Thirty Minute Rolls

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I love to create.  I don't have any one area of passion...most anything will do.  When I was little, I had Erector Sets, Lincoln Logs, Lego blocks and an X-acto knife and wood-burning kit.  My sister played with Barbies.  I built her Dream House and sewed clothes for her.  I Easy Baked and polished rocks.  I wanted to build, design, fix (and sometimes tear apart and re-build) anything I could get my hands on.

When I was old enough to use the stove, Mom would let me cook dinner for the family.  I would get off the bus after school, let myself and my sister in the house, do my homework then get dinner ready and on the table when my Mom and Dad got home from work.  My first attempt at gravy was an unmitigated disaster, but most everything else I made turned out good.  Those early years really set the foundation for my independence.  I'm not afraid to tackle any recipe, no matter how complex, but I'll admit, I'm a sucker for easy and delicious.

Yeast breads were my only real culinary nemesis until last week.  I found a yeast roll recipe on Pinterest that proclaimed you could have tasty risen rolls in only 30 minutes.  That had to be tested.  The recipe is here at Your Home Based Mom, that she reprinted from Real Mom Kitchen.  You don't have to be a mom to love these rolls though.  I made a couple of tweaks from her recipe and I really liked the results.  They are also husband approved.

30 Minute Rolls
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp warm water
1/3 cup oil (plus more for your hands later)
2 packets Active Dry Yeast (not Rapid Rise)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 cups bread flour (all purpose will also work but the results may not be as good)

Heat your oven to 400 degrees.

In your mixer bowl, combine the warm water, oil, yeast, and sugar.  Whisk lightly and allow to rest for 15 minutes.  Using the dough hook on your mixer, mix in the salt, egg, and flour.  Knead it with the hook until it's well incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.  This only takes a few minutes.

Grease a 9x13" baking pan with Pam, then form the dough into 12 roughly equal sized balls and place them evenly in the pan.  Oiling your hands will help greatly with the handling of the dough.  Allow the rolls to rest for 10 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  I found that it took about 15 minutes in my oven to start getting some color on them.

Please note: these are not light and airy.  They are dense and heavy.  But so delicious!  We had leftovers and I popped them in freezer bags hoping they would reheat like the frozen Sister Schubert rolls we've become addicted to.  I was pleasantly surprised that they were even better reheated in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes than they were fresh from the oven.  And you don't have to thaw them!  Sister Schubert has been replaced at our house, even though they take slightly longer than 30 minutes per batch.

I'm following Weight Watchers and these rolls as I made them are 6PP each.