A couple of years ago, my mom-in-law gave me a bunch of cooking pamphlets and recipes she’d collected over the years, and then decided she wasn’t likely to be using them. Lucky me, I love stuff like that!
And so was born The Doris Project. Each week, I would dip into a big box I’d stashed the recipes and pamphlets in, and choose a recipe to make.
This is most certainly one the the better ones, and it is surprisingly easy to make.
Featured in a 1963 Fleischmann’s Yeast booklet, you make this basic dough, stash it in the fridge, and then they offer different ways to handle it.
We don’t have bread on a daily basis, so I cut the original recipe in half and made about two dozen tasty rolls in a large cake pan.
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 egg, lightly beaten ~2 tbsp
•1 tsp salt
•3 to 3-1/2 cups flour
Garlic Parsley Rolls:
•2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
•3/8 tsp garlic powder
•Chopped fresh parsley
•Poppy seeds
Stir the warm water into the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached, and let rest for 15 minutes, until foamy.
Whisk three cups of the flour together with the sugar and salt in another mixing bowl and set aside.
Don’t want to add sugar to your bread? Add 1/4 cup of honey directly to the yeast with the warm water. The honey will feed the yeast while it’s dissolving, too, giving you a frothier yeast base.
Once the yeast and warm water mixture is foamy, stir in 1-1/2 cups of the flour mixture along with the egg and butter until smooth.
With the mixer on medium, add the remaining flour mixture by quarter cupfuls, until the dough is elastic and easy to handle. Use the extra 1/2 cup of plain flour if needed.
Brush another mixing bowl (the one you whisked the flour, salt, and sugar together in would work here) with olive oil.
Gather the dough together in a ball and add to the oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides of the dough.
Cover the bowl tightly and stash in the fridge for at least two hours and up to three days.
When ready to make the rolls, remove dough from fridge and tear off enough to make the rolls, returning the remaining dough to the fridge until needed.
Shape the dough selected into one inch balls and place in a lightly greased eight inch cake pan. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until doubled.
Stir the granulated garlic into the melted butter and brush over the rolls, them sprinkle with the parsley . Cover loosely and let rise for another hour.
Heat your oven to 400º.
Uncover the rolls and bake for 15 minutes.
I had a little extra garlic butter, so brushed the baked rolls with a little bit more.
Good call.
Home made, fresh baked rolls, and since the dough is designed to be made ahead, really not too too much fuss involved.