Roll Dough - How to make it, how to shape it

There is nothing more divine than the smell of warm bread or rolls coming out of the oven and autumn is the perfect season of the year to bake rolls or bread.  At the Relief Society activity I shared the roll recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog; it's great because you don't need to have a Bosch or KitchenAid mixer to make it (a large bowl and wooden spoon will do), and the flour measurements are exact.

Sweet Roll Dough

4 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar (I use 1/2 to 3/4 cup)
1 cup oil
2 T. active dry yeast
8 cups flour

1 cup flour
1 T. salt
1 t. (scant) baking soda
1 t. (heaping) baking powder


For dough:

Heat milk over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Remove from heat, pour into large bowl and stir in sugar and oil with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool to about 110 degrees or just warm.  Add yeast and stir until softened.  Add 8 cups flour and mix until combined.  Mixture will be very sticky.  Leave the spoon in the dough and cover with a tea towel.  Allow to rise for 1 hour.

After dough is risen and puffy, add the 1 cup flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.  Stir into the dough until combined.  At this point you can cover and put the dough in the refrigerator until you need it or roll it out for baking.

Best tip:  I got this tip from Fran Peterson a few years ago: roll out bread, rolls or pastry on a tea towel sprinkled with flour. The clean up is a snap.  No more scraping dough off your counter.  Shake the flour off the tea towel and wash it.  I love it!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll out the dough into desired shapes and add fillings if using any. Put on baking pans that have been generously buttered or sprayed with baking spray.   Let rise another 30 minutes.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until light golden brown.



Blueberry Lemon Sweet Rolls:

Sweet roll dough (above)
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 lemon, zested
2 cups blueberries

Roll half of the dough into a rectangle.  Brush with melted butter.  Mix sugar and lemon zest and sprinkle over butter.  Sprinkle the blueberries of the surface.  Roll up and cut into 3/4-inch slices and place on baking pans. Let rise for 30 minutes.   Bake as directed.  Frost with regular frosting or lemon frosting.  The step by step instructions, pictures and lemon glaze recipe are at the link below:

Blueberry Lemon Sweet Rolls



Cinnamon Rolls, here is the cinnamon filling from Ann Romney's cookbook The Romney Family Table:

1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 T. cinnamon

Roll out half of the dough into a rectangle.  Mix melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Spread the filling on the dough right to the edges.  Roll up and cut into 1 1/2 inch slices.  Place on baking pans and let rise for 30 minutes.  Bake as directed.  Frost with plain white frosting or use Ann's Maple Glaze recipe below:

Maple Glaze

3 cups powdered sugar
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 t. maple flavoring or mapleine
Hot water

Stir together powdered sugar, butter and flavoring.  Add hot water a little at a time until frosting is smooth and slightly runny.  Drizzle on cinnamon rolls.


Bread Sticks

My favorite bread stick recipe can be found on the blog: Freida Loves Bread.  She is a fabulous bread maker.  I usually put the yeast in the warm water to soften before adding it to the flour mixture.  I like to roll the dough into a large rectangle, brush it with butter and fold it in half the long way.   Then I cut it into 1-inch strips and twist then brush with butter and sprinkle with toppings.

For bread stick recipe, click the link below:

Quick and Easy Bread Stick Twists