christmas dinner rolls

my sweetie and i were invited to spend Christmas with some sweet friends from our church family; when i asked the hostess what i could contribute, she assigned me to mashed potatoes and rolls.  i had originally planned on baking some frozen rolls (that i purchased with a coupon-- yay!)... but things changed.

as any wife/husband of an md knows, the hours can be sooooo lonnnnggggg.

just like kevin mccalister, i need stuff to do while home alone so i didn't go nuts. (as well as praying harry and marv NEVER show up at my door: yikes!).  i decided the project i needed was to make some special, homemade rolls for this special Christmas dinner.

i researched several places-- from cookbooks my grandmother had given me, to obscure websites... and actually, decided to make emeril lagasse's cloverleaf dinner rolls.  even though there wasn't a picture shown with this recipe, i chose it for three reasons:

1) it didn't need to rise overnight (i didn't have that kind of time)

2) i already had all the ingredients in my kitchen

3) it only made 12 rolls, rather than the 24 or more of other recipes (PERFECT number for a small group gathering) 

my sweet husband eventually DID get home from work (praise the LORD) and we made it to dinner semi-on-time (which let's be real, that's my usual). and i think these rolls went over WELL :)  they are a little sweet but not so much that you bite into one thinking, "sheesh are these dessert?"  they paired nicely with everything from the turkey and stuffing to the homemade red raspberry preserves and honey-cinnamon butter. :)  ENJOY!  and merry, merry Christmas.  ;)

Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls

Emeril Lagasse via food network website

total prep time: about 30-45 minutes

total rise time: about 3 hours (in 2 hr. and 1 hr. increments)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons butter
3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
3/4 cup plus 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions: 

In a small saucepan (medium heat), combine the milk, 1/4 cup of the butter (half a stick), dry milk, 3/4 cup sugar and the salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside to cool down to lukewarm. (when you turn the heat off this milk/sweet mixture and are letting it cool-- go do something else for 10 minutes before you get started on the next part; don't move on till your milk mixture is cooled off a little).
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water (110 degrees F). Add the beaten eggs; stir to combine. Set aside until foamy, (about 10 minutes). Add the milk mixture to the yeast mixture; stir. Using a wooden spoon, add the flour 1 cup at a time. The dough will be quite stiff and somewhat sticky (but that's okay!). If the dough gets too stiff to stir with a spoon, use your hands to mix.  **some of the reviews on emeril's recipe were complaining that the dough was too sticky and they needed to add flour; this was NOT my experience. for me, 4 1/2 cups of flour was *PERFECT*.
Lightly grease the inside of a big bowl with 1 teaspoon of the remaining butter. Transfer the dough to the greased bowl and turn it to coat the dough. Lightly grease a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap with the remaining teaspoon of butter and use it to cover the bowl. Set aside in a warm place until doubled in size, at least 2 hours.

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2 hours later: Melt the remaining 1/4 cup of butter (the other half of the stick!) in a microwave-safe bowl and set aside to cool a little.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 2-3 minutes.

 

Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness of 1/2-inch. 

 

Using a sharp knife (I used kitchen scissors cause i didn't want to hurt the table!!), cut the dough into 36 equal pieces.  (look at my pictures for how i did this! -- i did 4 quadrants out of my big circle... then 3 pieces from each quadrant and each piece was divided up into 3 smaller pieces).  

at this point, i took each one of the smaller triangles on the left side, and cut them into 3 pieces each (and obviously repeated the process on the right side)

Tuck the cut edges of each piece under so as to form a smooth round ball of dough.  Place 3 balls of dough side by side into each well of a muffin tin.  Using a pastry or basting brush, lightly brush the top of each roll with the melted butter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

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1 hour later......

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

check out these pictures of the little buttered rolls after their final rise. 

aren't they gorgeous? :)

 

Bake the dinner rolls in the center of the oven until golden brown and puffed, about 18 to 20 minutes.  When the rolls come out, baste them with a little more of the butter from earlier (they looks so pretty when they glisten with butter!) :)

Be sure to serve the rolls while they are still warm with your favorite spreads. (these were served with homemade red raspberry preserves that i canned last fall, as well as a homemade honey-cinnamon butter that I made from a stick of softened butter, honey, cinnamon, a little sugar, and a tiny pinch of salt).  :)

sorry the picture isn't better quality-- but they were DELICIOUS and looked kinda pretty, too! :)