I have read several recipes over time but none of them have used exactly this proportion of ingredients. There is a lot of flexibility when making any bread, so it will come out well even if you use a bit more or less.
Use a medium to large mixing bowl with steep sides. The best is a ceramic or pottery bowl, as it retains heat and keeps out light.
Note: I use premium organic white bread flour but use whatever flour you wish
I use organic sugar, but honey or regular white sugar will work.
Mix together in the bowl:
- ¼ c. of warm water or milk (ideal temp is 110°F, but warm to touch is fine)
- About 1½ teaspoons of yeast
- About 1½ Tablespoons of sugar
- Set aside for at least 7 minutes
Heat on the stove: 1 c. milk and half a stick (¼ c. or 4 ounces) butter. Scald it and then set it aside to cool.
Add 1/3 c. sugar to the milk, this will help it to cool more quickly; stirring it might help as well.
When the milk mixture has cooled to the touch (if you want to use a thermometer, cool it to 110°F), then add it to the yeast mixture.
Next mix in 1 or 2 eggs, either is fine.
Measure out and set aside 4 cups of flour (4¼ if you use 2 eggs). You will NOT use more than this amount of flour but you might use less.
Add 2 cups of the flour (which you have set aside) to the milk/eggs/yeast mixture.
Beat well with a large spoon.
The rest of the flour will be added ¼ c. at a time. Beat well with the spoon after each addition.
When the mixture becomes a bit difficult to mix with the spoon and starts to adhere to itself, you can dump it onto a floured board. You want it just thick enough to knead, as less flour gives a lighter bread. Too little flour and the bread won’t keep its shape and will be too wet. Probably between 3½ to 4 c. of flour will work. Since you beat it with the spoon, you won’t need a lot of kneading. The dough should be just a bit sticky.
Add 1 t. of salt (I use fine sea salt, but you can use any salt). Salt can be added with the last addition of flour or you can knead it in afterward (it is easy to forget the salt, but the bread will taste terrible without it!). Salt is added last as it slows down the action of the yeast.
Wash the bowl you were using to mix the dough in with warm water. Dry it and while still warm, butter generously. Then put the ball of kneaded dough into the bowl and turn it in the bowl so the ball is totally coated in butter. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel and set aside for about 1½ hours. If you have a warming oven, you don’t need to cover the dough, but place a bowl of very hot water in the proofer with the bowl of dough. Yeast likes warm, dark, and moist environments.
Generously butter the pan(s). You can use a few cakepans or you can use a large baking pan.
After the dough has risen, mold the dough into golf ball size balls and place into the baking dishes. (Of course, you can also shape it into small triangles and roll those up and place on a cookie sheet; or you can use cupcake pans with 3 walnut size balls of dough in each cup, or you can let your kids make snakes, trees, animals, or whatever). Sometimes I have cut the dough to make all the pieces the same size, but I think you can get the pieces all about the same size by taking a piece in your left hand, then use the thumb of the right hand to push the dough through a circle formed by the thumb and first finger of the left hand, then squeeze to cut off the dough coming through when there is a golf ball size ball of dough above your left hand.
Once the dough is shaped, set it aside as before to rise. I like to let it rise 1½ hours, as before.
While the dough is rising, set the oven to 350°F. (If you have a convection oven, you can heat the oven using the convection setting, but cook using the heat coming from the bottom of the oven only; this helps the bottom of the bread to cook better.) After the dough has risen, put it in the oven for about 12 minutes. The ideal internal temperature should be 195°F to 205°F, if you want to measure it using a thermometer. If the rolls are just beginning to brown, they are probably fine.
As an option. you may want to brush the rolls with melted butter using a pastry brush.
Let the bread cool about 5 minutes before removing from the pan. It will still be cooking inside.
Note: if you don’t have enough milk, you can use some milk and some water.