The Pig Herself

The Pig Herself

Friday, April 23, 2010

Parker House Rolls

Is there anything better than warm, buttered, homeade rolls with dinner? The answer is no. And these Parker House Rolls are particularly good. If you happen to have little ones at home, baking these on a rainy day can be a very fun project. My daughter and I made these rolls for dinner one night and they were a huge success.

From Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for bowl and pan
1 1/4 cups warm milk (110˚F)
2 envelopes (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 pound 14 ounces (about 5 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
First we buttered a 12-by-9-inch baking sheet and set it aside. Then we added 1/2 cup of warm milk into a small bowl, and sprinkled it with yeast. We stirred the mixture together until all of the yeast had dissolved. Then we left it until the yeast turned foamy, it took about 5 minutes (don't you love yeast?).
Then we took out a medium sized saucepan and put it over medium-high heat. We added the remaining 3/4 cup milk until it was simmering. We removed it from the heat and added 6 tablespoons of butter, along with the sugar and salt. Then we stirred until the butter was totally melted. Then we set it aside.
Next we added 4 1/2 cups of flour in a bowl attached to the electric mixer. I made a well in the center with my hands and I poured in the yeast mixture, butter mixture, and the eggs. I attached a dough hook to the bowl and I beat it for about two minutes on low speed. As soon as the dough came together, I turned out the dough lightly onto a lightly floured surface. Then we kneaded the dough, adding most of the remaining cup of flour, until the dough was smooth and no longer sticky.
Then I pulled out another bowl and buttered it completely. I placed the dough into it and turned it over so that it was completely covered in butter. We covered it with a kitchen towel. After that, we let it rise until its size had just about doubled (it took about 1 1/2 hours).
When the dough had risen, we punched it down and then let it rest for about 10 minutes.
We melted the remaining butter, and divided the dough into two equal pieces. On a floured surface, we rolled out the first piece until it was a 12-by-10-inch rectangle. While we were doing this, we kept the other piece covered with a kitchen towel. We refrigerated the dough for about 30 minutes until it was cool, and we did the same thing to the second piece of dough. Then we preheated the oven to 400˚F.
After the dough was chilled, we took one piece out and cut it lengthwise into 2-inch-wide strips. Then we cut each strip into 3 4-inch rectangles. We turned it so that the short side was facing us and we brushed the top half of one rectangle with some melted butter, and folded it over about one-third of the way. Then we transfered it onto the buttered pan to be baked. We did the same thing to all of the rectangles, placing them on the same pan so that they slightly overlapped. Then we did the same thing to the other piece of dough, placing it on its own pan. We covered the sheet with a clean kitchen towel. We let the rolls rise for about 30 minutes until they had doubled. We brushed melted butter on each of the rolls, and baked them until they were golden brown (about 15-20 minutes). We took them out of the oven and rushed them with the remaining melted butter.
We served them warm and delicious, they were a huge success!