French Bread Rolls

I. Love. Bread.  And good for me (or not good for me) I love to make bread, too!  I wish I could say I've tried the Paleo diet or other "eat only vegetables and protein" diets, but well, I haven't and it's largely due to the fact that I love recipes like this one.  I love to make it, smell it, put it on a cute towel in a basket on my kitchen table and see tiny hands and big hands grab for them knowing it brings them happiness.

Not to mention... this recipe is pretty much fail free.  Every time I've made them they've always turned out.  So if you're a little hesitant with working with yeast - this is a great starter recipe.

These rolls are perfect all by themselves.  My three-year-old grabs them out of the bag and smiles as she eats them for a snack.  If she's not smiling then she's singing a song.  Or they are delicious as buns for hamburgers or sloppy joe's or any other sandwich of the like.  (The three rolls on the far right and the top one on the third column in the picture below are my hamburger buns.  I rolled them into a ball and then flattened them out a little.)

When I make rolls I like to use my kitchen scale.  Each roll weighs out at about 2 1/2 ounces.  When I use these rolls as buns I up the weight to 3 ounces.  The kind of flour you use will depend on how heavy you make your rolls. (See note below.)

*I like to use half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour for this recipe.  When I use wheat flour I usually have to add a little more flour to get the right dough consistency so that makes my rolls weigh a little more.  When I stick to 100% all-purpose flour, 2 1/2 ounces seems to be pretty spot on.  Don't ever go solely off the amount of flour called for in a recipe.  Altitude, humidity and other factors determine how much flour you need.  You want the dough to pull away from the bowl and be smooth and elastic without becoming too dense or still being too sticky.  Adding a little at a time after 3 1/2 cups is a good rule of thumb for these rolls.

French Bread Rolls
Yield: One Dozen

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 tablespoon instant yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
*4 cups all-purpose flour, give or take a little

Directions
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the warm water, yeast, sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups of the flour. (If you are using active dry yeast let the yeast proof in the warm water and sugar for about 5 minutes until it is foamy and bubbly before adding the rest of the ingredients.  If using instant yeast there is no need to do this and go right on ahead with the rest of the recipe.)  Begin mixing and gradually continue to add the rest of the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  (Refer to my note above and the pictures below.)
2. Knead the dough in the mixer for about 5 minutes, until it is very smooth and elastic.  Lightly spray another large bowl with cooking spray and place dough in the bowl.  Cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size.  This usually takes about an hour.
3. Lightly punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly greased countertop.  Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and form each piece into a round ball.  Place the rolls on a lightly greased  baking sheet, silpat-lined baking sheet, or stone baking v sheet and cover the rolls with lightly greased plastic wrap again. (You want the wrap to lay loosely over the top of the rolls or they will flatten.)  Let the rolls rise until doubled in size (roughly 45 minutes).
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned.

Here are some pictures about dealing with dough...

Here the dough is still too sticky.  It isn't coming together very well and still sticks a lot to the bottom and sides of the bowl.

See how it's still sticking a lot to my fingers.

This is much better.  It's pulling apart from the bowl (Most of the time once you've let it mix for a couple of minutes it will start to do this.  If it doesn't then you still need to add more flour.)

Perfect.  Not too sticky.  Not too dense.  Stays together well and lets me mold it easily.

Source: Melskitchencafe.com