Saturday, November 15, 2014

Rosemary Potato Rolls

Our first real snow of the winter is underway, and the kitchen has been warmed by a steady stream of baked goods from the oven. These potato rolls are quick, and make use of instant yeast. If you only have conventional yeast, go ahead and dissolve it in warm water and add it to the milk mixture. You'll need two long rises if you go that route.

The dough is very sticky. resist the urge to add more flour if possible (flour your hands rather than adding it to the dough) so that the rolls will be light. How many rolls you get will depend how large you make them. From this recipe, I got 16.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups mashed potato mixed with 3 tablespoons melted margarine
3 teaspoons instant yeast
2 cups buttermilk at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon coarse salt (slightly less if using table salt)
1 tablespoon (more or less to taste) chopped, fresh rosemary
(about) 3 cups strong flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the buttermilk. Stir in the mash, sugar, salt, and rosemary. Slowly add the flour by hand adding only enough so that you can handle the dough. It will be sticky. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. Knead the dough by hand adding any additional flour it may require, and place in a buttered bowl. Cover, and let rise until doubled.

Punch down dough. It will still be sticky, so you may wish to flour your hands as you divide into balls and shape into rolls. Place shaped rolls on a buttered baking sheet. I like to sieve a bit of flour over the top of these, but that's optional. Cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise as the oven preheats to 400 degrees F. After 30 minutes, place the rolls in the oven and bake 10 minutes. After ten minutes, rotate the pan and bake another 15-20 minutes, or until tops are browned and rolls sound hollow when tapped with your knuckles on the bottom. Cool on racks.

5 comments:

Curtise said...

You make it sound so easy... And so delicious, I almost feel I could make them. Almost... xxx

Goody said...

@Curtise

I should have mentioned that it could just get baked in a tin as a loaf. That's much easier than forming rolls.

There's so much hocus-pocus surrounding bread baking when most of the time, even if it isn't perfect, you still get bread. I don't bother weighing ingredients and measurements are approximate because I bake by feel. It is pretty easy, but the sort of thing people have a tendency to over-complicate.

That said, one person's easy is another's impossible. I have yet to successfully make a 7 minute frosting. Why? No clue, but after several tries I have given up. We won't even discuss my inability to make brandy snaps, which I'm told are simple.

Helga said...

It's sticky, right?!
Hahaha.....I love the sound of these; there may just be a little baking in my future!
XXX

Helga said...

Ah, regarding your comment re brandy snaps: I once went to a huge amount of effort to make them for a work colleague. They weren't too tricky, but a bit time consuming. The bitch didn't come in to work that day. The end.

Goody said...

@Helga

Re: brandy snaps
Which is why you shouldn't do nice things for people. Ever.

I think I ruined a pan trying to make them.

If I had leftover mash with milk and butter already in it, I'd still go ahead and use it in the recipe rather than make fresh with margarine. A little more, a little less, adjust for salt and you'll still come up with something edible. That's my approach to baking anyway. Let me know if you try them.