Lion House Rolls
I’ve eaten Lion House rolls on many occasions, particularly when shooting wedding dinners/luncheons at the Lion House itself, but had never made them until about 6 months ago. Since then I have made them every month. They make the whole apartment smell so warm and inviting and cozy. My husband instantly knows when I made these the second he walks in the door because of the smell. I think they should make a candle scented like fresh bread. Do they already do this? If so I haven’t seen one.
I think a lot of people are nervous about making yeast doughs but I’m going to try to calm that fear. In all the years I’ve been using yeast now I don’t think there’s been a single time where a disaster has occurred. Sure, sometimes things don’t turn out quite as well as others and practice helps, but everything has still turned out nicely edible at the very least. It’s also really not that expensive to make a yeast dough so even if you do fail miserably (which you won’t, I have so much faith in you!) you won’t be out a lot of money in ingredients. If you have never made a yeast dough please make a goal to do so. This recipe is a good starting place though my breadsticks recipe I’ll post next week is even easier. I have quite the handful of yeast bread recipes in my stash I’ll be sharing on the blog and I hope you’ll try them.
Lion House Rolls
Hands down the best white rolls ever.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes active, 1.5 hours inactive
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen rolls 1x
Ingredients
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 cups water, warm
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder
5–6 cups flour*
Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a normal large mixing bowl if doing by hand), combine the yeast, water, and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes until foamy. With the cookie paddle attachment add the butter, salt, dry milk powder, 3 cups flour and egg. Beat together until very smooth (if not using a stand mixer you can use a hand mixer till this point). Change to the dough hook (If not using a stand mixer you can start kneading by hand) and slowly add the remaining flour until a soft but not sticky dough is formed. Knead the dough for at least 6 minutes if using a stand mixer and for at least 12 minutes if mixing the dough by hand. When the dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a lightly greased large bowl covered with greased plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about 45-60 minutes. (See pictures for how I grease the bowl I made the dough in.)
Separate the dough in 2. Roll each section out to about an 11X14-inch rectangle, roughly 1/4- 1/3 inch thick. Use a pastry brush to spread the top of the dough with melted butter. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into two pieces, the long way (see pictures). Then slice the dough into five or six strips across so you end up with 10 to 12 small rectangles. Roll each small rectangle up like you would a jelly roll and place on a silipat mat, parchment paper, or lightly greased baking sheet with the roll resting on its open edge. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
Cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap and let them rise until doubled, about 45-60 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12-14 minutes until they are nicely browned on top. Brush rolls using a pastry brush with butter as soon as they come out of the oven.
Notes
Doughs with yeast are hard to put the exact amount of flour in the ingredients because of a lot of factors like elevation, humidity and more. You don’t want to add too much flour or the rolls will be dry, but adding to little and the dough will be too sticky and you won’t be able to handle them well. Aim for dough that has just passed the sticky stage.
These rolls freeze so well. I almost always freeze half of the rolls I make and warm them up in the microwave for about 30 seconds to thaw when needed.
If you are wanting to use whole wheat flour I’ve had good luck with using half the flour needed as whole wheat flour. You just need to increase the kneading time by a minute or 2.
Recipe from: The Lion House
Keywords: Rolls, Lion House Rolls
My 3 year old, Millie, loves to help me roll up these rolls too.
