Light, just a touch on the sweet side, but then topped with a combination of melted butter, garlic, and freshly chopped parsley, so that’s all right, then; these rolls may well become a regular around here.
No, not for everyday, we don’t need that much bread; but for holidays and other special gatherings. I’d much rather serve these, home made and fresh from the oven, than buy a box of those little rolls from the market, tho’ I do love me those little sweet rolls…
The cool thing about serving these for special meals is that they are so darned simple (if not fast) to toss together; and, the dough can be made days ahead, then stashed in the fridge until needed. After that, a simple “divide, roll into balls, and let rise” – ermmm for two hours, but still, it’s a special dinner, you’re planning anyway, and 
ten minute’s rolling and arranging in a pan followed by two hours under a kitchen towel in a warm, quiet(ish) corner of the kitchen, is not really a bother – then bake for 15 minutes. Nothing, right? And oh! so good!
First, thanks to the nice folk at Fleischmann’s Yeast and Gold Medal Flour for creating this (increasingly) handy little booklet that mom picked up back in 1963.
Second, thanks to the world’s best mom-in-law for picking this book up in 1963, then passing it on to me (in the big bag o’ recipes to try) which has become The Doris Project.
INGREDIENTS
Basic Dough:
•1 cup warm (110º) water
•1 packet (2-1/4 tsp) dry yeast
•1/4 cup sugar
•2 tbsp butter, softened
•1/2 lightly beaten egg ~2 tbsp*
•1 tsp salt
•3 to 3-1/2 cups flour
•Olive oil
Garlic Parsley Rolls:
•1/2 basic dough
•2 tbsp unsalted butter
•1/4 tsp garlic powder
•2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
*I cut the original dough recipe in half, which gives us the slightly bothersome 1/2 egg. If you’d like to make a larger batch, simply double all the ingredients, plan on 6-1/2 to 7 cups of flour, and a much bigger 
resting bowl. For planning purposes, this single batch of rolls made 16, though the nice folk who wrote the booklet said I could mebbe get 18, still way more than enough for the two of us on a weeknight, and with enough left over that I’m thinkin mussels and clams for dinner tonight to use ’em up.
Life is hard. Back to the rolls!
Whisk the flour together with the sugar** and the salt in a bowl and set aside.
Pour the warm water over the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, stir to mix, then let rest for 10 or 15 minutes, until the yeast has bubbled a bit.
**don’t want to use white sugar? No problem! Simply whisk the salt into the flour and set aside, then stir two to four tablespoons of good honey into the yeast with the warm water and let it rest. The honey will feed the yeast, giving you a frothier looking bowl after fifteen minutes, but your rolls should be every bit as good, and processed sugar free (full disclosure, I have not tried this, yet).
Melt the butter, allow to cool, then stir into the two tablespoons of beaten egg in a small bowl.
With the mixer on low, stir in 1-1/2 cups of the flour mixture along with the egg and butter until smooth.
Increase the mixer to medium, then add the remaining flour mixture by quarter cupfuls, until the dough begins to climb up the dough hook. Use the extra 1/2 cup of plain 
flour if needed, I ended up adding almost another 1/2 cup – seven tablespoons – by level tablespoon, until the dough has formed a ball on the dough hook and cleaned the sides of the mixing bowl.
Brush another mixing bowl (the one you whisked the flour, salt, and sugar together in would work here) with olive oil, then transfer the dough ball to the bowl, turning to coat all sides with oil. Cover with foil and stash in the fridge for at least two hours – but up to three days(!) – until needed.
When the dough has chilled and you’re ready to start the rolls, divide the dough in half and stash the remainder back in the fridge.
Line a round cake pan with parchment paper, then lightly grease the parchment and the pan sides with butter.
Pull off bits of the dough and shape into (roughly) one inch balls. Mine were a averaging bit more than one inch, so that’s why I got two less than the ‘optimal’ amount of rolls called for in the booklet. Too bad, it worked.
Arrange the rolls in the pan. It just seemed to work for me to place them, tightly together, in a ring around the edge of the pan. If you’d rather arrange your more or less evenly across the pan, go for it.
Cover the pan lightly with a clean kitchen towel, then stash in a warm spot to rise until doubled – about an hour.
Melt the two tablespoons of butter, then stir in the garlic and parsley until well blended.
Brush the garlic and parsley butter over the rolls, then recover with the kitchen towel, and set back in that warm spot for another hour…
Yes, I know, but when you think about it – the time you took to make, then chill the dough could’ve been days ago; then, you just prepared the pan, divided the dough and rolled the balls – what’s that, ten minutes 
effort? Yeh, sure, then you have an hour rise, followed by a (quick) brush of garlic and parsley butter, then another hour rise; there’s lots of things you could be doing in those two hours, especially if you have folk coming over.
About half way through this last rise, heat your oven to 400º.
Once the hour is up, remove the kitchen towel and pop the rolls into the hot oven for 15 minutes.
Done.
Perfectly delicious, home made rolls, hot and fresh from the oven – and the ring is pretty enough to grace any festive gathering, and y’know, teh season of festive gatherings fast approaches. Remove the roll ring to a serving plate and allow folk to admire the ring o’ bready goodness, or simply pull apart the sections and serve in a bread basket; no one will complain.
We had ours with a dinner of cherry cola barbecued ribs with coleslaw on the side.