Soft & Fast Dinner Rolls

 Bread.

Who doesn't love bread?

Fresh out of the oven. Warm. Melting butter. I don't even need the rest of the meal.

But they take SOOOOOOOO long to make.

Not these ones!

These are done in less than an hour. No joke. Super fast. Super fast.

These rolls are dope (as my sister says). Everything. Amazing. Whatever your trending word for best-thing-I-ever-tasted, that's what these are.

I know, I know, you've seen so many recipes for dinner rolls. But I promise these are IDIOT PROOF.

That's right. You're not going to screw these up. Wanna know why? Because there's no scalding of milk and no long rises. I'm serious. My high schoolers make these in Foods & Nutrition and they're always delicious (and guys, they mess up ALOT of recipes).

So try it!

And, of course, this recipe is... you guessed it, VERSATILE!

Who loves cinnamon rolls?

These make TO DIE FOR cinnamon rolls. So easy. Usually I make a double batch, make however many soft rolls we're going to eat that night, and then put the rest of the dough in a gallon size zip lock and put it in the fridge overnight. Because guess what? The dough already rose!

Yeah, yesterday, while you were making the soft rolls, the dough rose. And it sat there longer while you were rolling rolls. And then you put it in the fridge like the smarter-not-harder person you are, and you can take it out in the morning and make cinnamon rolls. They're easier to roll cold anyway. And you put them in a cold oven and turn it onto 325 (or 350, depending on your oven). Make some easy buttercream frosting while they're baking and voila- cinnamon rolls in a half hour.

Also, if I don't feel like making cinnamon rolls, this dough also doubles for pizza dough. My favorite pizza dough is a recipe I modified from Bobby Flay's Pizza Dough Recipe, but this one will still suffice. And you only had to make dough once. 1 dough session, 3 meals.

Now, I always use my kitchen aid to make this dough. Hubby bought me a pink one- the professional kind. It's glorious. Best gift ever.

HOWEVER, we were living in our RV for a hot minute while building our house, and I didn't have space (or electricity stamina/bandwidth/I-don't-know-anything-about-electricity) for a kitchen aid. So I made them by hand. Totally doable! And still delicious. So don't fret if you don't have a kitchen aid. But, if you want one, try this one. The smaller ones aren't awesome for dough (at least, not the quantity I make), and I hear the gears are plastic so they break easier. My mom has had her kitchen aid for like 25 years.

Also helpful is this silicone mat. Whose counters are free from bacteria? Yeah, no, even after I sanitize it, it still freaks me out a little. Plus, this silicone mat makes the rolling so easy. It's one of my favorite purchases. The one listed above is similar to mine. (I got mine on sale while accidentally turning down the wrong isle in Smith's one time...)

Lastly, you can tear the dough in pieces or use a butterknife, but I use my cake scraper to chop them in pieces. It's that thing you use to get smooth edges on cakes (not my favorite thing to do), but it's just like a bench scraper (the thing bakers/pastry chefs use in a bakery to scrape dough off the wood table). Or get a bench scraper. Just sayin'. I like things that serve more than one purpose.

TIPS: for this dough, DO let the yeast bloom, DO use pretty warm (not hot) water, and DO microwave some butter to dowse the tops of the rolls while they're in their second rise. I use this silicone thing to brush the butter on (same isle in smith's, but here's a similar one).

Check out my full article on how to handle bread, especially in dry climates.

For now, here's the roll recipe.

Have a lovely day!