Recipe
1 tablespoon active yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of warm carnation milk
1/4 cup of melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed essence
1 teaspoon of either a lemon or orange zest. I prefer orange. (optional)
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Directions
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the yeast, warm water and sugar. Leave it for 10 minutes or until the yeast has grown and is frothy and bubbly. If you yeast did not grow, you must discard it and start over.
After your yeast has grown, add in the melted butter, salt, essence, warm milk and the zest.
Turn your mixer on the stir option using the dough hook to combine.
Very important part now. Add the flour 1 cup at a time to the liquid. Mix on the 2nd notch on your mixer. Wait until it is fully combined, then add the second cup of flour. Wait until this is fully combined as well.
Now you are going to start adding the last cup only a 1/4 cup at a time. This is to ensure we do not have more flour to liquid ratio.
If you get to only 3/4 cup of flour of the 3rd cup and your dough has pulled away from the bowl, then start only adding a teaspoon at a time.
To check to see if your dough is the correct consistency, take your finger and touch the dough. The dough should be sticky, but no flour should come onto your fingers.
You are looking for a soft dough. It should NOT be firm or hard or sticky so that it is sticking to your fingers.
Depending on your weather where you are you will either use a tablespoon more or less of flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it on a floured surface for just a minute or two to form it into a ball of sorts.
Add a touch of oil to the bowl and place the dough into the bowl, making sure the whole dough has some oil on it.
Cover the dough with a damp paper towel or dish towel and place it in a warm place like next to the stove or in the oven.
The dough has to rise for approximately an hour. Once it has risen and doubled in size, use your hands to punch down the dough to release the air in it.
Cover it again and leave it for about 30-40 minutes.
Once it has re-risen, break off golf sized balls of the dough, and shape it into a ball making sure the seam of it is on the bottom.
Place it into a baking sheet or a cast iron, which is what I used. Recover the dough with the damp paper towel. Let is rise for another 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake the rolls for 21 minutes. The tops should be a nice golden brown color.
Look at the video on my YouTube Channel of how I made mine to get an idea of what it should look like. If you liked this video give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more.
Enjoy!
