When those are mixed, add the flour 1 cup at a time.
4. Once all the flour is incorporated, it's time to knead the dough for 6-7 minutes. You can do this by hand, but using the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer works like a charm. After 6 minutes on low, this is what I got:

5. Work the dough into a ball, place it in a new greased bowl, cover it with a dishcloth, and set it on top of the hot stove to rise for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

 Original size

After rising...I love it when yeast works!

6. Punch the dough down, divide it into 8 pieces, form those into balls, and put them in a greased 8x8 dish. When forming the rolls, pull the cracked side toward the bottom so that the tops bake smooth.

7. Cover the rolls in the pan again and let them rise for another 15-20 minutes.

8. In the microwave, melt 1 tablespoon of honey with 1 tablespoon of butter. Then once the rolls have risen, brush the honey butter over the tops of them.

9. Bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes until golden brown on top. They will sort of attach to each other, but they are easy to pull or cut apart later.

     You can serve these fresh from the oven as dinner rolls, and then enjoy the leftovers with jam for breakfast. They're addictive and much better than the frozen or store-baked ones. Here's my Thanksgiving in July turkey dinner that I served with these:

I really hope you'll try these someday when you have a little extra time! If you haven't already, check out yesterday's dessert recipe for something easier. Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for more ice cream...hopefully.