I hope everyone had an enjoyable, or at least somewhat relaxing, Thanksgiving last week. This year our table featured a lot of old standbys (roasted brussels sprouts, stuffing, mashed potatoes) and a few newer items that really stole the show, like a from-scratch green bean casserole, a sweet potato pie and these Parker House rolls.
I made the rolls for the first time a couple of weeks ago for a dinner party I was having. True to form, after creating a menu that promised to take from sun up to sun down to cook, I decided to also make MY OWN BREAD. That afternoon, as I desperately tried to bring my milk to room temperature quickly and hovered over a bowl of yeast wondering if it was active ENOUGH, I glimpsed for a moment the limits of my perfectionism, which was starting to feel and look a lot like insanity. But that’s not the lesson I learned this time, because this bread was out. of. this. world.
For Thanksgiving I insisted we include these rolls on the table, and toted some yeast up to Massachusetts to make it happen. I also started a small kitchen fire that had me holding a baking sheet with 6-inch flames erupting from it (don’t broil a pan that has parchment paper on it). All of it was worth it. These rolls are incredibly buttery (because, unsurprisingly, they contain an enormous amount of butter), fluffy and rich. You don’t even need to butter them, but you should anyway.
We ate the rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. We ate them for both lunch and dinner on Friday. Some of us ate them again for breakfast on Saturday, creating tiny toasts that charred quickly and clogged up the toaster. Some of us nearly stuck a fork in said plugged-in toaster to retrieve the bits.
You might be thinking that you’re not a “bread maker” and that making bread is “not your thing.” I assure you that this could really not be easier, if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook. It takes an awful lot of flour and about 10 minutes of your time to make the dough, an hour and a half for it to rise and then about 10 more minutes to fold into little squares and stack neatly side by side. They take only 18 minutes to bake and little to no requirements besides a mixer, fingers that work, and either a measuring tape or a propensity for accurately guess-timating how big are inches.
I should also mention that if you make these you will impress everyone you eat with throughout this holiday season. You will be a “bread maker” and that, my friends, is a title I’m planning to hold onto.
Note: Fully formed, unbaked rolls can be frozen for up to 1 month. Bake from frozen.
Ingredients
- One ¼-oz. package active dry yeast
- ½ cup warm water
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1 cup)
- 2 cups whole milk, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoon kosher salt
- 7 ½ to 8 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for shaping
- Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix the yeast with the water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Let stand until foamy, 10 minutes. Beat in the remaining sugar, 3/4 cup of the butter and the milk, eggs and kosher salt. At low speed, stir in the 7 1/2 cups of flour until the dough comes together; add more flour by the tablespoon, if necessary. Mix at medium speed until the dough forms a loose ball around the hook, 3 minutes. Brush a large bowl with some of the melted butter. Transfer the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 375° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape it into a 9-by-16-inch rectangle. Using a floured knife, cut the dough lengthwise into 3 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 12 small strips. Working with 1 piece at a time, fold it unevenly so the top half slightly overlaps the bottom half. Tuck the overhang under and place the roll seam side down on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, forming 2 rows of 9 rolls on each baking sheet. Each roll should just touch its neighbors, but leave about 4 inches between the rows.
- Bake the rolls for about 18 minutes, until browned; rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Immediately brush the rolls with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Transfer the rolls to a rack and let cool for 15 minutes before serving. To reheat, toast in a 350° oven for about 10 minutes.
Notes
https://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2015/12/02/parker-house-rolls/
