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What’s for Dinner: Homemade Dinner Rolls with Rosemary & Black Pepper

Today I made homemade dinner rolls from scratch [with rosemary and black pepper]:

Very quickly, I learned that I need a Stand Mixer. That a hand mixer simply won’t do. Not going to lie, but it was pretty hard to control the bowl and the hand mixer with the dough using the hand mixer.

But the end result was great, so I guess it was worth it.

Here’s what you need:

  • 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoon) of yeast
  • 1 cup lukewarm water
  • 2 tablespoons of oil (plus more for greasing bowl and pan [I used the non-stick spray instead for those two parts])
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 tablespoons of sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons of crushed rosemary leaves
  • 3 and 1/4 cups of flour
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1-2 tablespoons of melted butter (I would say I ended up using 1 and a half tablespoons)

How I made it:

  1. Add the lukewarm water to your mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit for about 10 minutes or so, until it becomes frothy. Mine didn’t become too frothy even by the 15-20 minute mark, but it still ended up fine. Just make sure your yeast hasn’t expired — most are instant these days so the end result will probably still be fine as long as your yeast is still good.
  2. Add your oil, egg, sugar, black pepper, and rosemary to the bowl.
  3. Then add the flour and mix on the low-to medium speed until the dough holds together, which takes just a few minutes. Then, increase speed to medium and knead the dough for an addition 3-5 minutes until the dough is formed.
  4. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the dough sit for about 20 minutes.
  5. Afterwards, add in salt and mix the dough on the low speed for one minute.
  6. At this point, transfer your dough to a large bowl that has been lightly greased (I used the non-stick spray, but you can also grease it with oil or butter). Cover your bowl with a damp towel once again and let it rise in a warm place [I let mine rise in the oven — KEEP THE OVEN OFF] until it has pretty much doubled, which takes about 1-1 1/2 hours.
  7. Grease the bottoms and sides of a 9-inch baking pan.
  8. Divide your dough in half and break off 7 pieces of dough, each about the the size of a golf ball, from each half.
  9. Roll each piece of dough into rounds and place in the pan about 1/2-1 inch apart (they should fill the pan after the final riser).
  10. Cover the pan with a damp towel and let them rise for another 20 minutes + the time it takes to preheat the oven. The rolls should expand to fill up the entire pan so if you can see more than a couple of spots of the bottom of the pan, let them rise for a little while longer.
  11. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  12. Brush the rolls with half of the melted butter and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until they are golden brown [I pulled mine out around 25-27 minute mark]. Remove them from the oven and brush with the remaining butter. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Side notes:

  • This recipe yields: 14 dinner rolls (1 9-inch pan of rolls)
  • After step nine, you can choose to freeze the dough at this point, if you are making it ahead of time. If you are indeed freezing, wrap the pan tightly in foil and place in the freezer. The day you want to bake the rolls, remove your pan from the freezer and let thaw on the counter – plan on about 2-2 1/2 hours for thawing and rising.
  • I served this today alongside my Oven Fried Chicken [that also had rosemary in them].
This picture above is before I brushed on butter after it came out of the oven.
P.S. This post is a part of my “What’s for Dinner” series, where I share what I’ve been cooking and my recipes.

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