Sweet Wheat Yeast Rolls

I made these for a family gathering and have had several people ask for the recipe, so I thought I would just post it here.  I’m going to admit, homemade bread products and I have not always had a happy time together.  It has taken me quite a while and lots of trials to finally find a recipe that turns out good every time and is not too hard to make.  This recipe is actually a modified version of the bread base for Pioneer Woman’s famous cinnamon rolls.

Ingredients:
12 oz can Evaporated milk plus 1/2 cup water  OR  2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 pkg active dry yeast
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1/2 level teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 2-1/2 cups wheat flour
2 to 2/12 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter (please use real salted sweet cream butter, it just tastes better!)

Heat the evaporated milk plus water or the regular milk in the microwave until warm but not HOT.  I actually prefer using the evaporated milk because it seems to give the rolls a richer flavor, but regular milk tastes good too.  Pour the warm milk into the bowl of your counter top mixer.  Pour in sugar and yeast packets.  Give it a little stir and then let it sit for 10 minutes or so or until the yeast looks bubbly.  Pour in vegetable oil, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Then add 2 cups of the wheat flour and 2 cups of the unbleached flour.  You can also use regular all purpose flour, I just like the unbleached kind because they doesn’t use chemicals in the processing of the flour.  Put the bowl on your stand mixer and put on the dough attachment.  Let it mix for a minute or two and then take a look at the dough.  You want your dough to be sticky but not overly wet.  If it seems really wet, turn the mixer back on and add flour a little at a time until the dough gets to be a sticky consistency.  If you add too much flour and the dough doesn’t stick to your finger when you touch it, you can always add a little water or milk to get it back to the right consistency.  Let it knead for 3 to 4 minutes. 

Take the bowl off the stand and then cover it with a damp kitchen towel and put it in a warm place.  What I like to do is turn the oven on for about 1 minute so that it gets a little warm in there and then I place my bowl into the warm oven.  Let it rise for about an hour or so or until the dough has doubled in size.   Punch the dough down and then in a small bowl melt the butter in the microwave.  Make slightly larger than golf ball size pieces of the dough (be sure to try to smooth the top of the ball as much as possible) and dip them into the melt butter and place on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart.  Let rise (again I normally just stick the pan back in the oven) for about another hour or so or until the edges of the rolls are starting to touch and they are doubled in size.  If you let them rise in the oven, pull it out and preheat the oven to 350.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are browned.  If you really like butter, feel free to put a little more on the tops of the rolls right after you pull them out of the oven.

This recipe makes about 35 rolls.  I normally just use part of the dough and make one pan of rolls and then save the rest of the dough in the refrigerator and make something else the next day.  Either more rolls, cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, or sometimes I’ll use it as pizza dough!