Lion House Dinner Rolls

I love homemade rolls!  We have several good roll recipes and we'll share them on this blog over time.  One recipe I really like is from the Lion House Bakery from downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.  They sell their famous rolls and roll mixes, have published several cookbooks, and have a restaurant in the historic Lion House.

I did an internet search and found this recipe readily available online.  It was shared a couple of times on ksl.com by the Lion House--the most recent was here.

Lion House Rolls
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk
4½ tsp. yeast
1/4-1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening (butter, margarine, or vegetable shortening)
2 tsp. salt
1 egg
5 to 5½ cups flour
 

Combine water and milk and stir until the milk dissolves. Add yeast and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and 2 cups flour. Beat together until very smooth. Add 3 to 4 more cups flour and beat until smooth and satiny. Keep the dough as soft as you can handle it. Cover to keep dough from drying out. Let rise until triple in bulk. 

Punch down and let dough rest for 10 minutes. Cut or mold into desired shapes. Place on greased baking sheets. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1½ hours. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes. Can brush with melted butter while hot. 

Note: if using cannery powdered milk, the proportion is 3 Tb. dry milk to 1 cup water, or 6 Tb. for this recipe.

Tiffany's additional notes: The above ksl.com link to the full recipe has some great tips--it is essentially what is in their Lion House Classic's cookbook.

You can shape these rolls however you would like.  The Lion House shapes their rolls in a distinctive style--it is basically like a crescent roll, but rolled from a rectangle shape instead of a triangle.  Roll your dough into a large rectangle, brush with melted butter, and cut into smaller rectangles.  Roll up each individual rectangle and place on a greased baking sheet with the seam side down.  

I live close to sea level in a humid climate--I don't know if that is why but my dough raises fairly quickly.  I basically shape my rolls, let them raise a few minutes, preheat my oven, and bake them.  If I let them raise for as long as suggested in the recipe they would not work well.  

So, if you are learning to make nice light dinner rolls remember to not add too much flour, get used to how your mixer/climate affects the results, and try and try again.  Happy Baking!