French Bread Rolls

I love to have bread with every meal and snack possible. I love bread so much!

I was reading melskitchencafe.com a while back and printing off her recipes that I couldn't wait to try. (I ended up with an enormous stack of recipes.) I have been trying a few of her recipes just about every week and finally made these rolls. http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2007/12/french-bread-rolls.html

They were easy and I thought they were pretty good. Actually, Andy LOVED these rolls. Hooray!

I will confess that I was so excited about this recipe that I made a double batch, since she said they freeze well. Then I got to thinking, and I wondered how they would be in the bread machine. I immediately threw the ingredients in the machine, set it to dough and waited. Yes. Three batches of bread dough all at once. (I wasn't kidding about how much I love bread.)

I read many of the reviews of recipes I look up, which I find really helpful. I get lots of tips and ideas from other people's comments. Anyways, one reviewer said she makes 24 rolls in a 9x13 dish. I figured with three batches of dough going I could do at least one of them that way. I really like having smaller portions of things when I bake. So once the dough had risen I did one batch into 24 rolls. Then I did one batch and used half of it to make 6 great big, giant rolls, and the other half of that I used to make 12 smaller garlic knots. (http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2009/04/garlic-knots.html) Once I had done all of that I figured that I would like the smaller rolls best, so I used my last batch of dough from the bread machine to make another 9x13 pan of 24 rolls.

The double batch that I mixed up myself was pretty good. I think I added a little bit too much flour. The dough was really stiff for me to work with. The batch that I made in the bread machine I think I used too little flour (I only used 3 1/2 cups of flour), and it was super sticky to work with. But these rolls have a nice, fluffy texture. The flavor was a little plain, but with some butter and jam on them they are just fine.

Here's the recipe:

French Bread Rolls

*Makes about one dozen rolls

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 tablespoon instant yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour, give or take a few tablespoons

DIRECTIONS:
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl by hand, combine the warm water, yeast, sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups of the flour (if you are using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, let the yeast proof in the warm water and sugar for about 3-5 minutes until it is foamy and bubbly before adding the oil, salt and flour). Begin mixing and continue to add the rest of the flour gradually until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Judge the dough not by the amount of flour called for in the recipe but in how the dough feels (see a tutorial on working with yeast here). The dough should be soft and smooth but still slightly tacky to the touch.

Knead the dough in the stand mixer or by hand until it is very smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer or 8-10 minutes by hand. Lightly spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it has doubled (this usually takes about an hour).

Lightly punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly greased countertop. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and form the dough into round balls. Place the rolls on a lightly greased or silpat-lined baking sheet about an inch or two apart. Cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap taking care not to pin the plastic wrap under the baking sheet or else the rolls will flatten while rising. Let the plastic wrap gently hang over the sides of the pan to fully cover the rolls but not press them down. Let the rolls rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through.

*Freezable Option: I almost always make a double or triple batch of these rolls. Once they are baked and cooled, I place them in a zipper-lock freezer bag and put them in the freezer. I either take them out a few hours before I need them or I take them out frozen and microwave them for about 2-3 minutes on 70% power.

Half of one batch. Six huge rolls. Size recommended in recipe.



Here is the other half of that batch. I made garlic knots, also from Melskitchencafe. (I will say I liked the shape of these rolls, but I wasn't crazy about the garlic butter she used. Next time I make these rolls I will just melt some butter and put some garlic salt in it and then drizzle that over the rolls right when they come out of the oven.)



The other two batches ended up like this. 24 smaller rolls. Yes. 48 rolls, plus the 12 garlic knots and 6 huge rolls. 66 rolls in total. Don't worry, we didn't eat them all at once. I cooled them off and froze 3 dozen smaller rolls and the rest we ate with dinners last week and this week.



Andy loved the big rolls to use for turkey sandwiches. I love the smaller rolls. I'm glad I made so many! I unfroze a batch for dinner tonight. They were perfect. I never would have guessed they had been frozen. It probably helped that they were only frozen a few days, but still- I was impressed.