Recipe: Dinner Rolls

Oh look, so light they hover eerily above my kitchen floor!

Well, French bread dough, basically—make it into any shape you like! Not a tricky recipe, though it does require some waiting between various stages and a bit of a bitchy clean-up. Makes 8 rolls, or 2 small baguette-style loaves.

In a large bowl stir:
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
¾ cup warm water

Let sit for ten minutes. It should look creamy when it's ready. Then stir in:
1 tsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
1 cup white flour

Once mixed, gradually mix in another cup of white flour, until the dough starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle flour over your counter or cutting board, and knead dough spiritedly for about five minutes—until it's nice and elastic and smooth. Add more flour to the surface as needed if dough becomes sticky during kneading.

Lightly oil a clean bowl and turn the dough inside it to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it sit in a warm spot, such as next to a radiator, for about 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in size.

Punch the dough down on a lightly floured surface, then divide and form dough into 8 equal balls for rolls (or 2 long ovals for loaves). Space them evenly on a lightly oiled baking sheet and cover again with a damp cloth, and leave them to rise one last time, about 30 minutes, or until they've doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Remove cloth and use a sharp knife to cut a slash or an X onto the tops of the rolls (just for looks). Place baking sheet on the oven's middle rack. Bake rolls 10–15 minutes, until golden brown. Loaves will take longer—not sure how much longer, as I've never made them with this recipe, but I'd estimate about 25 minutes.

These go great with a bastardized caldo verde soup recipe I plan on sharing later this week. Enjoy!