I’m not too proud to admit that baking with yeast intimidates me. My first efforts at making yeast bread were pretty much a flop so I avoided any recipe that called for yeast. I decided I just didn’t have the touch for making bread.
When I received Magnolia Table Volume 2, I couldn’t help but notice a few yeast bread recipes. I decided if anyone could help me bake bread, it would be Joanna Gaines. So, I tried her Dinner Rolls recipe and it turned out beautifully.
It also made a LOT more rolls than I needed for a normal Sunday dinner. With my confidence boosted a bit, I asked my mom for her yeast roll recipe. She made these rolls for every holiday when I was growing up, and sometimes just for a weeknight spaghetti dinner when she was a stay-at-home mom. Over time, she stopped making them (I mean Sister Schubert makes it easy to NOT bake, right?) and I missed them. She sent me her recipe and it was a lot like JoJo’s except it yielded fewer rolls and it was a little bit easier.
I’m sharing more pictures than I normally do because I want to help you make these as easily as possible. These are a bit time consuming. They require two different 1 hour rising periods. As always, I suggest reading through the recipe a couple of times before you start. Please note, I use a stand mixer for these and my directions are written accordingly.
Let’s get baking!
Yeast Rolls
You’ll need:
4 cups of all-purpose flour, divided (do not sift)
1/4 cup sugar
1 package active dry yeast (.25 oz) (this is the brand I used)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
Mix 2 cups of the flour with sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Heat and milk butter over low heat until warm, 100 to 110 degrees. I used a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, I can tell you that my milk reached the correct temperature just as the butter melted and tiny bubbles began to form around the edge of the pan.
Stir the melted butter and milk into the flour mixture. Add the beaten egg and mix well. Using a dough hook, began mixing the dough on low. Gradually add in more of the reserved flour until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and becomes smooth and elastic. For me, it took about a cup and a half of flour to get to a point where the dough separated from the bowl and made a ball on the dough hook.
Place the dough in a bowl lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Turn the dough over once so that it’s coated in cooking spray. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
When your dough has risen, give it a gentle punch or two to get the air bubbles out. (My mom would let me do this part as a kid and I loved it!). Grease your pans of choice. The original recipe advised rolling the dough into equal sized dough balls and placing them in 9 inch baking pans. My mom always used muffin tins so that’s what I did. I placed two dough balls per tin to make a split top roll. You can also do three dough balls per tin for a “cloverleaf” roll.
Cover with plastic, place back in your warm spot and let rise again. This will take about an hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and bake 15 to 20 minutes until brown. You can brush with melted butter when you take them out if you like.
I think I made my mom (and myself proud) with these. I look forward to adding them to my next holiday meal. I hope you enjoy them too!
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